Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has made 12 changes in the starting XV team which defeated Scotland 32-15 last weekend.
This as he announced a strong 23 squad that will face England in London in their second match of the 2024 Castle Lager Outgoing Tour on Saturday.
Eben Etzebeth, Ox Nche and Bongi Mbonambi are the only players who retain their starting jerseys from the Scotland encounter.
“The turnaround between the Scotland and England Tests is short, so we had to be smart in our selection to enable us to field a fresh squad with only six days between two tough Test matches.
It obviously has a knock-on in effect in the sense that we’ve made 12 changes to the starting lineup, but we have been rotating our squad all season.
Over and above that most of these players know each other really well having played together for the last few seasons, as well as in the Rugby World Cup, the Castle Lager Incoming Series, and the Rugby Championship, so we are pleased with the quality of the team we’ve been able to name,” said Erasmus.
Wilco Louw returns to the team after three years absence and his inclusion sees RG Snyman Siyan Kolisi (captain), Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese brought into the starting line-up.
Grant Williams, Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel, Aphelele Fassi and Manie Libbok are also included in the starting line-up.
Erasmus said part of the selection was in response to the challenge he expects England to pose.
“England poses a completely different challenge to Scotland, and we selected our squad based on what we would like to do in the match and also what we think will be best to counter the challenge England poses.
Fortunately, we have quite a few players who can switch positions if necessary, so we feel we have adequate depth throughout the team, which allowed us to select this group of replacements.
England come off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we size of the challenge.
We lost narrowly to Ireland and France in back-to-back matches in 2022 and a year later were world champions so we know we shouldn’t read anything into the last two results,” warned the coach.
In the last six meetings between the teams, each has recorded three wins.
