Rassie Erasmus names powerful Springboks squad with one surprise for Rugby Championship
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and lock Ruan Nortje.
Siya Kolisi will captain the Springboks’ 33-man squad for their upcoming Rugby Championshp campaign which kicks off against the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday, 10 August.
Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus has included 22 Rugby World Cup winners in the squad while five players who made their Test debuts in 2024 – Jan-Hendrik Wessels (utility forward), Johan Grobbelaar (hooker), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (utility back), Ben-Jason Dixon (utility forward) and Morne van den Berg (scrum-half) – have also been called up.
One newcomer in the squad
The only newcomer to the group is Bulls second-row Ruan Nortje, who has one Springbok cape after making his Test debut against Wales in 2022 and he also played for the South Africa ‘A’ side in November that year.
All the other players were in action during the Boks‘ four Tests of the season against Wales at Twickenham or during the recent Incoming Series – against Ireland in Pretoria and Durban as well as Portugal in Bloemfontein.
The following players were not considered for selection due to injury or rehab: Jean Kleyn, Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert (all locks), Steven Kitshoff (prop), Faf de Klerk, Jaden Hendrikse, Herschel Jantjies (scrum-halves), Canan Moodie, (utility back), Edwill van der Merwe (wing) and Damian Willemse (utility back).
Meanwhile, Jasper Wiese (number eight) is suspended and Andre Esterhuizen (centre) awaits a disciplinary hearing after his dismissal in Saturday’s 64-21 win over Portugal on Saturday.
“This is a quality group of players, which includes a mixture of youth and experience, and we believe this is the best group of players we could select for this tough assignment in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship,” said Erasmus.
“We rested some players before the match against Portugal to recharge for this competition and we are excited to see the energy they’ll bring back to the squad. We’ve also included a few younger players who made a strong statement in the Tests we played so far this season.
“The injury to Franco Mostert opened the door for Ruan Nortje to make his comeback to the national team, and he brings a different type of experience as the captain of the Vodacom Bulls.”
He prasied the younger players in his squad for the strong statement they made this season, and said he is looking forward to seeing what they had to offer in what will be a vastly different challenge against the Wallabies, All Blacks, and Los Pumas.
“We were very impressed with the likes of Salmaan Moerat (who became the 66th Springbok captain against Os Lobos), Dixon, Grobbelaar, Wessels and Feinberg-Mngomezulu when they received a chance to play this season,” said Erasmus.
“While this may be a very different challenge to facing Wales, Ireland and Portugal, we have full faith in the players to make another big step-up against the southern hemisphere teams, who play a different type of rugby to the sides we’ve faced up to now.
“As always there are a number of unlucky players, but we could only select a squad of 33 to travel to Australia.
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“The players excluded from the squad will be available for selection for their respective clubs, but we explained to them before we departed Bloemfontein that this squad is not necessarily the same group that will be selected for the matches against New Zealand and Argentina, so they have been put on specialised conditioning programmes to ensure they are ready should they get the call-up.”
The Bok boss is expecting a challenging Rugby Championship campaign and added: “We faced New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final and won by a point, and we all know how tough the competition and rivalry is between the teams.
“Australia are also a quality team, and we’ve seen historically that are a force to be reckoned at home, while Argentina are a physical and competitive team and always push us to the limit, so we are under no illusions about what lies ahead.
“But we’re also excited to launch this new edition of the tournament and test ourselves against the southern hemisphere sides once again.”
South Africa will take on Australia in Brisbane and Perth on August 10 and 17 respectively, before returning home to play back-to-back matches against New Zealand on August 31 in Johannesburg, and September 7in Cape Town.
They will then take a short trip to Santiago to face Argentina on September 21, before finishing the competition in Nelspruit against Los Pumas on September 28.
The Boks will then travel to the UK for their traditional northern hemisphere tour in November where they will take on Scotland (November 10), England (November 16) and Wales (November 23).
The year-end tour will be preceded by a one-week training camp in Jersey – one of the largest of the Channel Islands between England and France – where the Boks will have the luxury of acclimatising to the conditions, while at the same time focussing on their conditioning and preparation for the tour.
The Rugby Championship squad will assemble in Johannesburg on Sunday for a short preparation camp before flying out to Australia on Wednesday, July 31.
Springbok squad for the 2024 Rugby Championship
Forwards: Ben-Jason Dixon (DHL Stormers), Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), Thomas du Toit (Bath), Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Johan Grobbelaar (Vodacom Bulls), Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Siya Kolisi (captain – Racing 92), Elrigh Louw (Vodacom Bulls), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Salmaan Moerat (DHL Stormers), Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Ruan Nortje (Vodacom Bulls), Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs), RG Snyman (Leinster), Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls), Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls), Jan-Hendrik Wessels (Vodacom Bulls)
Backs: Lukhanyo Am (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls), Damian de Allende (Wild Knights), Aphelele Fassi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers), Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath), Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles), Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls), Makazole Mapimpi (Hollywoodbets Sharks), Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers), Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier), Morne van den Berg (Emirates Lions), Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks)
