Salmaan Moerat (centre) will captain the Springboks for the first time in their one-off Test against Portugal in Bloemfontein on Saturday. His teammate Ben-Jason Dixon (left) will also make his first Bok start in the match. On the right is Frans Malherbe, who is being rested this week. Picture: Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images
Salmaan Moerat will take over the Springbok captaincy for the first time when he leads a squad featuring seven uncapped players in a first Test with emerging nation Portugal in the final match of the Incoming Series in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus included all seven of the uncapped players in his training squad for the historic Test, which will also be the first time the Boks have been refereed by a woman, with Scotland’s Hollie Davidson taking the whistle.
The uncapped players in the starting lineup are former Junior Springbok captain Phepsi Buthelezi, Johan Grobbelaar and Jan-Hendrik Wessels, while Andre-Hugo Venter, Ruan Venter, Morne van den Berg and Quan Horn could be in line to make their Test debuts from the replacements’ bench.
The 26-year-old Moerat becomes the 66th Springbok captain – and the third in four tests this year – as he makes the step up having previously led SA Schools, the Junior Springboks and the Stormers.
Only four players in the team were retained from Saturday’s match-23 against Ireland, namely Kurt-Lee Arendse, RG Snyman, Moerat, and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Portugal have been steadily climbing the world rankings, rising from 27th at the start of 2019 to their present ranking of 15th, and made a notable impression at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
“Portugal are a quality team as we saw with their victory against Fiji in the Rugby World Cup, while they also drew their clash against Georgia 18-18,” said Erasmus.
“It was important for us to select a quality team with a bunch of experienced players, while at the same time delivering on our objective of growing our squad depth by naming a few debutants.”
Erasmus said he was pleased to be able to hand the captaincy to Moerat, whose track record as a captain was a testament of his abilities as a fine leader.
“Salmaan commands respect from his teammates, so we’d like to congratulate him on this achievement, and we have no doubt that he’ll take on this responsibility as well as he has for the other teams he has led,” said Erasmus.
“He has come through the SA Rugby ranks and he went on to captain the Junior Springboks and SA Schools teams, as well as the Stormers and Western Province, which speaks volumes about his quality as a player and a captain.”
The match marks the first appearance of the Test season for Rugby World Cup winners Lukhanyo Am, Manie Libbok, Cobus Reinach, Trevor Nyakane and Thomas du Toit.
Aphelele Fassi, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Makazole Mapimpi, Manie Libbok, Cobus Reinach, Evan Roos, Ben-Jason Dixon, Phepsi Buthelezi, RG Snyman, Salmaan Moerat (c), Thomas du Toit, Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Bench: Andre-Hugo Venter, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Trevor Nyakane, Ruan Venter, Elrigh Louw, Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Quan Horn
