neither jannie nor bismarck was named to the springboks' original squad for the 2007 rugby world cup, but both eventually joined the squad. after bismarck had already been called up to replace pierre spies, jannie was called up to replace bj botha after botha blew out a knee against the usa in the boks' final pool match. he received the call notifying him of his selection from springboks selection panel member peter jooste early in the morning of 1 october, shortly after finishing an all-night shift at a bloemfontein hospital on the evening of 30 september, during which he performed a caesarean section. when interviewed after his selection, he said that his first sleep since 29 september was "an hour or so on the plane from bloemfontein to cape town", where he travelled to do his required paperwork before joining the boks in france. on 7 october, he was starting for the boks in their quarterfinal against fiji, after cj van der linde was ruled out with a knee injury.