Springboks make 12 changes and move away from 7/1 bench split

Rassie Erasmus has announced a Springboks team to take on England in London that has 12 changes following last Sunday’s win over Scotland. South Africa were 32-15 winners in Edinburgh in their Autumn Nations Series opener and they have now altered all seven of their starting backs, five of their starting forwards and pared their bench from a seven-one forwards/backs split back to a five/three divide.

Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth are the three forwards retained from the XV that started at Murrayfield, and they are joined by Wilco Louw, RG Snyman, skipper Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Kwagga Smith.

Louw only returned to the Springbok set-up as a late injury call-up for the tour; he played the last of his 14 Tests behind closed doors against Argentina in Port Elizabeth three years ago.

In the backs, Grant Williams, last weekend’s sole backline replacement in the 7/1 set-up, comes in to start on this occasion along with Manie Libbok at half-back. Aphelele Fassi, Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse are the back three, with Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende combining at midfield.

The five bench forwards are Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp,  Vincent Koch, Elrigh Louw and Kwagga Smith, with the three backs options consisting of Cobus Reinach, Handre Pollard and Lukhanyo Am.

Erasmus said: “England poses a completely different challenge to Scotland, and we selected our squad based on what we would like to do in the match and also what we think will be best to counter the challenge England poses.

“Fortunately, we have quite a few players who can switch positions if necessary, so we feel we have adequate depth throughout the team, which allowed us to select this group of replacements.

“England come off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we size of the challenge. We lost narrowly to Ireland and France in back-to-back matches in 2022 and a year later were world champions, so we know we shouldn’t read anything into the last two results.”

Springboks (vs England, Saturday)

15 – Aphelele Fassi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 9 caps, 30 points (6t)

14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 38 caps, 101 points (16t, 3c, 5p)

13 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 77 caps, 90 points (18t)

12 – Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 85 caps, 55 points (11t)

11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 22 caps, 85 points (17t)

10 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 18 caps, 94 pts (1t, 28c, 11p)

9 – Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 16 caps, 15 points (3t)

8 – Jasper Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks) – 32 caps, 10 points (2t)

7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 85 caps, 55 points (11t)

6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 90 caps, 60 points (12t)

5 – RG Snyman (Leinster) – 38 caps, 10 points (2t)

4 – Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 129 caps, 30 points (6t)

3 – Wilco Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 14 caps, 0 points

2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 76 caps, 75 points (15t)

1 – Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 38 caps, 0 points

Replacements:

16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 74 caps, 105 points (21t)

17 – Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls) – 9 caps, 0 points

18 – Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 59 caps, 0 points

19 – Elrigh Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 11 caps, 0 points

20 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 50 caps, 45 points (9t)

21 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 37 caps, 70 pts (14t)

22 – Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers) – 78 caps, 767 points (7t, 108c, 167p, 5dg)

23 – Lukhanyo Am (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 41 caps, 35 pts (7t)