De Allende, Kriel to make history as Boks unchanged for second Ireland Test

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has named his team for the second Test against Ireland to be played in Durban, at 5pm, on Saturday.

The Boks go into the match on the back of a 27-20 win against the Six Nations winners at Loftus in Pretoria last Saturday.

It is an unchanged team named by Erasmus, making it the most experienced Bok side ever to take the field.

There will be a total of 990 combined Test caps among the starting players, surpassing the 987 caps amassed by the run-on team in the Rugby World Cup final against New Zealand in France last year.

Furthermore, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel will become the most-capped centre pairing in South African history on Saturday when they combine in the midfield for the 30th time in Tests. They’ll pass the previous mark set by Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie of 29 Tests.

Improved performance

Erasmus said he hoped for a more clinical performance from his charges this week, following a mixed bag showing in the match at Loftus.

“It’s always tough facing Ireland,” said Erasmus. “They are a quality team, they are ranked second in the world, and as we saw last week, they never stop fighting, so we know the magnitude of the challenge that awaits us this weekend.

“We have no doubt they’ll come out even stronger this week, but we also identified the areas of the game that we need to improve on, and it’s vital for us to build on our performance in our quest to win both matches.”

Bok team for second Test:

Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Handré Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Kwagga Smith, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (capt), Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Bench: Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp, Vincent Koch, Salmaan Moerat, RG Snyman, Marco van Staden, Grant Williams, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu