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Springboks make four changes for third Test as injury hits again
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Rassie Erasmus has made four changes to his South Africa XV to take on the All Blacks in the third Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series in Johannesburg, with Damian Willemse missing the match through injury.
The full-back was substituted at half time of the recent victory in Cape Town with a hamstring injury, and has failed to recover for this weekend’s clash, meaning Cheslin Kolbe will start at full-back with Kurt-Lee Arendse returning to the squad.
The final three changes are in the front-row, with Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw all starting again in place of Gerhard Steenekamp, Deon Fourie and Thomas du Toit. That was, however, what was originally planned last week before Erasmus rearranged his team.
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There is a caveat that comes with every Bok team named currently. While it is common practice for Erasmus to name his squad early in the week, he has developed a habit of tweaking his line-up as the week progresses and even on matchdays, so the likelihood of this exact XV running out at FNB Stadium seems slim.
Other than the front-row units swapping places, the bench remains the same as last week’s.
With the fourth and final match of the RGR series being played in the United States, Saturday’s match will be the decider of the series on South African soil.
“It was always our plan to have a little more continuity in player combinations for this series and we thought that the players who did the job for us last week really showed composure and did well to stick to the plan and what we wanted to achieve last week,” said Erasmus.
“Unfortunately, Damian Willemse took a knock in the first half and was not available for selection this weekend, and neither was Handre Pollard, and by sticking to these combinations and making one switch with Cheslin at fullback, we thought it would be the best for this match.
“Kurt-Lee was unlucky not to play last week after Cheslin recovered from his niggle, so we are pleased to see him back. He is a quality player and his 25 tries in 33 matches so far shows the type of player he is.”
South Africa XV: 15 Cheslin Kolbe (DHL Stormers); 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse (Mitsubishi Dynaboars), 13 Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles), 12 Damian de Allende (Wild Knights), 11 Ethan Hooker (Hollywoodbets Sharks); 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers), 9 Cobus Reinach (DHL Stormers); 1 Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks), 2 Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), 3 Wilco Louw (DHL Stormers), 4 Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks), 5 Ruan Nortje (Kubota Spears), 6 Siya Kolisi (captain, DHL Stormers), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), 8 Jasper Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks).
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie (DHL Stormers), 17 Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls), 18 Thomas du Toit (Hollywoodbets Sharks), 19 Lood de Jager (Wild Knights), 20 Andre Esterhuizen (Hollywoodbets Sharks), 21 Cameron Hanekom (Vodacom Bulls), 22 Morne van den Berg (10bet Lions), 23 Manie Libbok (Kintetsu Liners).
