Following confirmation of the Springboks’ 26-man squad to face Argentina on Saturday, August 8, here are our five key takeaways from Rassie Erasmus’ selection.
Final Test means final test
There is no escaping the looming shadow of the upcoming Greatest Rivalry series, but the players selected in the squad for the final Test before that gets underway have one final chance to impress.
Erasmus himself has made that clear, detailing that this is an opportunity to give those who didn’t get too much game time during the Nations Championship some minutes in the Green and Gold jersey.
“We tried to get the balance right between giving some guys who are returning from injury and who have not had too much game time in our last four matches a valuable run against Argentina,” he said.
“While at the same time managing the players who have played a lot of rugby this year.
“The guys who have recovered from their injuries have been training hard this week and are ready to go, so it will be great for them to get a tough Test match under the belt before we face New Zealand.”
His 26-man squad is littered with players who are on the cusp of selection in what you would call the Boks’ ‘A team’, players like Ben-Jason Dixon, Elrigh Louw, Cameron Hanekom, Quan Horn, Edwill van der Merwe, among others.
It is by no means a sympathy inclusion, though; after all, Argentina ran the Springboks close in the 2025 Rugby Championship and will come into the Test with a point to prove after a difficult Nations Championship, but it feels like a final round of auditions to make the cut for the Greatest Rivalry Tests.
If they get it right, they could lock themselves into the 23 for the opener against the All Blacks.
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry shoe-ins
Almost in the same breath, you get an idea who is already nestled into Erasmus’ plans for the opening Test on Saturday, August 22.
Manie Libbok has not been included in the initial squad, with both Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu heading to South America. Pieter-Steph du Toit, Paul de Villiers and Jasper Wiese, the starting back-row from the Nations Championship, also seem to have been given a rest with Dixon, E. Louw and Hanekom involved for this standalone Test.
Elsewhere, Malcolm Marx, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Damian de Allende are also missing, while Cheslin Kolbe, Damian Willemse, Jesse Kriel, and Ruan Nortje were namechecked in the official squad announcement as returning to camp on Sunday to begin preparations for the Greatest Rivalry series.
Look, there is the obvious point of Erasmus’ constant rotation between Tests, but when you factor in the ideas above and the fact that a large chunk of the players left at home hold two World Cup winners’ medals and a bagful of caps, it paints a picture that the Boks boss already has a fair idea of what his 23-man squad will be at Ellis Park.
Utility options tried out
When you look deeper into the squad selection, there becomes a theme of genuine utility options right across the 26-man group.
In the forwards, that is clear when you think about the depth at hooker. Johan Grobbelaar is the only out-and-out hooker in the initial touring party, with utility men Jan-Hendrick Wessels and Marco van Staden giving cover alongside their ability to play loosehead and flanker, respectively. Thomas du Toit is also an option on either side of the scrum.
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Van der Merwe is the only out-and-out winger in the backs unit, with utility options Ethan Hooker and Canan Moodie primed to feature out wide if needed.
Horn can cover both fly-half and full-back if needed, while Andre Esterhuizen gives Erasmus a touch more freedom, both within the run-on group and the bench, with his ability to play in the centres and back-row.
The Boks are never too wary about moving their utility men around; if anything, they lean into it, and this is yet another example of how Erasmus is likely to test out his options and see how they go.
Back to prove a point
The headline news out of the initial 26-man squad was the returns of quintet Siya Kolisi, Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, and Morne van den Berg, but it won’t be a procession for them. They will have to prove a point if they want to nail down their shirts once again.
To say the bulk of them have credit in the bank would be an understatement. Kolisi has captained this side to back-to-back World Cup triumphs and is a huge figurehead within the group, while Etzebeth is also one of Erasmus’ key generals. Around them, Feinberg-Mngomezulu has emerged as the de facto starting fly-half over the past two years, De Jager boasts a World Cup winner’s medal and Van den Berg was building a strong head of steam at Test level in 2025.
But they come back into a changed squad, and crucially with increased competition. The aforementioned De Villiers looked every inch a Test player during the Nations Championship, despite it being his maiden campaign in the Green and Gold jersey, and that form has led to calls for him to start in place of Kolisi in the upcoming Greatest Rivalry series.
Etzebeth’s and De Jager’s absence only compounded a growing lock crisis, but the performances of Nortje and Cobus Wiese quickly swept that under the carpet, while also giving Pieter-Steph du Toit some minutes in the engine room as well to extend the chart out a bit for next month’s festivities.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Van den Berg are certainly ‘Tony-ball’ players, but the likes of Libbok, Cobus Reinach, Grant Williams and even debutant Vusi Moyo showed they can deliver the same sort of attacking style during the Nations Championship.
The probable conclusion to this story is that they will all put on strong displays and make sure of their starting spots for Ellis Park in August, but you feel that’s exactly what they need to do.
It’s a sign of a really, really strong squad when you can have some of the best players in the world needing to perform well to guarantee their starting spots to take on the All Blacks.
Not short of scrum-halves
While the utility men might be tested out in other positions, Erasmus is not messing around at scrum-half with Van den Berg, Herschel Jantjies and Reinach all headed to South America.
It might feel slightly odd on paper to bring all three, considering they will likely play two of them against Los Pumas, but it’s got purpose behind it.
It feels Williams has the starting shirt sewn up looking towards the Greatest Rivalry series, but underneath that, it’s pretty open. Picking all three in this squad, therefore, will just give Erasmus another chance to get a look at his wider options in isolation, in a smaller squad and in a Test environment should they get the nod, and that could be crucial moving forward.
READ MORE: Springboks squad: Siya Kolisi among five key returnees for Argentina Test