Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus, as expected, has rung the changes for his team’s match with Portugal on Saturday.
Making nineteen changes in total, including seven new caps and a new Captain in Salmaan Moerat, who becomes the 66th man to lead the Boks. Erasmus is using this weekend’s fixture as a depth-testing exercise following two bruising encounters with Ireland.
Speaking ahead of the clash with the fast improving Portugal who are now ranked 15th in the world, Erasmus said, “Portugal are a quality team as we saw with their victory against Fiji in the RWC, while they also drew their clash against Georgia 18-18.”
“It was important for us to select a quality team with a bunch of experienced players while at the same time delivering on our objective of growing our squad depth by naming a few debutants.”
With so many changes from the Irish series, here are three key talking points following Erasmus’s team announcement.
Tighthead evaluation
Hot on the heels of a Springbok masterclass at scrum time against Ireland, an interesting subplot has been developing on several South African Rugby forums. Discussing the topic of dynamism around pitch under new attack coach Tony Brown, the question of tighthead Frans Malherbe’s suitability to the tempo has been questioned. The veteran tighthead remains one of the finest scrummagers in the game, and whilst carrying has never been a hallmark of his game, he was noticeably absent during the second test in Durban. Carrying six times for four meters whilst completing just six tackles is not the most impressive stat line for a tighthead in 2024. Thus, the return of Thomas Du Toit to the Bok line-up is one of the more exciting storylines from Erasmus’s team announcement. Simply put, Du Toit was a monster for Bath this season and was arguably the stand-out performer in their narrow Premiership final loss to the Northampton Saints. Capable of playing both sides of the scrum and more than comfortable with the ball in hand, the 29-year-old has all of the requirements to be the perfect fit for Brown’s attacking system. Topping the tackle charts, winning two turnovers, dominating at scrum time and scoring a try in the Premiership final when his team were down a man following Beno Obano’s early red card was a showcase for what Du Toit brings to the table.
Pieter-Steph 2.0
DHL Stormers backrow Ben-Jason Dixon was one of the few standouts from a disappointing season for the Cape Town-based URC side. The rangy ball-carrying flank has garnered comparisons to arguably the best Springbok at the moment in Pieter-Steph Du Toit, which is high praise indeed. Solid in all areas, Dixon’s ability to get in the air and contest at line-out time is a stand out feature of his game whilst his level of comfort in the wider channels fits in perfectly to the wider approach the Boks experimented with against Ireland.
The Perfect conductor
Returning to the starting line-up having missed out on both tests against Ireland, flyhalf Manie Libbok will be licking his lips at the prospect of getting a crack at the Boks’ new attacking system. While his kicking woes have been much discussed, there is little debate about his ability as a ball player. Having watched Handre Pollard struggle with the ball in hand in Durban, the Boks will be looking to strike the right balance between having an ice-cold game manager and a free-flowing facilitator. Ultimately, this leads us to arguably the perfect option for this role in Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who proved, despite playing out of position at fullback against Ireland, that he is a truly special talent. Nailing a long-range penalty on debut against Wales, the Stormers star backed up the growing hype surrounding him with two exceptional showings against a world-class Irish side. Bringing a similar level of physicality and calmness to proceedings as Pollard whilst having the pace, vision and attacking mindset of Libbok, the 22-year-old would appear to be the perfect option. Thus, it will be interesting to see how Erasmus manages him this weekend against Portugal and where he unleashes him.
South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Phepsi Buthelezi, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 Elrigh Louw, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Quan Horn
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