Springboks make three changes to their team to face England

Jacques Nienaber has named a Springboks team to face England this Saturday in London that shows three changes from the XV that defeated Scotland 30-15 last weekend in Edinburgh in the Autumn Nations Series. The match at Twickenham sees Handre Pollard and Lood de Jager come back into the starting line-up in place of Elton Jantjies and Franco Mostert, reversing the selection decisions taken for the Scotland game following the win over Wales in Cardiff on November 6. 

Both those demoted players drop to the bench as does Herschel Jantjies who has lost out as the starting scrum-half to Cobus Reinach, who knows all about the threats England have to offer through his time playing at Northampton in the Gallagher Premiership before his switch to Montpellier in France.  

This Saturday's clash with England is the first against Eddie Jones' team since the 2019 World Cup final in Yokohama and the starting Springboks line-up contains ten starters from that showpiece decider in Japan. The Springboks head into the rematch having won eight of their twelve matches this year with Nienaber now at the helm and they are currently on a winning run of three following successes against the All Blacks, the Welsh and the Scots.

Victory for the Springboks will not only see the South Africans retain the No1 spot on the world rankings, it would also mark their first unbeaten November tour since 2013. “We built up good momentum in the Tests against Wales and Scotland and it is important for us to transfer that into our final match of the tour against England, so we opted to make only three changes to the starting team for this weekend’s clash,” explained Nienaber.

“England will pose different threats to Scotland and with that in mind we have decided to start with Handre, Cobus and Lood. Elton, Herschel and Franco have shown that they can inject energy and ignite a spark on attack off the bench, which will be handy against an English outfit that we know will be highly charged up for this match.”

The Springboks have opted for a five-three split on their bench and Nienaber is expecting a fierce battle at Twickenham. “England have made it clear that they will come hard at us in this match. With a few British and Irish Lions players in their midst, home ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia adding to their motivation this weekend, we know it will be a hard grind.

“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the (European) tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect.

SPRINGBOKS (vs England, Saturday)

15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 71 caps, 60 pts (12t)

14 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 50 caps, 60 pts (12t)

13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 25 caps, 25 pts (5t)

12 – Damian de Allende (Munster) – 57 caps, 35 pts (7t)

11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 24 caps, 95 pts (19t)

10 – Handré Pollard (Montpellier) – 59 caps, 586 pts (6t, 83c, 126p, 4d)

9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 20 caps, 40pts (8t)

8 – Duane Vermeulen (Ulster) – 60 caps, 15 pts (3t)

7 – Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo) – 18 caps, 5 pts (1t)

6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 62 caps, 30 pts (6t)

5 – Lood de Jager (Sale Sharks) – 55 caps, 25 pts (5t)

4 – Eben Etzebeth (Toulon) – 96 caps, 15 pts (3t)

3 – Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) – 53 caps, 5pts (1t)

2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 47 caps, 45 pts (9t)

1 – Ox Nché (Cell C Sharks) – 8 caps, 0pts

Replacements:

16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 45 caps, 50 pts (10t)

17 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 58 caps, 5pts (1t)

18 – Vincent Koch (Saracens) – 30 caps, 0 pts

19 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 50 caps, 5pts (1t)

20 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 10 caps, 0 pts

21 – Herschel Jantjies (DHL Stormers) – 20 caps, 25 pts (5t)

22 – Elton Jantjies (NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes) – 43 caps, 323 pts (2t, 65c, 60p, 1d)

23 – Frans Steyn (Toyota Cheetahs) – 73 caps, 147pts (11t, 7c, 23p, 3d)