Springboks team: Winners and losers as Rassie backs ‘destructive’ loosies to fire the Bomb Squad in ‘no-risk’ selections against Italy
Following the announcement of Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks team to face Italy, here are our winners and losers for the Nations Championship clash in Turin.
The head coach has named a largely settled and seasoned matchday 23 for the meeting at the home of Italian football powerhouse Juventus.
This came after many viewed this fixture as the one where Erasmus would test and tinker with his squad after naming six uncapped players in his touring party. However, that has not proven to be the case and has produced many winners and losers from the selections, so let’s get into it.
Winners
Morne van den Berg
In 2025, the Springboks had two very clear frontline scrum-halves in Grant Williams and Cobus Reinach, and this year, Erasmus looked to be keeping the status quo until injury created an opportunity for Morne van den Berg, and the Lions number nine grasped it with both hands.
The 29-year-old was particularly brilliant in the third Test match of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks following the injury to Williams and would be handed the starting jersey for the finale in Baltimore, where he continued that stellar form.
He was included on the bench versus Australia and again had another fine cameo as part of the Bomb Squad, and with Erasmus not taking any risks against the Azzurri this weekend, the selection of Van den Berg in the starting XV is quite telling.
The Lions man has been quite a polarising figure among fans, but he is starting to turn the conversation through his performances and repaying the coaching staff’s faith in him.
Salmaan Moerat
No flash, just substance. That was the long and short of Erasmus’ defence of Salmaan Moerat, who returns to the Green and Gold jersey after a long-term injury and just a handful of minutes for his new club La Rochelle after a lengthy injury lay-off for neck and toe injuries.
Moerat is a Springboks captain, having led the side four times in his 11 Test matches, and is very clearly a player that the coaching team holds in high regard. He has been tasked with filling Eben Etzebeth’s void against Italy, and Erasmus has no doubt that he will do a sterling job.
“I’ve never really listened to people who talk nonsense about Salmaan because he’s not the kind of player you see on the field doing the flashy stuff, and we don’t expect him to do that,” the Bok boss explained after announcing his team.
“We expect him to do what he always does for us. We need a grinder like a Jean Kleyn or an RG Snyman – RG is a little bit flashier as well, but it’s something we need in the team, and Salmaan brings that.”
Erasmus further explained that Moerat’s strengths are in the dark arts of forward play: “Nobody probably understands how hard he scrums, how hard he mauls, how hard he cleans out at the ruck, how physical he is and how well he stops mauls. That’s probably something you can never really explain to people.”
Whilst the coaching team keeps tabs on the outlook of the supporters’ views on players, they don’t buy into narratives on social media. Erasmus added that the opinion of the coaching staff and Moerat’s teammates matters more, and the fact that he has been parachuted back into the squad with little game time is an indication of just how respected he is by those in the know.
Grant Williams
Unlike Moerat, Williams is somewhat of a fan favourite among Springboks fans, and his return from injury will be met with open arms. The scrum-half sustained his setback in the first Test against the All Blacks, and though he was available for selection against Australia, he was overlooked.
Williams went on to link up with his new club, the Kobe Steelers, and featured in a pre-season game versus the Kubota Spears, which would have been very much needed, having last played in early September.
He gets the nod over Reinach this week on the bench, with Erasmus’ decision to select a 6-2 bench split surely factoring into the call too, with the scrum-half needing to cover on the wing.
Cameron Hanekom and Paul de Villiers
Speaking of the bench split, Erasmus has opted to back the double loose forward ploy among the replacements, with Cameron Hanekom and Paul de Villiers getting the nod in the 20 and 21 jerseys respectively.
Hanekom made his Test debut in November 2024, but this is very much his rookie international season with the Springboks, and he is certainly making up for last time after an injury struck in 2025. The Bulls back-rower was sensational against Argentina and then backed up those performances with blockbuster cameos off the bench against the All Blacks. The 24-year-old’s performances in the United Rugby Championship and Investec Championship hinted that he would be a real force at the highest level, and he is living up to the hype in a position where South Africa doesn’t lack depth.
