Springboks team: Winners and losers as Rassie Erasmus rewards ‘egoless’ warrior and the ‘unluckiest’ snub
Winners and losers from Rassie Erasmus' Springboks selections for the one-off Test against the Wallabies.
Following the announcement of Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks team to face Australia, we pick out our winners and losers for the showdown in Perth.
South Africa and Australia collide in a one-off Test in Western Australia following Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, and after naming largely the same side for three matches in a row against the All Blacks, the Boks head coach has rotated his team.
Erasmus has made 13 changes to his starting XV, with only nine of the 23 that faced New Zealand in Baltimore featuring in the Test in Perth.
So without further ado, here are our winners and losers.
Winners
Andre Esterhuizen
Erasmus has opted to give Siya Kolisi the week off while sending Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende back home to South Africa ahead of the fixture. Jesse Kriel has also been rested this week, meaning that Eben Etzebeth and Handre Pollard were the only players selected in the matchday squad who have captained the Springboks before.
While the head coach could have easily turned to the most-capped Bok of all time to lead the team against Australia, he has instead opted to hand the honour to Andre Esterhuizen.
The responsibility of leading the team is just reward for the now-hybrid star who has become an integral part of the Springboks set-up over the past 24 months after being on the fringe of the squad for much of his career.
He missed out on selection for the 2019 Rugby World Cup with Erasmus preferring the likes of De Allende and Frans Steyn as the inside centre options. After the success in Japan, Esterhuizen was repeatedly overlooked by Jacques Nienaber until July 2022 and played just thrice in 2023 before the World Cup squad was announced, this time earning an inclusion. He started the 35-7 romp of the All Blacks at Twickenham and the World Cup pool matches against Romania and Tonga but was snubbed for the knockout stage games.
To illustrate just how rapidly Esterhuizen’s stocks have risen in the Bok set-up, he earned his 17th Test cap in the first game of this World Cup cycle – against Wales in July 2024 – and will captain his country in his 36th appearance just two years later.
Erasmus has previously explained that Esterhuizen’s lack of versatility meant that he repeatedly missed out on selection, but since the Sharks man embraced the challenge of moonlighting as a forward, his value to the side has increased astronomically.
A player who once struggled to earn caps in Green and Gold will lead the side, something his head coach says he thoroughly deserves.
“He captained the Hollywoodbets Sharks, and he has brought so much to our squad off and on the field, both at centre and in the loose trio, and he thoroughly deserves this opportunity,” Erasmus said.
“It will also help build our leadership core even more within the team with several players having captained the side over the last few seasons, and we trust that he is the right man to take over the captaincy in this match.”
Erasmus also speaks of selecting ‘warriors’ for the Springboks, and Esterhuizen’s determination and reliance show that he absolutely fits that billing and has been a real servant to the Boks over the past few seasons while putting his ego aside to do what is best for the team.
Fresh front-row
After coming off the bench in the opening Test match against the All Blacks, Zachary Porthen and Jan-Hendrik Wessels were dropped from the matchday 23 and did not feature again during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series. The duo are both relatively young international front-rowers with bright futures ahead of them, so they won’t be too aggrieved by missing out on the latter three Tests but, at the same time, will be raring to go against the Wallabies.
Both players are clearly held in high regard by the Bok coaching team, with Wessels starting at loosehead this week, but is more than capable of shifting to hooker, while ex-Junior Bok skipper Porthen has been tipped as future leader of the senior team.
They are joined by Johan Grobbelaar in the front-row, with the Bulls star perhaps having the most to gain in Perth. While Wessels was tasked with providing cover for Malcolm Marx in the opening RGR Test series, that challenge was put to Deon Fourie in the latter three, with Grobbelaar snubbed entirely.
It’s plainly obvious that the Boks require a competitor for Marx’s position, particularly with Bongi Mbonambi falling out of favour, but Erasmus has been reluctant to decide who that is. Grobbelaar has been in and out of the squad this World Cup cycle and perhaps needs a big performance to really stake his claim, especially with Marnus van der Merwe returning from injury.
Ethan Hooker
Ethan Hooker is one of only two players, along with Etzebeth, to retain his starting position from the win in Baltimore and rightly so. The 2025 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year nominee is clearly not suffering from second-season blues and has quickly become a regular in the Springboks set-up since making his Test debut at Eden Park.
Hooker is a centre by trade, but, understandably, the coaching team is reluctant to move him off the wing this week considering the performances he produced against the All Blacks. Still, he will be wary that this weekend is an entirely different task, with the Wallabies performing better under the high ball than their Tasman neighbours this season, with Joseph Suaalii providing another challenge too.
