South Africa makes 13 changes to its starting side for rugby test against Australia
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
PERTH, Australia (AP) — South Africa has made wholesale changes — a total of 13 — to its starting lineup for Sunday’s one-off rugby test against the Wallabies in Perth, Western Australia.
Only lock Eben Etzebeth and winger Ethan Hooker retained their starting roles from the team that beat the All Blacks 43-28 at Baltimore to seal a 3-1 series win in the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
Etzebeth will extend his record as the most capped Springbok of all time to 147 test matches.
Props Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Zachary Porthen will join forces with hooker Johan Grobbelaar in a new-look front row, while two-time World Cup-winning flyhalf Handre Pollard returns from a calf injury to form a new halves pairing with fit-again scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies.
Centre Andre Esterhuizen has been named skipper, making him South Africa’s 68th captain.
Lock Franco Mostert will play his first test since facing Wales last November.
Despite the mass changes, only three players named in the starting lineup have fewer than 10 test caps — winger Edwill van der Merwe, lock Paul de Villiers and prop Porthen.
“Australia poses a completely different threat to New Zealand in the way they play, so we believe these combinations would be best suited for the challenge that we will face against them,” South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus said.
“This is going to be a big challenge against a team that has been playing good rugby, and who have won four of their last five matches, with their other result being a draw against the Pumas in Argentina.”
Erasmus had no second thoughts about allowing veteran duo Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende to return home so they could spend time with family.
“They had a heavy workload in the last few months, and they deserve a break,” Erasmus said.
___
SOUTH AFRICA: Aphelele Fassi, Edwill van der Merwe, Canan Moodie, Andre Esterhuizen (captain), Ethan Hooker, Handre Pollard, Herschel Jantjies, Marco van Staden, Elrigh Louw, Paul de Villiers, Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Zachary Porthen, Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Reserves: Malcolm Marx, Ox Nche, Wilco Louw, Lood de Jager, Jasper Wiese, Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Quan Horn.
___
See AP’s full rugby coverage here