Rassie backs 5-3 Bok bench for Twickenham match: ‘England are a different challenge’

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus named a largely full strength team along with a 5-3 bench split of forwards to backs for their end-of-year-tour game against England at Twickenham on Saturday night (kick-off 7:40pm).

Having surprised with a number of selections and a 7-1 ‘nuclear squad’ for their 32-15 opening tour win over Scotland at Murrayfield this past Sunday, Erasmus has brought back most of his frontline starters making 12 changes for the encounter against England.

The only real surprises in the starting XV are at flyhalf where Manie Libbok jumps Handre Pollard and at tighthead prop where Wilco Louw comes in, while RG Snyman at lock and Grant Williams at scrumhalf are surprises to a lesser extent.

Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi and Ox Nche are the only players to retain their place in the starting side, while captain Siya Kolisi returns, along with Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese in a powerful loose trio.

The backline sees most of the players that have done duty this season, in Aphelele Fassi, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende and Kurt-Lee Arendse all back, while Libbok and Williams are the only non-front liners in the mix.

Bench split

After the furore kicked up by the Boks naming a 7-1 bench split last weekend, Erasmus has shifted back to the traditional 5-3 split with Cobus Reinach, Pollard and Lukhanyo Am the back replacements.

The forwards who will be looking to make an impact when they come on are Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp, Vincent Koch, Elrigh Louw and Kwagga Smith.

This means the Boks will be backing their versatility as they haven’t named an out and out lock on the bench, with Du Toit possibly set to shift into the second row if needed during the game.

“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,” explained Erasmus on the team named and the bench split.

“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 are coming off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we understand 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 their last two results.”

The Boks have beaten England in their last two games, 16-15 in the semifinal of last year’s World Cup in France, and 27-13 in London in 2022.

England’s last win over the Boks came at Twickenham in 2021 when fullback Freddie Steward helped inspire them to a last gasp 27-26 win, with Marcus Smith slotting a penalty after the fulltime hooter.