Siya's achilles keeps him out as Jesse becomes Bok captain 67

Springbok midfielder Jesse Kriel’s audition as captain of the Springboks was a successful one last weekend against the Barbarians, so much so that he will lead the side into battle and officially become the 67th captain as the Boks went as close to full strength as possible for their first test against Italy at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Kriel is in because regular captain Siya Kolisi, who withdrew from last weekend’s match on the eve of the game with a stiff neck, is still struggling with a few niggles, but there is little cause for concern in the Bok camp at the moment.

Coach Rassie Erasmus said that Kolisi had a stiff achilles, and it was decided as a precaution to keep him out of the game and let Marco van Staden, who came in at the last minute for him last week, start again for his 26th test match.

𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Rassie Erasmus names his Springbok team to face Italy at Loftus on Saturday 🇿🇦🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/yRVjIE0GtH
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 1, 2025

“Yeah, just a bit of a stiff neck,” Erasmus explained about the injury that kept Kolisi out last weekend.

“It was nothing serious. That's all cleared up now. But he has a bit of Achilles, not a strain at all. He's just really stiff there, so we just want to make sure.

“Overall, most of the players, I don't think there's a player that will play more than eight or nine matches for us this year. So, we’d rather make sure that Achilles is 100 per cent ready. But it's nothing serious. The scans, everything shows that it is clear. We're just careful with him.”

FIRST TEST FOR TSHITUKA

The Boks will hand an official start to Vincent Tshituka after he played his first match for the Green and Gold last weekend while there are returns for Handre Pollard and Damian Willemse in the backline, and a start for Morne van den Berg.

Up front Lood de Jager makes an official return to test rugby after two years on the sidelines, while Wilco Louw is at tighthead after a URC season where he was sensational.

Back together again 🤝

For the first time since July 2023, Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth will be the Springbok starting lock combination. #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/zAwUps4xQB
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 1, 2025

Erasmus explained that the selection was because it was the first test match of the season and the Boks wanted to set the tone for the year.

“It's the first test. Last week was a Barbarian match. We would like to set the tone,” said Erasmus.

“Obviously Italy, there's some guys that are a bit unknown to us. We could analyse them from the Six Nations and what they did last year. But there's a few guys we don't know, so we're not 100 per cent sure what they'll dish up.

“But to have steady hands and a steady start and hopefully a good start. We gave some other guys a chance last week and hopefully next week we can also and then against Georgia as well. It’s more just to steady the boat for the first test match.”

🗣️ "It's not a conservative team contrary to what people are saying."

Rassie Erasmus explains his team selection for the Italy test at Loftus this weekend.#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/AnbDgvmYer
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 1, 2025

KRIEL CAPTAINCY DESERVED

Erasmus said that Kriel would stay on the field for the full 80 and that swayed the decision to give him the captaincy ahead of Eben Etzebeth, who has captained the side before.

“I think the more we can spread it around, we don't want to hand out captaincies like it's something that people don't deserve. But I think Jesse is somebody that thoroughly deserves that.

“The more we get guys like that, understanding what a captain needs when he's not captain, the better it is. We know what we always get out of Eben. Eben probably won't go 80.

“We hope that Jesse can go 80. Not that Eben won't make it 80, but we know he'll probably make a sub there somewhere between him and Lood. We'd like to have the captain on the field.

“We know Siya, we know he understands the bomb squad and all of those things. Now we have some nice continuity with Jesse and he's always been a leader and he did really well for us last week in that game, controlling the game with all the other senior players in the team.

“So it's a nice opportunity for him to captain in a test match.”

The match kicks off at 5:10pm CAT (SA, GMT+2) and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.

SPRINGBOK TEAM TO FACE ITALY IN PRETORIA:

15 Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 39 caps, 56 points (4t, 9c, 4p, 2 dg)

14 Cheslin Kolbe (Tokyo Sungoliath) – 40 caps, 111 points (18t, 3c, 5p)

13 Jesse Kriel (captain, Canon Eagles) – 79 caps, 90 points (18t)

12 Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 87 caps, 55 points (11t)

11 Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 24 caps, 90 points (18t)

10 Handre Pollard (Vodacom Bulls) – 80 caps, 772 points (7t, 109c, 168p, 5dg)

9 Morne van den Berg (Emirates Lions) – 2 caps, 0 points

8 Jasper Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks) – 34 caps, 10 points (2t)

7 Vincent Tshituka (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – uncapped