Ditto for De Villiers, who was superb in the first fixture against New Zealand and was rather unfortunate to miss out on the latter three. He filled Siya Kolisi’s void in the number six jersey in the July Nations Championship matches and has been tasked with making a real impact along with Hanekom in the latter stages of Saturday’s Test match.
Erasmus is clearly wary of the breakdown threat the Azzurri pose, with the Springboks struggling in that area of the game in all three encounters with Italy last year and has selected two young, volatile and effective back-rowers who are excellent in that facet of the game in a bid to get the Bomb Squad to explode.
Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Much has been made of Johan Grobbelaar’s absence in the Springboks squad, with Erasmus selecting just one out-and-out hooker in the form of Malcolm Marx. When naming the touring party, Jan-Hendrik Wessels – who can also play loosehead prop – was listed alongside Marx in the hooker department, suggesting that is where his focus would be this month.
Erasmus previously suggested that Wessels would be focusing more on hooker than at prop and his selection in the number 16 jersey makes one believe that will be the case, which is a bonus looking ahead to the World Cup. Quite simply, the Springboks need someone to establish themselves as Marx’s deputy and Wessels has the potential to be that man.
A cameo off the bench against Italy could go a long way in doing that as the Azzurri will test Wessels in the areas of the game where Marx shines: lineout, breakdown and scrum. Pass this litmus test and Erasmus could be tempted to select Wessels as a hooker first and utility forward second, with the latter being the case up until this point.
Rassie Erasmus
Looking at this week’s teamsheet, one would not think that Erasmus is contending with quite an extensive injury list that features some of the Springboks’ top performers this season and in seasons gone by.
Cheslin Kolbe, Etzebeth, Andre Esterhuizen, and Handre Pollard have been ruled out of contention, adding to the absentee list that already included Snyman and Kwagga Smith. If this weekend’s clash was a World Cup knockout game, Erasmus would probably one every one of those players in his matchday 23 but despite the fact that they aren’t, this is still a very strong team that he has selected.
It boasts the most capped Springbok centre combination of all time in Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel and that is backed up by the most capped loose forward combination of Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese. Moerat joins Ruan Nortje in the second-row, the latter becoming indispensable for the Springboks since last year, whilst the front-row combo of Ox Nche, Marx and Thomas du Toit is reinstated in the starting XV after Wilco Louw started ahead of the latter against the All Blacks.
Damian Willemse, who is arguably the best full-back in the world right now, is flanked by the in-form duo of Ethan Hooker and Kurt-Lee Arendse on the wings whilst Erasmus has selected a bench with two bright loose forward prospects, possibly the most destructive tighthead scrummager in the game and two World Cup-winning half-backs.
Springboks: Malcolm Marx opens up on how Rassie Erasmus sold Bomb Squad tactic to his players
Losers
Italy
With all due respect to Italy, they do not have the same kind of depth that the Springboks possess. Conor O’Shea’s work previously with Italy’s youth structures has narrowed the gap, but the Azzurri are missing key players in crucial positions.
The Italians will effectively be facing the best that the Springboks can field right now but will be without the services of their world-class centre pairing of Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello. Furthermore, they will be without captain Michele Lamaro, the excellent winger Louis Lynagh, powerhouse forward Seb Negri and the sturdy presence of Andrea Zambonin. In the front row, Marco Riccioni has made himself unavailable for personal reasons while Mirco Spagnolo is sidelined with an injury.
Sure, players like Ange Capuozzo, Pablo Garbisi, Leonardo Marin, Tommaso Allan, Manuel Zuliani and the Cannone brothers give the Italians a chance, but the task is undoubtedly tougher without some of the big names mentioned above.
