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South Africa name two debutants vs Wales as Koch hits half-century
By Jon Newcombe
Wing Edwill van der Merwe and fly-half Jordan Hendrikse will make their Test debuts when South Africa tackle Wales at Twickenham on Saturday.
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But Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has also selected several Rugby World Cup winners, with captain Pieter-Steph du Toit, lock Eben Etzebeth and scrum-half Faf de Klerk among those starting, while Vincent Koch wins his 50th cap at tight-head.
South Africa are without players from the Bulls due to their appearance in the United Rugby Championship final against Glasgow in Pretoria on Saturday, while star backs Cheslin Kolbe and Lukhanyo Am are absent because of injuries.
Erasmus, though, is still able to name a powerful starting line-up for their first game back since lifting the Webb Ellis Cup in November, as the Springboks target a sixth victory in the last seven Tests against Wales.
“We knew what challenges we would face in selecting the squad for this training camp and the Wales Test, but as a team we turned it into a fantastic opportunity to blood a few youngsters and expose them to the national set-up,” Erasmus said.
“Building squad depth is one of our key pillars as a team, and this camp and Test match, as well as the one coming up against Portugal in Bloemfontein, will allow us to tick that box with an eye on the next few years.”
Team: A Fassi; E Van der Merwe, J Kriel, A Esterhuizen, M Mapimpi; J Hendrikse, F De Klerk; O Nche, M Marx, V Koch, E Etzebeth, F Mostert, K Smith, P-S du Toit (capt), E Roos.
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Replacements: B Mbonambi, N Mchunu, F Malherbe, S Moerat, B-J Dixon, G Williams, S Feinberg-Mngomezulu, D De Allende.
not surprising that this selection skews so heavily towards established talent!
bodes well for SA being v competitive in the Ireland series and the RC
And rightly so.
Biggest gripe I had with Eddie Jones is that he had a boat load of experienced and established players yet did not use any opportunity to blood youngsters like Markus Smith.
Something we all in SA know too well is that you have to blood youngsters slowly or else you get another Gaffie du Toit disaster scenario. If you don’t know, Gaffie du Toit was selected from a minor province in SA, the Griquas, and thrust straight into the starting Springbok team to play the All Blacks on debut. Arguably the most talented player that SA ever produced but thrusting him into test match arena too soon completely destroyed him.
quite possubly because we have so much established talent and dont rely on the same team week in week out every 4 year cycle