Esterhuizen To Lead Overhauled Boks Against Wallabies

Andre Esterhuizen will become the 68th player to captain the Springboks when he leads an overhauled team into battle in the one-off Test against Australia in Perth on Sunday.

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It will also be a special occasion for eighthman Jasper Wiese, who will earn his 50th Test cap off the replacements bench.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has made 13 changes to his starting team, with only lock Eben Etzebeth and wing Ethan Hooker retaining their places in the run-on team from the side’s 43-28 victory against the All Blacks just over a week ago in Baltimore, which saw them clinch the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry title.

Set to power the double world champions up front are Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar and Zachary Porthen. Etzebeth will join forces with Franco Mostert in the engine room, with Paul de Villiers, Elrigh Louw and Marco van Staden making up the loose trio. 

Veterans Herschel Jantjies and Handre Pollard form a new halfback pairing; Esterhuizen will wear the No. 12 jersey, partnering with Canan Moodie, while Hooker, Edwill van der Merwe and Aphelele Fassi form the back three.

Erasmus has opted for a traditional 5-3 split bench with Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx, Wilco Louw, Lood de Jager and Wiese primed to add power off the pine and Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Quan Horn set to add their playmaking prowess. 

Commenting on his selections, Erasmus said: “Each player in this squad has been working hard at training over the last few months and have had a chance to play in either the first leg of the Nations Championship or RGR, or both, while guys like Handre and Canan have recovered from injury, and they are all quality players, so we are pleased to give them a run and we are excited to see this team in action.

“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.

“We’ve been working closely with our Head of Athletic Performance Andy Edwards on how best to manage the players to get the most out of them in this important encounter, so we had a few days off for the players’ bodies to recover from the last few Tests and also from the travel, so we had two days of training in Terrigal and resumed our usual Test week programme on Tuesday.

“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.

“They also suffered a narrow defeat against Ireland in the Nations Championship and registered a comprehensive victory over Italy, and they will be playing in front of their home crowd, so we know a big game lies ahead.

“They are a proud nation and will certainly want to continue building momentum going into their next two clashes against the All Blacks and the second leg of the Nations Championship in November, so they are going to throw everything at us. Adding to that, they have physical forwards and a very exciting backline, so it will take another big performance from us to get the result.”

Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende were released from the camp, with Erasmus explaining, “They had a heavy workload in the last few months, and they deserve a break, but at the same time we decided from the outset that if everything went according to plan, we would rest them for this match, so it made sense to send them home to spend time with their families.”

Fast facts:

• Andre Esterhuizen will officially become the 68th Springbok captain in history when he leads the team onto the park at the Optus Stadium.
  
• Eben Etzebeth will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok of all time to 147 Test matches.
  
• Jasper Wiese will earn his 50th Test cap after making his international debut against Georgia at Loftus Versfeld in 2021.
  
• 2025 World Rugby and SA Rugby Player of the Year Malcom Marx requires only six more appearances after this encounter to join the exclusive club of players to earn 100 Test caps.
  
• Franco Mostert will play in his first Test since the Outgoing Tour Test against Wales last November.
  
• South Africa have won five of their last six Test matches against Australia dating back to September 2022. Their only defeat was a 38-22 loss against the Wallabies in Johannesburg during the Rugby Championship last season.
  
• The Springboks have only faced the Wallabies in Perth 10 times in history – the last of which was in 2024 when the Boks won by 30-12 – with both sides winning four matches each, and the two other matches finishing in a draw.
  
• The total Test caps for the Springbok starting line-up are 527.
  
• There are 210 caps in the backline, with 317 caps amongst the forwards. On the bench, there are a further 342 caps.
  
•  The average caps per player in the backline are 30, the forwards 40, while the players on the bench average 43.

South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen (c), 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marco van Staden, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Zachary Porthen, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels.

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Quan Horn.