Coach Rachie Erasmus has named a 12-man starting XI for the 2023 Rugby World Cup final in South Africa’s squad to face Ireland in the first of two highly anticipated home Tests at Loftus Stadium on Saturday.
Fullback Willie le Roux, number eight Kwagga Smith and prop Ox Ntche were the only players not to start in the 12-11 win over New Zealand in Paris last October, but all three were substitutes.
Handre Pollard returned at fly-half after missing the Springboks’ 41-13 win over Wales in London last month, which fell outside the international window and saw many other first-choice players miss out.
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Highlights from the summer international match between Wales and South Africa at Twickenham.
“I believe this team will give us the momentum we need to take on Ireland, who are ranked second in the world,” Erasmus said.
“We are blessed with a lot of depth in our squad and are in the fortunate position of having several Rugby World Cup winners who know what it takes to perform at the highest level.”
“It helps us that most of the players have experience playing together. Most of them have played against Ireland before and they understand the challenge ahead, especially as we haven’t beaten them since 2016.
Only three members of the Springbok squad that played against Ireland were not involved in the World Cup win in France – prop Gerhard Stenekamp, lock Salmaan Moerat and utility back Sascha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
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Erasmus opted to deploy a 6:2 ratio of forwards and backs from the bench, utilising the versatility of Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who can play fly-half, centre and full-back, and Grant Williams, who is normally a scrum-half but can also play on the wing.
Ireland have never won a Test series in South Africa but were the only team to beat the Springboks at last year’s World Cup, winning 13-8 in Paris before losing to New Zealand in the quarter-finals.
South Africa: 15 Willy le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt Lee Arendse, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk. 1 Ox Ntche, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 3 Frans Malherbe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Franco Mostert, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Kwagga Smith.
replacement: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Mourat, 20 RG Snyman, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Sascha Feinberg-Mngomezlu.
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