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Springboks make 12 changes and move away from 7/1 bench split

The Springboks line up for last Sunday's anthems in Edinburgh (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Rassie Erasmus has announced a Springboks team to take on England in London that has 12 changes following last Sunday’s win over Scotland. South Africa were 32-15 winners in Edinburgh in their Autumn Nations Series opener and they have now altered all seven of their starting backs, five of their starting forwards and pared their bench from a seven-one forwards/backs split back to a five/three divide.

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Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth are the three forwards retained from the XV that started at Murrayfield, and they are joined by Wilco Louw, RG Snyman, skipper Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Kwagga Smith.

Louw only returned to the Springbok set-up as a late injury call-up for the tour; he played the last of his 14 Tests behind closed doors against Argentina in Port Elizabeth three years ago.

Video Spacer

Boks Office – Can England bounce back to beat the Boks

Video Spacer

Boks Office – Can England bounce back to beat the Boks

In the backs, Grant Williams, last weekend’s sole backline replacement in the 7/1 set-up, comes in to start on this occasion along with Manie Libbok at half-back. Aphelele Fassi, Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse are the back three, with Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende combining at midfield.

The five bench forwards are Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp,  Vincent Koch, Elrigh Louw and Kwagga Smith, with the three backs options consisting of Cobus Reinach, Handre Pollard and Lukhanyo Am.

Team Form

Last 5 Games

0
Wins
4
5
Streak
3
12
Tries Scored
20
-24
Points Difference
72
2/5
First Try
4/5
3/5
First Points
3/5
2/5
Race To 10 Points
4/5

Erasmus said: “England poses a completely different challenge to Scotland, and we selected our squad based on what we would like to do in the match and also what we think will be best to counter the challenge England poses.

“Fortunately, we have quite a few players who can switch positions if necessary, so we feel we have adequate depth throughout the team, which allowed us to select this group of replacements.

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“England come off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we size of the challenge. We lost narrowly to Ireland and France in back-to-back matches in 2022 and a year later were world champions, so we know we shouldn’t read anything into the last two results.”

Springboks (vs England, Saturday)
15 – Aphelele Fassi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 9 caps, 30 points (6t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 38 caps, 101 points (16t, 3c, 5p)
13 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 77 caps, 90 points (18t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 85 caps, 55 points (11t)
11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 22 caps, 85 points (17t)
10 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 18 caps, 94 pts (1t, 28c, 11p)
9 – Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 16 caps, 15 points (3t)
8 – Jasper Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks) – 32 caps, 10 points (2t)
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 85 caps, 55 points (11t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 90 caps, 60 points (12t)
5 – RG Snyman (Leinster) – 38 caps, 10 points (2t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 129 caps, 30 points (6t)
3 – Wilco Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 14 caps, 0 points
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 76 caps, 75 points (15t)
1 – Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 38 caps, 0 points

Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 74 caps, 105 points (21t)
17 – Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls) – 9 caps, 0 points
18 – Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 59 caps, 0 points
19 – Elrigh Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 11 caps, 0 points
20 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 50 caps, 45 points (9t)
21 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 37 caps, 70 pts (14t)
22 – Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers) – 78 caps, 767 points (7t, 108c, 167p, 5dg)
23 – Lukhanyo Am (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 41 caps, 35 pts (7t)

Related

Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

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Comments

65 Comments
B
BF 6 days ago

Okes need to stop worrying about the Bok bench and concentrate on their own tactics and ways to win. We'll do what we want to do - and you have every right to do what you want. that makes rugby interesting. Let's enjoy a lekker (and respectful) rugby weekend. Just a game - in the end ;-)

B
Bull Shark 5 days ago

Even if they were to limit subs to three or some sh1t, our three would be the best.

C
Cantab 6 days ago

Since when did the Boks have regard for anyone? They should have the measure of England with the depth of their squad and for now at least they are the top ranked team in the world.

D
DK 6 days ago

I think England is missing Owen Farrel quite badly. He takes a lot of heat, but he also takes England to a higher level of performance. The reason I am less worried than I normally am for this weekend is because Farrel isn't playing.


In terms of Bok strength, it's pretty much the strongest we have.

S
SF 6 days ago

Who is going to kick at goal? Libbok? 🤪 Take your prozac guys

B
Bull Shark 6 days ago

His job is to create tries. Someone else can kick.

f
fl 6 days ago

the reaction to the team announcement from some commenters seems quite unhinged.


its a good 23. Its not an entirely full strength Boks team, and its probably no better than the NZ team England played a couple of weeks ago.

f
fl 6 days ago

where SA really have an edge is in terms of systems and cohesion, not in terms of players.


the SA front 5 are a really great unit, but England contained them pretty well last year. Boks fans have a short memory if they think they'll be able to walk over George Martin.


I've been critical of England's selections at 9 & 10, but I don't think Williams & Libbok are convincing either, especially if Libbok is the primary goalkicker. Fassi is a good player, but a long way off a prime Willie le Roux.


And the bench is obviously great, but not thaaat great. Am is coming to the end of his career, and there's a bit of a lack of heft - if Martin handles Etzebeth like he has done before, its not clear what Rassie's plan B would be.

J
JM 6 days ago

looking forward to the game apart from penalty stress re no pollard starting

B
Bull Shark 6 days ago

Manie will deliver!


Why bother with 1s and 2s when you can hit boundaries.

F
Frans 6 days ago

Cannot wait... The scary thing about the Boks at the moment is that they can pick 2 sides that would be able to compete with the best in the world. Add to this team the players out with injuries, and it becomes clear Rassie is leaving very little to chance in building a team for the next world cup. Some of the older players will fall by the wayside, but he has at least 2 or 3 players in line to replace them...

R
Rooksie 6 days ago

Full off your self bro ..2 teams really 😆 🤣 😂

B
BeegMike 6 days ago

How dare they pick 5 large grown monsters on the bench, have they no regard for the king and crown???

S
SF 6 days ago

Hehehe..... 😅

r
rs 6 days ago

Good night England. Not a chance.

J
Jen 6 days ago

They're toast.

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J
JW 1 hour 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.

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