Springboks and Dricus capture Perth

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Australia’s Perth has been turned into a South African city the last few days.

Perth is home to a number of South African expats, but there was certainly the smell of boerewors on the braai in the air and more than the occasional South African flag and Springbok jersey doing the rounds in Perth this week.

The Springboks, fresh from last week’s 33-7 demolition of the Wallabies in Brisbane, face the same opponents in Perth at midday today in the Rugby Championship, while Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis is looking to defend his title against former champion Israel Adesanya of Nigeria in the early hours of tomorrow morning – also in the Western Australian city.

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Bok skipper Siya Kolisi and veteran lock Eben Etzebeth are expected to walk out with Du Plessis tomorrow morning.

The South African “brotherhood” has been strong this week with the Boks and Du Plessis sharing some time together and Afrikaans singer Ricus Nel singing a few tunes as they all prepared for their contests.

There’s also plenty on line for Du Plessis as Dana White, UFC CEO, revealed this week that if the man from Pretoria wins they will take his next title fight to South Africa.

Du Plessis said: “I am here to take care of business and my business is winning – not defending this belt. Winning.”

The Springboks have made 10 changes to their starting line-up for today’s clash as part of their plan to build squad depth for the 2027 World Cup.

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They’ve copped some flak for the decision, but they still have 419 caps on the bench – 87 more than in their starting XV.

Salmaan Moerat, captaining the team for the second time, said: “Australia will be desperate to turn things around and we are well aware of that. So our challenge will be to be equally as desperate, if not more desperate, on Saturday.

“One thing that’s for certain is that everyone in this team is desperate for this chance and they want to cement their places in the squad.”

Dricus and the Boks – the nation is behind you.