Springboks team: Five takeaways as Rassie Erasmus ‘tinkers and tests’ by selecting ‘gigantic’ side to face Wales
Springboks Damian de Allende and Cobus Reinach.
After the announcement of the final Springboks team of 2025, here are our five takeaways from Rassie Erasmus’ selections to face Wales.
The top line
Unsurprisingly, it’s a much-changed Springboks team compared to the one that dominated Ireland last week, with several players released back to their clubs.
Still, Erasmus has managed to name a matchday 23 consisting of eight World Cup winners in the starting line-up and four on the bench.
Up front, Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar and Wilco Louw are moved from the bench to the starting XV and are joined in the engine room by Jean Kleyn and Ruan Nortje, the latter being the only tight-five forward who started last week too.
Siya Kolisi skippers the team once again and forms a loose trio combination with Jasper Wiese and Franco Mostert, who returns to the squad after his red card against Italy was rescinded and replaces Pieter-Steph du Toit.
Morne van den Berg partners Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu in the half-backs, while there is plenty of change in the remainder of the backline.
Andre Esterhuizen and Damian de Allende combine in the centres for just the second time, having done so against Italy in 2022, while Ethan Hooker and Canan Moodie are named as the starting wingers with Damian Willemse retained at full-back.
Onto the bench and for the first time this year, Erasmus has selected a 7-1 split in favour of the forwards with Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen and Asenathi Ntlabakanye brought in as front-row cover.
Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben-Jason Dixon and Kwagga Smith will look to make an impact in the back-five of the pack, while Cobus Reinach is the sole backline replacement, with the in-form half-back earning his 50th cap in a game where he could be tasked with covering on the wing.
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Matt Williams will be fuming that, once again, the Springboks are discriminating against backs with their abuse of the bench with seven forwards and just one back.
But frankly, Erasmus didn’t have much choice and admits that it was not their first choice bench set-up for this match.
“Our hand was a little forced as we wanted our URC teams to have a good start and we negotiated with them over who we could get,” he explained to SuperSport.
“We couldn’t get all our the Japan-based players, couldn’t get PREM-based players and some players who play in France. We managed to get Jean Kleyn from Munster, but our hand was forced a little bit; we wouldn’t have gone with a 7-1 split against the Welsh… we don’t think that’s what we need against them, a 6-2 would have been better.
“The situation has been forced on us a bit, but we still have a very strong team doing it this way.”
There is a chance that Williams will still bang on about the bench split, but the former Scotland boss might want to turn his attention to the size of the Springboks backline, which may well be the real safety hazard.
It’s hard to remember the last time, if ever, the Springboks fielded a taller and heavier backline than the one Wales will face. Scrum-half Van den Berg, nicknamed Krappies (little crap), is the Jack among the bean stalks as he is the only backline player under 185cm tall.
Adding to that, Esterhuizen and De Allende comfortably clear the 100kg mark, Willemse just sneaks over, while Moodie and Hooker aren’t far off, depending on how much we can really read into the weights published on the club and union websites.
Throw in the giants in the forward pack, and all in all, Wales face a tall task on Saturday.
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A marathon run for the veteran speedster
But let’s not forget the eighth and final Springbok back, Reinach. A man who has had his fair share of setbacks throughout his Springbok career, but has battled away to notch up an impressive 50.
It’s taken him 11 years to hit the milestone; in that timeframe, many a player has reached 100, but Reinach has picked up an impressive collection of medals during his marathon: Two Rugby World Cups, three Rugby Championships, and a British and Irish Lions series victory. Not too shabby.
The 35-year-old should really be in the twilight of his career now, but he is defying logic as he has enjoyed one of the best years of his career in the Green and Gold jumper.
Considering the depth at scrum-half at Erasmus’ disposal, Reinach could well be usurped by the time the 2027 World Cup rolls around, but we wouldn’t bet against the son of the former Springbok winger and South African sprinter.
There have been some special milestones for Springbok players this year, and many more to come in 2026, but Reinach’s story is just another of determination and grit.
An opportunity to tinker and test
Despite having his hand forced due to the unavailability of several stars, Erasmus has still taken the opportunity to test a youngster, Porthen, who is in line to earn just his third Test cap.
The Boks have taken advantage of the versatility of props Trevor Nyakane and Thomas du Toit previously, with the pair tasked with playing on both sides of the scrum. However, the former is nearing the end of his career, and the latter looks to be settling a bit more at tighthead.
That opens the opportunity for a new ‘swing prop’ to enter the fray, and instead of waiting around the unicorn to suddenly appear, Erasmus and Daan Human have entered the lab to create one.
This isn’t a necessity this week, as loosehead prop Ntuthuko Mchunu is in the Bok squad and could have easily slotted onto the bench. Instead, Porthen gets another opportunity to prove himself after starting against Japan and Italy.
The 21-year-old front-rower has the perfect frame to be able to switch between the two positions and is not nearly experienced enough to have picked up habits that would make it difficult to switch binds with the hooker.
Plus, Wales don’t possess the most powerful scrum but certainly not the worst either, particularly with the inexperienced trio of Brodie Coghlan, Danny Southworth and Christian Coleman who collectively have just two Test caps under their belt. If all goes well, the coaches would surely want to get Porthen on for a couple of scrums against the more experienced Keiron Assiratti. Who knows, it would not be overly surprising if Ntlabakanye is also given a scrum or two on the left-hand side of the set-piece.
But it’s not just in the scrum where Erasmus might be afforded the opportunity to tinker and test. The Boks are embracing the hybrid players and have repeatedly stated that Smith can cover the wing, but we’ve seen little evidence of that.
If the game goes the way the bookies suggest, the Boks might well open up a big enough lead that Erasmus could throw Smith onto the wing and shift one of Hooker or Moodie into the centres. He could achieve this during the match without making a permanent change by shifting Esterhuizen into the pack.
In the same breath, Willemse could also get a run in the midfield or at fly-half courtesy of a backline shuffle, while Reinach could very well get a run on the wing.
Also, don’t write off an open-play lineout or two. We haven’t seen it since Eden Park…
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Chance to stake a claims
Much of the matchday 23 has been in and around the Springboks squad throughout the year, but a strong performance on Saturday could convince the coaches that they are deserving of more minutes in 2026.
Van den Berg comes to mind in that regard as the scrum-half hasn’t really had a poor game this year, but hasn’t been able to break the Williams-Reinach duo for the bigger Tests.
Mostert has seen his matchday minutes plummet this year compared to previous seasons due to the rise of Nortje, while Grobbelaar earned his recall to the squad for the November Tests, having missed the July internationals and Rugby Championship. As it stands, it looks as if Malcolm Marx is the only guaranteed call-up at hooker going forward.
Meanwhile, Kleyn has been afforded the chance to reinstate himself in the squad thanks to Munster allowing him an extra week with the Boks and in such a hotly contested position, he probably needs it.
We’ve already touched on Porthen, but it’s a big Test for Ntlabakanye too, as the tighthead prop stocks are set to be replenished next year, and they are already stacked there while Van Staden gets the opportunity to end a strong year in Green and Gold on a high.
Lastly, Dixon’s international season has been plagued with injury, but he gets an opportunity to remind everyone why he was held in such high regard by the coaching team in his debut Test campaign last year.
