Kwagga Smith will start at No 8 in his 50th Test as Eben Etzebeth captains a Springbok team that features seven forwards on the bench for the clash against Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday.
Smith earns his 50th Test cap when the world champions line up against Scotland at Murrayfield to begin the November tour.
Locks Franco Mostert and RG Snyman return to the green and gold after long spells on the sidelines due to injury in a strong team named by Rassie Erasmus, who picked Siya Kolisi on the bench and Etzebeth to lead.
The 31-year-old Smith, who made his Test debut against Wales in Washington D.C. in 2018 and went on to win two World Cup winner’s medals, starts this significant career milestone at the base of the scrum.
Mostert returns to the team for the first time since suffering a broken leg against Ireland in July, and Snyman is fully fit after a foot injury sustained in Australia in the build-up to the first Test against the Wallabies in the 2024 Rugby Championship, which ruled him out of the team’s triumphant campaign.
Erasmus opted for a split of seven forwards and one back on the bench, and made 11 changes to the starting team that defeated Argentina in their closing Rugby Championship clash in Nelspruit in September. Fourteen players in the match-day squad featured in that match against the Pumas.
There are 12 survivors in the 23 from the squad that last faced Scotland (in the pool stages of last year’s World Cup) – Mostert, Snyman, Etzebeth, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Marco van Staden, Jasper Wiese, Ox Nche, Grant Williams and Willie le Roux.
Smith starts his 50th Test in a loose trio with Elrigh Louw and Van Staden, while Mostert joins forces with Etzebeth, SA’s most-capped player of all time, in the engine room, where he will extend his record to 129 Test appearances.
There’s a completely new backline to the match-day team that beat the Pumas in Nelspruit, scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse alone retaining his place in the starting lineup.
Veteran Willie le Roux will take one more step toward reaching the exclusive group of Springbok centurions when he runs on at fullback in what will be his 98th Test match, while Makazole Mapimpi and Canan Moodie have been named as the wings, outside the midfield duo of Andre Esterhuizen and Lukhanyo Am.
Hendrikse, meanwhile, partners the experienced Handre Pollard in an exciting halfback pairing.
Erasmus loaded a heavy bench with the front row of Marx, Vincent Koch and Gerhard Steenekamp, Snyman providing lock cover and Kolisi, Du Toit and Wiese set to give the back row a boost.
Williams, who provides cover at scrumhalf and wing, is the only backline player among the replacements.
Springboks – 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Kwagga Smith, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth (c), 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Subs: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 22 Jasper Wiese, 23 Grant Williams.
Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images
