Rassie backs young Bok guns to fire the shots at Twickenham
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has backed the young Bok guns to do the business at Twickenham agains the Pumas. It is not so much discarding the old guard but recognising the form of the Boks next generation, writes Mark Keohane.
It is also not putting out to pasture those who won the Castle Rugby Championship agains the Pumas in 2024.
To illustrate how Erasmus has evolved the squad in a Test season, without sacrificing results, he has named just eight from the starting XV who beat the Pumas to win the Castle Rugby Championship a year ago.
In the match 23, there are 15 from 23 in between two potential Rugby Championship titles, to also show how much squad continuity there has been. The differentiator, within the squad, is that there are eight survivors in the starting XV in between two matches that double as finals agains the same opposition.
I expected injury withdrawals, but that did not happen to Damian Willemse, Cheslin Kolbe or Ox Nche,
I anticipated changes, the likes of Handre Pollard and Jesse Kriel in the starting XV, or on the bench.
Pollard, the back to back World Cup winner, misses out from the match 23 for a third successive match and Kriel, captain of the Boks agains the All Blacks at Eden Park, gets a place on the bench for Andre Esterhuizen as Erasmus, for the second successive Test, went with those who have scored 15 tries and 110 points in their last two Castle Rugby Championship wins.
Erasmus, who pre the Wellington Test win was averaging 12 changes in his match 23 and eight in his starting XV , has rewarded form, and the finishing brilliance of a squad who put the All Blacks to the sword 43-10 in New Zealand, and backed that up with a 67-30 win agains the Pumas in Durban.
The Boks win, they win the title.
Boks beat Pumas 48-7 in Nelspruit to win Castle Rugby Championship in 2024.
Springboks
Starters: Fassi, Kolbe, Kriel, De Allende, Arendse; Libbok, Hendrikse; Nche, Mbonambi, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Nortje, Kolisi (capt), Du Toit, Wiese. Finishers: Marx, Steenekamp, Koch, Louw, Smith, Reinach, Pollard, Am.
Springboks (to play for the Castle Rugby Championship title v Pumas at Twickenham in 2025)
Starters: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche. Finishers: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Jesse Kriel.
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