Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Eben Etzebeth captains much-changed Springboks against All Blacks

(Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Eben Etzebeth will make his return from a shoulder injury to captain South Africa this Saturday against the All Blacks in round two of the Rugby Championship in Auckland.

ADVERTISEMENT

The second-row will lead a much-changed side from the one that triumphed over Australia 43-12 in Pretoria, although that was expected after head coach Jacques Nienaber prematurely sent a squad of players to acclimatise in New Zealand. The front-row of Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi and Frans Malherbe, as well as Lukhanyo Am and Willie le Roux are the only survivors from the starting XV at Loftus Versfeld.

“We planned to select a squad with a few key combinations of players who are fully acclimatised and settled in in New Zealand, while also selecting some players who started last week, and we are pleased with the balance we were able to strike with this squad,” Nienaber said.

“This allows us to give some players their first taste of international rugby this season alongside a group of players who come off a physical clash against the Wallabies, and we believe this will be beneficial against a top opponent in the All Blacks.

“The fact that we can give a few other players in the bigger squad a run this weekend is fantastic as we want to give as many players as possible game time with an eye on doing well in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship and further ahead in the Rugby World Cup.”

Etzebeth has been out of action since the beginning of April after he suffered a shoulder injury while on duty with the Sharks against Munster in the Heineken Champions Cup. It was initially feared that he would miss the opening rounds of the Rugby Championship, so his return comes slightly sooner than expected and just in time for the crunch fixture at Mount Smart Stadium.

On the return of his 110-cap lock, Nienaber said: “Eben has been working very hard in the last few months to make a full recovery from his shoulder injury and it’s great to see him return to the field in this important fixture. He’s a vastly experienced player with 110 Test caps, he’s captained the Springboks before and he has been with the group of players in New Zealand for over a week, so he is the ideal person to lead the team this weekend.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Springbok team to face New Zealand:
15 – Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls) – 84 caps, 65 pts (13t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 23 caps, 74pts (11t, 2c, 5p)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 32 caps, 30 pts (6t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Panasonic Wild Knights) – 70 Tests, 45pts (9t)
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 36 caps, 110pts (22t)
10 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 28 caps, 36 pts (2t, 4c, 4p, 2d)
9 – Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles) – 46 Tests, 41pts (5t, 2c, 4p)
8 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester) – 20 caps, 5pts (1t)
7 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 63 caps, 15pts (3t)
6 – Kwagga Smith (Blue Revs) – 31 caps, 20pts (4t)
5 – Lood de Jager (Panasonic Wild Knights) – 65 caps, 25pts (5t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 110 caps, 15pts (3t)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 59 caps, 5 pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 57 caps, 60 pts (12t)
1 – Steven Kitshoff (Ulster) – 72 caps, 10pts (2t)

Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 59 caps, 70pts (14t)
17 – Thomas du Toit (Bath) – 16 caps, 0 pts
18 – Vincent Koch (Stade Francais) – 42 caps, 0 pts
19 – RG Snyman (Munster) – 24 caps, 5 pts (1t)
20 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 67 caps, 30 pts (6t)
21 – Duane Vermeulen (SA Rugby) – 66 caps, 15 pts (3t)
22 – Grant Williams (Cell C Sharks) – 2 caps, 0 pts
23 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 4 caps, 19 pts (8c, 1p)

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

12 Comments
R
Rugger 496 days ago

Quotas still a factor, all these qualify as Poc:

Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 23 caps, 74pts (11t, 2c, 5p)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 32 caps, 30 pts (6t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Panasonic Wild Knights) – 70 Tests, 45pts (9t)
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 36 caps, 110pts (22t)
10 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 28 caps, 36 pts (2t, 4c, 4p, 2d)

This allows for a largely white pack with Bonambi exception. Truth is on form Esterhuizen would be in for DDA & start MArx to get at least 70 mins with him. Bongi's throwing was shyte vs AUS, Like Dweba who threw last years Ellis tourny match away.

Guys have got Quota's off the discussion list, but they lurk still

B
Bob Marler 497 days ago

Duane was brilliant against the Wallabies. If rumors are to be believed, Duane (a student of the Nienaber defense system since the beginning of his career) is set to take on a coaching role with the boks after the WC. Imagine that!

The ABs are so good at winning in the last quarter. They don’t give up and always find a way to win. The bomb squad led by the defensive genius of Duane might be the beginning of a recipe to shut out the ABs in the dying stages. In fact I think this might be the start of a recipe for the World Cup. With a Willemse off the bench ala Frans Steyn.

N
Nickers 497 days ago

That is a very formidable team. Huge forwards, great backline, and the most stacked forwards bench I have ever seen.

NZs lack of accuracy around the breakdown could be very badly exposed this week. With a forward pack like that NZ will be normally be looking to target the fringes, but with Faf, Kwagga, Marx, and a number of other so good over the ball out wide, NZ's forwards really have their work cut out to even retain possession let alone do much with it.

Frizzell dominated physically when NZ tipped SA over in Jo'burg last year, will need something even bigger from him this week.

I think NZ will do a lot of kicking in field, which people will find frustrating to watch, but they will want to get the big SA pack turning around and covering ground as much as possible.

F
Flankly 498 days ago

So it's the regular starting 15 with changes at 10 and 6/7/8. Plus new captain.

With two of the regular starting back row on the bench, and the other 4 bench forwards pretty predictable, there is not much to quibble with. Maybe Van Staden or Roos. No cover for Kwagga is a risk, with all four other back row players being power players. Awesome pack and forward bench.

You have to love the tried and tested backline, with Willemse the least settled starter. It's the right call in the absence of Pollard, both for this game and for RWC prep. Expect a little more spark and a few more errors than Pollard would have delivered. Outside backs are fantastic, and ditto for midfield duo. Faf is Faf.

Libbok on the bench is as expected. You need flyhalf cover and there is not much choice. So you can directly replace Willemse if needed, or shift Willemse to another position and play Libbok at 10.

The biggest surprise is Williams, and congrats to him. He was quick and incisive against the Wallabies, but it's not obvious that he is the best sub at 9. Coaches need to figure out their scrum half pecking order with just a few pre-RWC games left. Bottom line on the backs bench is that both players have X-factor, and could open up the game in the last 20.

Of course it would be nice to have Siya and Pollard back. You can ask why Mostert starts ahead of PSDT, or Wiese ahead of Vermeulen. And you can get a little nervous about exposure at open side flank. But overall this is an excellent team.

Also love the Etzebeth captaincy. Kitshoff would have been the alternative, but less likely to play the full 80.

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh
Search