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South AfricaWalesEdwill Van Der MerweJordan HendrikseRassie Erasmus

South Africa name two debutants vs Wales as Koch hits half-century

(Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

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.

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Comments

5 Comments
f
finn 283 days ago

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

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Comments on RugbyPass

Y
YeowNotEven 23 minutes ago
Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Would have been awesome to have a Bledisloe ANZAC game.

It would suck if they had it in Perth every year though. Gotta get it to Eden park.

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David Gomiez 24 minutes ago
Mixed Wales update on availability of Josh Adams, Gareth Anscombe

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S
Spew_81 26 minutes ago
Hurricanes vs Waratahs takes: The yellow wall in midfield, Tahs backs outshined

Love should get some time at 10. He’s clearly got the ability to be a second playmaker, but primarily at 15. Some time at 10, even just standing at first receiver, will only help his playmaking skills. He set up two tries with good distribution.


He kicks goals well. He could be a second B Barrett. But keep his main position at 15.

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SG 1 hour ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

England have absolutely no need for him. Tom Willis and Ben Earl are better with a much higher work rate.

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Thomas Walsh 1 hour ago
Super Rugby Pacific's rebirth can finally restore the missing All Blacks edge

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0 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'

No full games on the IRU YT channel unfortunately, all on subscription? Looks a fairly good level (1A).


Yes I mean I wouldn’t really know the local ratio of origin here, but certainly as a province with less resources mine has a ratio that veers heavily towards club rep. The club stories are often the best so get probably an imbalanced proportion of coverage to where most players actually come from though.


Those were a couple of Ulster (regional) clubs too, good good. Those clubs/size towns are very much where you find most talent coming from (compared to the big city), so your productivity depends very much on your systems in place for scouting talent. With the more wealthy and popular sport of NRL (hence more info out there) I’ve seen some interesting studies on player origins in this respect, which I think would be a very balanced base of data to draw conclusions from.


Yes I’m wondering how those names as examples compare to the likes of Bryne getting squeezed out for a lack of places. I’m only thinking of effects far down the line as a result of Irelands #1 ranking and increased publicity/interest and how Irelands system will take advantage of them.

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G
GP 1 hour ago
James O'Connor earns first Crusaders start against Moana Pasifika

Regarding the Crusaders side . Great to see promising young lock Jamie Hannah back in the starting team. He has certainly been through the mill since debuting for the Crusaders, even before playing for Canterbury. All his hard work has paid off. Antonio Shalfoon , who has been rested for this match has been amazing locking with AB captain Scott Barrett. I really rate Jamie Hannah as one of the best young locks of which there are a few coming through. Including his Canterbury and Crusaders team mate Liam Jack. Father is Graham Jack ,he played for Canterbury and the Crusaders in the 1990’s. Older brother of Chris, who of course was an All Black.

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A
Andrew Nichols 1 hour ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Gloucester are in the market for a top-class replacement ..Well why would they then be talking to HS?

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Utiku Old Boy 1 hour ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

I include Cunningham-South. He was born in England but moved to NZ at 4 yrs and learnt his rugby there. His dad was a schoolboy coach. In recent years, Teimana Harrison was - as was Brad Shields.

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G
GB 1 hour ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Cunningham-South was born in the UK but raised in NZ.

Makes a good point, wouldn't walk into the English set up.

Better to roll his sleeves up and play himself into the ABs

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S
Spew_81 1 hour ago
Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Not sure what the ethical issue is. If it’s going for the money, it’s either do that or NZ rugby slowly dies as all the better players leave. So it’s the more lesser of two evils. Sell out a bit more as a Union, or the players sell out one by one.

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S
Spew_81 1 hour ago
Rugby down under could have hit high gear with Anzac Tests

Yes, the team was similar. But the two locks made a huge difference. Kaino wasn’t a lock and Tuipolutu has only very recently started playing close to his potential (his work rate was terrible until recently).


The Irish lineout maul wouldn’t have been the weapon it was on that day if Hansen started Whitelock and Retallick (or even two proper locks). Though they wouldn’t have been guaranteed to win.


Doing the new haka when the Irish were mourning a great of theirs didn’t help. The action at the end of that haka has been interpreted negatively and some see it as a but disrespectful.


Still if the All Blacks did their normal haka they wouldn’t have been guaranteed to win.

42 Go to comments
K
Koro Teeps 1 hour ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Absolutely no certainty he would make the current English squad. He’s not in the All Black conversation either. Physical, explosive player with ball in hand but sometimes struggles to impose himself fully on all aspects of the game.

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D
DC 2 hours ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

Who are the Kiwis (plural)? The only one I can think of is Ethan Root.

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G
Gradier Walter 3 hours ago
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JE 4 hours ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Well, at least France do not have to supply players to the Lions. On the other hand, apart from England going to Argentina, Ireland’s, Scotland’s and Wales’ tours are less challenging than France’s. I wonder what SA are doing this Summer?!

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Utiku Old Boy 4 hours ago
All Black's England switch hanging by a thread

English loose forward stocks are pretty healthy currently and already feature a kiwi or two. A move to the UK would have to be for the Premiership on its own merits - with no better odds for international honors - and would close the door on any further possible AB future. Increased work rate, motivation, energy combined with his obvious skills could see him back in contention in NZ but it is not going to be handed to him.

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U
Utiku Old Boy 4 hours ago
Hurricanes vs Waratahs takes: The yellow wall in midfield, Tahs backs outshined

Agree with most of this. Sullivan (along with Umaga-Jensen) and Love were skillful, energetic and accurate. I don’t know if NZ teams will show their normal dominance in the comp this year as the Australian sides are definitely more competitive and some of the margins are pretty slim. This game stands out as a surprise because halfway through the first period you felt it could go either way - except the Canes defense was outstanding from the get-go. The unstoppable flow of points was very Hurricanes and I know they will be aiming for consistency. Walker-Leawere looks like an AB when he plays like that. If he can keep that work-rate and accuracy up consistently and avoid his tendency for penalties, he could find himself in Ryan’s sights.

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d
d 5 hours ago
Hurricanes vs Waratahs takes: The yellow wall in midfield, Tahs backs outshined

Did Love just put in a convincing argument for AB status? I think he showed more vision than Jordan, who might be better going back to wing to replace Reece, who simply makes too many mistakes in the black jersey. On the other wing, Clarke’s AB status will be under threat from guys like Naholo, too.

3 Go to comments
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