South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber has rotated his team for their second Rugby Championship clash with Argentina in Nelson Mandela Bay on Saturday, reverting to pretty much a full-strength side.
The Springboks beat Argentina 32-12 in their competition opener at the same venue this past weekend with a much-changed team.
However, they have restored their regular backline with the return of flyhalf Handre Pollard, wings Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi, and the centre pairing of Lukhanyo Am and Damian de Allende.
The line-up is similar to the one that played the third Test against the British & Irish Lions and clinched the series.
“A few players didn’t play last week after a physically demanding Lions series and are now back in the mix, while we also wanted to give a few players who have worked hard at training over the last two months a chance to get some valuable game time,” Nienaber said in a media release.
“This is a long season, so we need to get the balance right between building consistency in selection and in our performances, managing the players in terms of their workload, and building depth within our squad.”
Props Thomas du Toit and Trevor Nyakane will partner hooker Malcolm Marx in the front row, with Marvin Orie to get a first Test start at lock alongside Lood de Jager.
Captain Siya Kolisi, Franco Mostert and No.8 Jasper Wiese make up the loose-forwards.
“Argentina will come hard at us, so we know we need to perform much better than last week to get the desired result,” Nienaber said.
“While we were pleased with the victory and to start our Rugby Championship campaign on a winning note, there was a lot of room for improvement in our performance.
“We’ve identified a few areas we need to work on if we want to defend our title successfully, and we will work on those aspects of our game at training this week.”
After this weekend, both sides will travel on the same chartered flight to Australasia for the remainder of the competition.
They will play two fixtures each against Australia and New Zealand.
Team: Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Jasper Wiese, Franco Mostert, Siya Kolisi (capt), Lood de Jager, Marvin Orie, Thomas du Toit, Malcolm Marx, Trevor Nyakane. Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Nicolaas van Rensburg, Kwagga Smith, Dan du Preez, Jaden Hendrikse, Damian Willemse.
Harry Jones
Expert
I love Fat Frans. Both of them. Always seems to figure out how to win the scrum. And tackles!!
Harry Jones
Expert
Buthelezi: yes!
Jonty Shonty
Roar Pro
The Sharks have a few decent young forwards running around at the moment. Probably the next gen, but their front row of Kumbirai, Fez Mbatha and Ntuthuko Mchunu is handy. Mchunu in particular. So mobile and explosive. Loosies Buthelezi and Gumede.
Harry Jones
Expert
Hendrickse (10) has a monster boot
Praetorian
Guest
Carlos in South Africa we say ' trap in jou eie kak ' which means be responsible for your actions .
Praetorian
Guest
Word is out that Rassie' s lawyers will argue that he never put his video onto the internet but that it was done so by a third party
Sci
Roar Rookie
No need to change the backs really, when all they play is a 9 man game.
piru
Roar Rookie
He's an honest, hard worker with a massive engine, not the greatest in terms of skills or as a pure 7, but I can totally understand why RA love him. I don't pretend to understand what kind of game planning they do, so wouldn't want to comment on where he plays positionally, but he does seem to come up with a big play when it's most needed.
Android-angler Cartman-brah
Roar Rookie
What's your take on Hooper. Everyone says he's a fantastic player. I watched the first 15 min of first half. He was nowhere near the breakdown or rucks. He's mostly in the backline. He's good at cover defending. Roling mall that ended in a trie he was again in backline. Is he not perhaps causing confusion in backline. Should he not mostly focus on core 7 duties and graft more and does it not cause an imbalance amongst forewards
AndyS
Guest
Just thinking out loud, but I suppose given SARUs problem was with the referees, WR could just decline to assign recognised referees to their matches for a while. Would seem the most fitting, but might make the status of those matches a question...would they be officially recognised, or just friendlies? Count toward rankings, be as interesting to opponents, etc...
Jonty Shonty
Roar Pro
Wilco is a scrumming machine but not as mobile around the park. I think once Malherbe moves on we'll realise what an asset he is. Boy can move and push in scrum.
Jonty Shonty
Roar Pro
Nice one Harry. I also think the majority of this team will be there at 2023. Can you believe Am, Chessie and Mapimps only have 17/18 caps!? Here's my dev team for the future: 15: Gelant 14: Fassi (with a gradual move to 15. Penxe stepping in) 13: Simelane 12: Esterhuizen 11: Nkosi 10: Walhuter / Goosen (Unless someone surprises. Hendrickse's brother is meant to be decent) 9: Hendrickse 8: Evan Roos / Dan du Preez 7: Jean Luc du Preez / Marcel Coetzee / Elrich Louw 6: Van Staden 5: Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg 4: Schickerling 3: Koch (but he's probs already there) 2: Dweba 1: Ox
piru
Roar Rookie
Come one come all to the most isolated capital city on earth! No plague here, our benevolent overlord King Mark has seen that we are free from the pestilence which covers the land
piru
Roar Rookie
Technically it's in Highgate, though I think they call it East Perth It's the Force's home ground, capacity of about 25000
Harry Jones
Expert
Sure! Loopholes are lovely when it’s us in the dock! My point is — we can already as a rugby community lambaste Rassie. But start taking away money or job or wins … and anyone would lawyer up. And World Rugby is on much safer legal ground to bar Rassie from rugby events than take his money for publicly pointing out a red’s errors. How can they enforce it? I think they will be careful.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
But Harry, I don’t want this to be a legal scenario. In Spanish we say, “hecha la ley, hecha la trampa”. You understand. There are many things that are wrong and not illegal. The whole BIL-Boks for me is an ethical debacle on all sides. And if the reason is winning, then it’s a worse case.
Harry Jones
Expert
Well, I was framing the issues, which are mostly legal. There’s a lot of sanctimony flowing around, but when rights or property are affected, the law will be the framework. World Rugby is a bit of a paper tiger, here.
biltong
Guest
For me I am intrigued as to why a rational thinking world leading coach/director of rugby would do this. There has to be more to this than just putting Berry under the bus and O’Keefe under pressure. Surely he knew there would be repercussions? As for “the other ones here” Carlos is again throwing out a generalised judgement on the rest.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
Harry, your comment is insightful. Wayne's is difficult to understand. Something is wrong there. I was pretty sure my English is quite understandable. But your comment is just legalese, Harry. We also have to think of the principles of what Rassie did plus all the crazy conspiracies of these other ones here.
Harry Jones
Expert
I'm just interested in the legal theories, the self-effectuating powers, jurisdiction over officials, proportionality, precedent, and how WR would enforce whatever they come up with, without an enforcement arm. Fascinating.