Handre Pollard
Write him off at your own peril. Handre Pollard is back in the Green and Gold number 10 jersey after his withdrawal from the Springboks starting line-up for the second RGR Test match against the All Blacks.
In his absence, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was hit-and-miss while Manie Libbok impressed off the bench, leading many to believe that Pollard’s days in the Bok squad were numbered. Not Erasmus though, who has backed the veteran playmaker to hit the ground running in his first appearance since a Player of the Match performance against Scotland.
Pollard will have plenty to prove when he runs the attack against the Wallabies on Sunday.
Herschel Jantjies
It’s also a huge opportunity for his half-back partner as Herschel Jantjies looks to rocket himself back up the scrum-half pecking order and rekindle his international career in Perth in what will be his first start in Green and Gold in five years.
Jantjies burst onto the international scene in 2019 and quickly cemented himself in the Springboks matchday 23 as he went to the World Cup in Japan as Faf de Klerk’s back-up. He continued to be an impact player for South Africa when they returned to Test rugby in 2021, coming off the bench in each of the three Tests against the British and Irish Lions but quickly fell down the pecking order with his form slipping.
He earned just two caps in 2022 and one the following year as he missed out on the World Cup squad. A move to France followed, joining Bayonne, and his performances in the Top 14 resulted in a recall to the Boks squad for the Nations Championship matches, where he came off the bench and scored against Wales.
Jasper Wiese
It seems like every other Test match this year sees a Springbok player notch up a milestone, and this weekend it is the turn of powerhouse number eight Jasper Wiese, who celebrates his 50th cap for his country.
The Upington native has been a crucial cog in the Bok forward pack since his debut against Georgia in 2021, combining with Kolisi and Du Toit to break the record for loose forward starts as a combination.
It’s also quite telling that the Boks haven’t really skipped a beat with him donning the jersey once filled by Duane Vermeulen, arguably South Africa’s greatest number eight.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Let’s be honest, Feinberg-Mngomezulu hasn’t been at his best in the Springboks jersey this year. He showed signs of improvement in the final game against the All Blacks, but he isn’t producing at the same level as he did in 2025.
Still, Erasmus and his staff have persisted in selecting the 24-year-old in every matchday 23 since his return from injury against Argentina. If Feinberg-Mngomezulu does come off the bench in Perth, it will be his fifth consecutive Test cap.
Losers
Non-travelling Springboks
A handful of players didn’t travel with the Springboks to Baltimore and make the subsequent trip to Australia, namely Boan Venter, Ben-Jason Dixon, Ntuthuko Mchunu and Cobus Wiese.
The quartet will have also fancied their chances of cracking the matchday 23 this weekend and would have all benefitted from an opportunity in Green and Gold. For Dixon, that opportunity was taken away through injury while the rest were simply selection calls.
Damian Willemse
The captaincy call perhaps featured in the decision not to select Damian Willemse this weekend, with the 28-year-old certainly not dropped due to his performances. However, one cannot help but feel that the Boks are missing an opportunity to experiment in Perth.
Willemse has routinely played inside centre for the Stormers but has donned the number 12 jumper just once for South Africa, against the All Blacks in Wellington last year. An injury to Aphelele Fassi meant that trial didn’t make it past the first half, and it is surely something the staff wants to give another try before the World Cup.
Cameron Hanekom
After a blockbuster shift in Baltimore, Cameron Hanekom will have surely loved the opportunity to have a crack at the Wallabies and continue his sterling form. Instead, he has been overlooked despite the absence of Du Toit.
Elrigh Louw has been preferred in the blindside flanker position, with Marco van Staden at number eight, with Wiese dropping to the bench for his milestone match. The coaching team is perhaps wary of Hanekom’s injury record and doesn’t want to push the rising star too hard.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
Grant Williams
The Springboks are not short on scrum-half options, and Grant Williams is among the best and brightest. However, an injury setback at Ellis Park meant that he missed the remainder of the RGR series, and despite being back in contention this week, he has been overlooked in favour of giving Jantjies a start while Morne van den Berg is rewarded for his performances in the last two games against the All Blacks.
Manie Libbok
Arguably the unluckiest player not to get the nod against Australia, as Libbok impressed in each appearance off the bench against New Zealand.
Like with scrum-half, South Africa are blessed with depth in the number 10 jersey, and the coaching team needs to balance giving players opportunities and managing the minutes of the squad. That’s perhaps where Libbok loses out, as there is also a need to expose Feinberg-Mngomezulu to international rugby as much as possible.
Libbok will surely get a start at some point during the November Nations Championship matches.
READ MORE: Springboks legend warns of dangers of scrum law which ‘needs to go out of rugby’
