Boks Name All New Rookie Front Row For Georgia Clash  

Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe, and Neethling Fouche will make their Springbok debuts in a pack headlined by the return from injury of Siya Kolisi, who takes over the captaincy for the first time this season.

Venter was called up to the squad as injury cover last month, while Van der Merwe and Fouche featured in the national team for the first time in the 54-7 victory over the Barbarians in the non-capped season opener.

They will increase the number of newly-capped players this season to seven after Vincent Tshituka (flanker), Cobus Wiese (utility forward), Asenathi Ntlabakanye (prop), and Ethan Hooker (utility back) all made their Test debuts during the two-match series against Italy.

The most-capped Springbok of all time, Eben Etzebeth, joins Ruan Nortje in the second row, while Cobus Wiese makes his run-on debut in a back row that includes Kolisi and 2024 World Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit.

Jasper Wiese will play no part in the game as he’s been handed a four-match suspension for his head-butt on Danilo Fischetti last weekend. The ban will also rule him out of the first three Rugby Championship Tests, against Australia in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively (16 and 23 August), and the first game against New Zealand in Auckland (6 September).

Meanwhile, Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu make up the halfback combination, Damian de Allende and Canan Moodie form a powerhouse centre pairing, while Edwill van der Merwe, Man of the Match in last weekend’s 45-0 shutout of the Azzurri, Kurt-Lee Arendse, and Aphelele Fassi round out the starting XV.

Rassie Erasmus has gone with a traditional five-three split in favour of the forwards on the replacements bench, where Thomas du Toit, Bongi Mbonambi, and Vincent Koch will serve as the impact front row, along with RG Snyman and Kwagga Smith.

The experienced Faf de Klerk, Handre Pollard, and Damian Willemse are the backline replacements. The inclusion of Kolisi and Venter in the squad increases the size of the group used by Erasmus so far this season to 46 players.

Fast facts:

• It will be the Georgians’ second trip to South Africa to face the Springboks – the same number of times the nations have met to date. Their first outing was in the pool stages of the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia where the Springboks won 46-19, and the second time in Pretoria in 2021 when the Boks registered a 40-9 victory.
• Eben Etzebeth will extend his record as the most capped Springbok of all time to 133 Test matches when he takes the field.
• This match will mark Siya Kolisi’s first match back in the green and gold in the 2025 season.
• Kurt-Lee Arendse requires only five more points to score 100 Test points for the Springboks.
• Kolisi will require only seven more Test appearances after this match to become the ninth Springbok in the history of South African rugby to earn 100 Test caps.
• The total Test caps for the Springbok starting line-up is 484.
• There are 165 caps in the backline, with 319 caps amongst the forwards. On the bench, there are a further 437 caps.
• The average caps per player in the backline are 24, the forwards 40, while the players on the bench average 55.

South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Cobus Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Neethling Fouché, 2 Marnus van der Merwe, 1 Boan Venter.

Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Faf de Klerk, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 Damian Willemse.