Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has diverted from his usual policy of naming his team early in the week as the buildup to Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series kick-off ratchets up several notches ahead of Saturday’s opening test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park.
Instead of announcing on Tuesday, as has been the case during most of the Erasmus era as Bok coach or SA Rugby director of rugby, or on Monday as was the case during the recent home leg of the Nations Championship, the team to take on New Zealand will be announced on Thursday afternoon.
Of course, that is not unprecedented, and it has happened before games against the All Blacks before, and makes perfect sense given the options that Erasmus has at his disposal when it comes to selections and also the uncertainty over the fitness of some key players after the Boks concluded a perfect buildup to the series with their win over Argentina in Buenos Aires.
Regular captain Siya Kolisi is understood to be touch-and-go in his readiness to lead the team. If he doesn't play, the emerging star of the initial stages of the Boks' 2026 campaign, Paul de Villiers, is favourite to wear the No 6.
The bulldozing loosehead prop Ox Nche, the undeniable best player in his position in world rugby, has not played since he was injured in the first half of the opening Championship match in Johannesburg in early July.
But he’s understood to be back in the frame for a return, with a call to be made at the start of the week. It is possible that the Boks will head into the series at full strength, with the only missing players from the group that have set up a winning culture for the South African national team over the past few years being the long term injured duo of RG Snyman and Kwagga Smith.
The Bok full-strength team would not divert much from the one that was selected for the England game on 4 July, but which was changed late due to the injury concerns over Eben Etzebeth and Kolisi. But there again, there is so much depth that it is impossible to say for sure which way Erasmus might go when it comes to some areas, in particular flyhalf.
WILL IT BE SACHA OR MANIE
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu ended last year rated by many as the top flyhalf in world rugby. However, the injury sustained playing for the Stormers against Cardiff in the Vodacom URC quarterfinal put Feinberg-Mngomezulu out of the Nations Championship games as well as the non-cap international against the Barbarians in Gqeberha that started the Boks’ season.
He returned for the Buenos Aires game and was on the field for the entire 80 minutes, just switching positions for a bit in the second half. He wasn’t completely accurate, most notably with his field kicking game, but that should have been expected given his layoff of nearly three months. The most important thing was that he got through the game, which he did.
The smart money should be on Feinberg-Mngomezulu wearing the No 10 at Ellis Park, as he did the last time the Boks played New Zealand there in 2024. Yet if you look at the most emphatic performances turned in by the Boks against the All Blacks in the last few seasons, it has usually involved Manie Libbok either starting or playing most of the game.
When the Boks won 35-7 against their greatest rivals in London in the build-up to the 2023 World Cup, Libbok was wearing the No 10. When the Boks beat that record win by thumping the Kiwis 43-10 in Wellington last September, Feinberg-Mngomezulu started but he left the field injured after the first quarter and it was Libbok on the field when the Boks ran riot in the second half.
Which has been the case for several other big Bok wins, including the thumping win in Mbombela over Argentina that clinched the Boks the Rugby Championship title in 2024.
When it comes to the aforementioned comprehensive victories over the All Blacks, Libbok didn’t have the regular midfield partnership of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel alongside him, but Andre Esterhuizen and Canan Moodie in London 2023 and Damian Willemse and Moodie in Wellington last year.
SMART MONEY ON MOST EXPERIENCED TEAM STARTING
Again, the smart money should be on Erasmus going for his most experienced team to start the series, but he has options and that means he can keep the All Blacks guessing. Which he will do until Thursday.
But that doesn’t mean, as some New Zealand pundits might like to think, that Erasmus doesn’t know his team. The fitness calls that need to be made early this week aside, he knows exactly what his plan is for Saturday and what personnel he will draw on, with possible changes of selection coming the following week depending on the Ellis Park result.
He doesn’t need to let the All Blacks know what those plans are, so it makes complete sense that this week we will have to wait before we know that the Kiwis will be facing in Johannesburg.