Yaqeen Ahmed
Yaqeen Ahmed produced a statement performance against the All Blacks earlier this year, outplaying the legendary Beauden Barrett, in what looked to be his breakout game. He used that confidence to guide the Junior Boks to another World Rugby U20 Championship and has returned in fine nick with the Stormers, putting in a sterling shift for the Capetonians before linking up with the Springboks.
While many of the fans still questioned his credentials and the timing of his call-up, Erasmus explained that exposure to the Springboks sessions and learning what it was like to tour with the squad was important for the younger players. However, Ahmed’s time with the squad looks to be coming to an end before it really began, with Erasmus revealing that he has arrived in camp with a shoulder injury that is threatening his involvement.
“Yaqeen is with us now, and he also injured his shoulder and stood on the sidelines at training today [Monday], but the point I want to get to is that it doesn’t help to have a player here and he sees everything but doesn’t get a feel for it,” the head coach said after naming his team.
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Other five uncapped players
As mentioned previously, many thought that if Erasmus was to throw out his young guns this month, it would be in the opening game of the series with France at the Stade de France and Ireland in Dublin being two incredibly imposing teams and venues for one to make their first international appearance.
However, Erasmus has selected a more settled and experienced squad instead, with the Bok boss explaining that much of that has to do with the limited time the coaching team had with the squad and the short run-up to the fixture.
“We didn’t want to give those newbies a chance against Italy because we haven’t had sufficient preparation time,” he explained.
“I got in this morning [Monday], and our first training session was this afternoon for our match on Saturday against Italy. There’s not a lot of room [for changes] if we want to keep playing consistently well to give the promise the guys game time.”
The short build-up to the opening round of November fixtures was always going to be a potential consequence of World Rugby extending this international window by a week to include the Finals Weekend in London.
So Sebastian de Klerk, Luan Giliomee, Markus Muller, Riley Norton and Emmanuel Tshituka will have to wait at least a week longer for their maiden appearances in a Test match with the Boks. Still, they will lap up the feeling of being in the camp and will hope that they can press for a selection this window.
Malcolm Marx reveals how suggestion from ex-Springboks coach resulted in his positional switch
Johan Grobbelaar
Grobbelaar is probably the ‘team man of the year’ so far, according to Erasmus, but the Bulls man has not boarded the flight to the northern hemisphere. His selfless actions in training during the Nations Championship and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series which led Erasmus to conclude that he is the kind of player that they want in a World Cup squad.
However, he hasn’t toured with the squad with the coaching team prioritising opportunities for Wessels and Marco van Staden. Erasmus said that the coaching team wants to force themselves into the position where it’s between Van Staden and Wessels as Marx’s back-up in the hooker role, adding that “Grobbies doesn’t deserve not to be chosen.”
Erasmus said that if the World Cup was this year, Grobbelaar would be selected in the squad and the coaching staff are 100% aware of what he is capable of but they need to put themselves under pressure to select Wessels as an out-and-out hooker and not as a utility front-rower and also see whether Van Staden is a serious candidate as a back-up hooker.
Ultimately, Grobbelaar is a victim of the Bok coaching team’s search for conclusive answers.
In-form props
It is completely understandable that Erasmus has backed cohesion and combinations and denied so many players opportunities for the opening game, after he admitted that they got it all wrong against the Wallabies in Sydney.
The head coach is clearly risk-averse this week but two players will have surely fancied their chances of cracking the team: Ntuthuko Mchunu and Zachary Porthen. The duo have been in stunning form for the Stormers and could have combined off the bench with Wessels; however the experiment with the latter has potentially influenced the front row replacement selections too. Wessels has been named along with Louw and Gerhard Steenekamp, who he has worked closely with at the Bulls before Louw returned to the Stormers at the start of this season.
Much of the selection this week has been about backing tried and tested combinations and that is just another example of that.
READ MORE: Kieran Read: Why the Springboks could ‘struggle’ in the Nations Championship
