Rassie’s Boks selection honours integrity of new Nations Championship

Rassie Erasmus has rolled out his Boks World Cup winners to honour South Africa’s tournament debut against England in the inaugural Nations Championship.

Nations Championship

Erasmus has respected the occasion and the opposition in naming his strongest available starting XV, with the eight-strong bench of similar quality.

Erasmus, who named six unnamed players in his tournament squad of 46, resisted blooding any newbies against England. He is certain to maximise the entire squad in the July matches against England, Scotland and Wales.

The Nations Championship explained

On Sunday, I speculated on a potential Boks match 23 and wrote that should Saturday be a tournament final I’d expect a certain starting XV, which was pretty much what Erasmus announced on Monday.

I did say that with Erasmus expect the unexpected and that he would probably not go with his most experienced and settled line-up.

Then he did exactly the opposite and went with the expected.

I thought speedster Edwill van der Merwe could get a second successive match on the wing after scoring three tries in the 80-31 win against the Barbarians, but Erasmus has entrusted Kurt-Lee Arendse on the one wing to complement Cheslin Kolbe and Damian Willemse as his back three.

Erasmus, on the bench, resisted a specialist hooker replacement and will use Jan-Hendrik Wessels (loosehead prop and hooker) and Marco van Staden (flank and hooker) to cover Malcolm Marx.

He has also not picked a specialist lock among the substitutes and Pieter-Steph du Toit will cover No 4 and No 5 lock.

Eben Etzebeth, who played just one match for the Sharks all season, starts at No 4 lock. Etzebeth will extend his record as the most capped Test Springbok.

Inside centre Damian de Allende plays his 98th Test.

There was no place in the match 23 for South Africa’s URC Player of the Year Embrose Papier, with Grant Williams the starting No 9 and Cobus Reinach the back-up option. Reinach missed the last month of the Stormers campaign because of injury.

Erasmus explained the omission of tighthead prop Wilco Louw, whom he felt needed some time off after a demanding season with the Bulls on the field and a traumatic and challenging period off the field. Louw lost his father Marius a few months ago.

Riley Norton started at No 4 lock against the Barbarians but he was not considered because of injury. Norton is out of the Nations Championship because of a Grade 3 hamstring tear. It could also rule him out of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour in August and September.

Erasmus’s first home Test as Boks coach in 2018 was against England at Ellis Park. It was also Siya Kolisi’s first start as captain.

The Boks won 42-39 in a 10-try thriller after England led 24-3 after just 20 minutes.

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SPRINGBOKS – 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Ruan Nortjé, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché.
Substitutes: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zach Porthen, 19 Marco van Staden, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 André Esterhuizen, 23 Canan Moodie.