Springboks team v All Blacks

A win for South Africa on Saturday in Cape Town will see them edge closer to winning the Rugby Championship and deny the All Blacks the title and with that in mind, Erasmus has added fresh faces to his team.

The squad features 19 Rugby World Cup winners in total, with the only four players in the matchday 23 who did not participate in the tournament last year being Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw and Steenekamp.

Captain Siya Kolisi has recovered from the facial injury he sustained at Ellis Park and skippers the team from the back-row along with number eight Jasper Wiese and Pieter-Steph du Toit – who shifts from lock to his usual position.

In the locks, Eben Etzebeth reclaims the starting number four jersey and will take his Test cap tally to 126 – just one shy of the all-time Bok record of 127 held by Victor Matfield. He partners Nortje who earns his third consecutive start while Ben-Jason Dixon makes way for du Toit at flank and drops out of the team entirely.

The front row is unchanged with Ox Nche at loosehead, Bongi Mbonambi at hooker and Frans Malherbe at tighthead.

There are further changes in the backline as the hugely impressive Grant Williams earns his first start of the year at scrum-half having shone off the bench and scored the match-winning try last time out. He partners Handre Pollard in the halfbacks with the double World Cup-winning number ten replacing breakout star Feinberg-Mngomezulu who takes up a spot on the bench.

Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel earn their 33rd start together in the centres while the injury to Kurt-Lee Arendse has caused a shuffle in the back three. Cheslin Kolbe switches from the right wing to the left with Canan Moodie starting in the number 14 jersey – earn his first cap of 2024. Finally, Aphelele Fassi drops out of the matchday 23 after two standout shifts at fullback with Willie Le Roux taking up the number 15 jumper.

There are changes to the bench too as Erasmus has ditched the 6-2 split and opted for the more conventional 5-3 but in doing so has welcomed the return of 2023 World Cup winner Jaden Hendrikse and star centre Lukhanyo Am who provide backline cover with Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp and Vincent Koch will provide impact in the front row while Kwagga Smith and Louw are the other forward replacements.

Meanwhile, Makazole Mapimpi, Steven Kitshoff and Ben-Jason Dixon have been released for Currie Cup duty. Mapimpi was tipped to fill Arendse’s void but he spent the week in KwaZulu-Natal for the birth of his child and will remain in the province where he will be available for selection for the Sharks XV.

Rassie pleased by Kolisi’s avaliability

With the Boks able to take a step closer to winning the tournament, Erasmus was wary of looking too far ahead.

“This match is going to be massive,” said Erasmus.

“New Zealand are a world-class outfit and we know that they’ll be desperate to bounce back after leading in the second half last week.”

He added: “It would be fantastic to achieve that [win the tournament] as a team, but if you look too far ahead it comes back to bite you.

“The focus for us all week is to try to deliver the best possible performance we can against New Zealand and to correct the wrongs of last week.

“New Zealand have not been the best team in the world for some many years for nothing. They’re a formidable team and they’ve shown in the past against us that you never write them off. We saw how they bounced back against Argentina after losing their first match of the tournament.

“They’ll also be motivated by the fact that Cape Town has been a good hunting ground for them; they’ll be inspired to make a strong statement this week.

“Like us, they’ve a lot to play for, so we know it’ll be as intense and as tight as it ever has been between us. It’s going to take another hard grind for the full 80 minutes.