Springboks team: Winners and losers as ‘jumps off the page’ rookie creates history and ‘hybrid punt’ revisited
Andre Esterhuizen and Manie Libbok, inset, have both been named on the Springboks bench versus Japan
Here are our winners and losers following the announcement of Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks team to face Japan at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday.
Winners
Zachary Porthen
In a match day 23 selection showing seven changes from the October 4 Rugby Championship title-clinching win over Argentina at Twickenham, the debut-making 21-year-old is the alteration that jumps off the page.
He only made his first-ever Stormers start in the United Rugby Championship on October 18, yet he has now been spectacularly fast-tracked for a maiden Test start that will see him become the Springboks‘ youngest-ever prop in the professional era.
The one thing we can say from the experience of interviewing the tighthead when he was the 2024 skipper of the Junior Boks is that he is a very level-headed character who won’t let this incredible acceleration in his fledgling career overwhelm him.
Andre Esterhuizen
It was last June against the Barbarians when Erasmus first unveiled his experiment of using the midfielder as an additional back-rower off the Springboks bench.
Having trained in the role in the build-up, Esterhuizen professed himself “as definitely keen to learn” following that run, but it is only now, 18 weeks later, that the Japanese fixture has allowed South Africa the chance to properly revisit this hybrid punt.
With the team media release explaining that Esterhuizen has been named as a “back-up loose forward” who “could be drafted into the backline if the need arises”, it has added an intriguing dimension to the Boks’ 6/2 bench split. A sub forward who can play in the backs is a canny development for their famed bomb squad.
Cheslin Kolbe
With veteran Willie le Roux deemed surplus to requirements for the five-match tour and Aphelele Fassi still on the mend following his recent operation, the Springboks have grasped the opportunity to stress test their strength in depth at full-back by switching the experienced Kolbe from the wing.
Damian Willemse wore the No.15 jersey for the last two Rugby Championship matches against Argentina, but he was hurt at the weekend on Stormers duty at Benetton and the shirt has now been given to Kolbe for just the second time in his stellar Test career.
We all know how devastating Kolbe can be when attacking out wide on the wing, but imagine the threat he will now pose running from a deeper position with the luxury of having added time to spot and exploit potential space and weakness in the Japanese rearguard. It’s a win-win situation for the flier.
Gerhard Steenekamp and Johan Grobbelaar
Neither of these two has featured in a Springboks team since last year’s November tour-ending win in Wales, but they will now be bench buddies in London who will hope to go on and show their value as squad picks in this latest November window.
The axing of veteran hooker Bongi Mbonambi from the squad despite featuring earlier this month against Argentina was one contributory reason to next Saturday’s inclusion, but the lengthy ban given to their prop/hooker-playing Bulls teammate Jan-Hendrik Wessels was the game-changer that confirmed the way back for Steenekamp and Grobbelaar.
The Boks’ bomb squad wasn’t the explosion it needed to be last time out, as Argentina flourished in the final quarter, so the involvement of this pair for the first time in a year is significant.
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RG Snyman
Starting at Test is a rare enough occurrence for the giant second-row. Erasmus’ preference is for him coming off the bench with a view to wreaking second-half havoc.
Of his 23 appearances since finally overcoming his serious ACL injuries, just five have been as a starter, so it is a huge thing for Snyman that he has now been handed the No.4 jersey worn the last day by the now rested Eben Etzebeth.
Erasmus is all about building combinations, and if Snyman can produce in the engine room alongside Lood de Jager, a starter in the seminal September hammering of New Zealand in Wellington, it will provide plenty of food for thought in an area of the team where Ruan Nortje, who is on this Saturday’s bench, has become a huge selection favourite.
Losers
Jan-Hendrik Wessels
It was in the aftermath of the Springboks clinching their back-to-back Rugby Championship title when tighthead Thomas du Toit was asked on a UK podcast to name the players he believed to be the biggest freaks in Erasmus’ squad.
The naming of Esterhuizen was no surprise, given his nickname is the giant, but what piqued the interest was Du Toit referencing Wessels in his answer and describing the pair as “definitely absolute freaks of nature”.
Having benched last time out at Twickenham as a substitute loosehead in what was his third cap, it whetted the appetite to see what the positionally versatile Wessels could bring to the November tour, but he has since been banned for a type of foul play no one would ever want to be associated with. A big window for him to shine has been denied.
Jean Kleyn
If you were to compare the recent URC form of Munster player Kleyn with what Snyman has produced in the second-row with Leinster, their Irish rivals, there would be no contest in who should be getting Springboks selection.
Kleyn has been a pivotal reason behind his club team’s unbeaten start to the new season, and his play eclipsed what Snyman managed in the recent derby between the two at Croke Park.
However, despite earning a recall to the squad for this tour, eye-catching club play hasn’t been enough for Kleyn to catch up the gap created by his injury-enforced absence from the international fold since the Barbarians match in June.
Canan Moodie
The youngster was at the heart of the biggest talking point coming out of the most recent Springboks match – and it wasn’t for a very good reason.
Plenty of rugby watchers believed that referee Andrea Piardi bottled the task of giving Moodie a second yellow card – and sending him off – in the first half against Argentina for a deliberate knock on that followed his earlier punished high tackle.
Having since played twice for the Bulls in Ireland in the URC, Moodie’s name is missing from the latest Springboks team sheet as the No.13 shirt he got to wear in three successive Tests has now reverted to Jesse Kriel, who was 23rd man at Twickenham.
It could be a case that Erasmus simply preferred to go with Japanese-based players against Japan. Kriel is one of seven in the starting line-up who are based there. But it also can’t be ignored that Moodie is missing in this first Boks match since his furore the last day.
Manie Libbok
Erasmus has shown over the last year that he has no hesitation in rotating players in and out of the selection for the greater good, but could this latest selection show that Libbok is now way down the pecking order in the battle for the No.10 jersey with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu?
Instead of benefiting from starting jersey rotation, Libbok has increasingly become confined to a bench role.
This tour-opening match against Japan is the weakest fixture on the trip. But Erasmus has stuck with Feinberg-Mngomezulu rather than restoring Libbok to the starting spot to see if he can do better than he did when last in the role for the Rugby Championship defeat to Australia in Johannesburg. It seems like he is serving quite the hefty penance for that August loss.
