JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov 14 – World champions South Africa have made 12 changes to their starting XV for Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series match with England at Allianz Stadium.
Captain Siya Kolisi and former world player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit return in the back row, while winger Cheslin Kolbe is also named in the side.
However, despite fielding seven forwards on the bench in the 32-15 win over Scotland, head coach Rassie Erasmus has opted for a conventional five forwards-three backs split among his replacements.
England are set to name their matchday squad at 13:30 GMT.
South Africa beat England 16-15 after a late Handre Pollard penalty in their last meeting in the 2023 World Cup semi-final.
The Boks squad includes 15 players who faced Steve Borthwick’s side in Paris, with Leicester Tigers fly-half Pollard among the replacements.
“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,” said Erasmus.
“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 have lost their past four matches, including narrow defeats in their opening two autumn Tests against New Zealand and Australia.
Erasmus, however, says past results count for nothing when the two sides renew their rivalry in London.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Erasmus added: “If you have the right players and the right management, it can galvanise the team, especially if you have two close games like that.
“Our reality is we are playing England, who we seldom beat here. We are expecting a team that will be really tight and will play for their coaching staff. They believe fully they can beat us.”
Erasmus added: “England come off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we know the 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.”
South Africa: Fassi; Kolbe, Kriel, De Allende, Arendse; Libbok, Williams; Nche, Mbonambi, Loux, Etzebeth, Snyman, Kolisi (capt), Du Toit, Wiese.
Replacements: Marx, Steenekamp, Koch, Louw, Smith, Reinach, Pollard, Am
