{"id":117621,"date":"2025-09-04T06:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T06:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/117621\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T06:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T06:52:10","slug":"siya-kolisi-named-to-play-all-blacks-but-not-as-captain-for-springboks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/117621\/","title":{"rendered":"Siya Kolisi named to play All Blacks but not as captain for Springboks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Springboks have named their team to play the All Blacks<\/a> which includes inspirational icon Siya Kolisi<\/a>, but he hasn\u2019t been named as captain.<\/p>\n

Kolisi has been named at No.8 along with Marco van Staden<\/a> and Pieter-Steph du Toit<\/a> in the back row, a combination that has been regular in 2025.<\/p>\n

But the captaincy has been given to centre Jesse Kriel<\/a>, who lines up next to Damian de Allende<\/a> as usual in the Bok midfield. Sharks<\/a> midfielder Ethan Hooker<\/a> has been named in the 23 jersey.<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Johan Ackermann explains Marvin Orie\u2019s early departure from\u00a0the\u00a0Bulls<\/p>\n

\"VideoJohan Ackermann explains Marvin Orie\u2019s early departure from\u00a0the\u00a0Bulls<\/p>\n

Erasmus said the decision to give Kriel the captaincy was down to uncertainty around Kolisi\u2019s ability to play due to injury concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiya was touch and go for the match earlier in the week after picking up a niggle a few weeks ago, and we didn\u2019t want to risk him unnecessarily, but with Jean-Luc du Preez<\/a> having picked up a niggle at training this week, Siya was the obvious choice to slot in at No.8,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that stage, Jesse had already been told he would be the captain, and it was only fair for us to keep things that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great leader and one of the core players in our team. His communication with the referee and his teammates is good, and he leads by example in the way he plays, so he deserves this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other changes, Cheslin Kolbe<\/a> has moved across to the right wing where he will match up against Rieko Ioane. Kolbe has been playing on the left wing recently, but Canan Moodie<\/a> will play there this week.<\/p>\n

In the halves, Grant Williams<\/a> is paired with Handre Pollard<\/a> once again with Cobus Reinach<\/a> and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu<\/a> are named on the bench as replacements.<\/p>\n

Up front Eben Etzebeth<\/a> returns to the starting line-up along side Ruan Nortje<\/a> while Lood de Jager<\/a> is the lone lock on a 5-3 bench. Utility loose forward Kwagga Smith<\/a> is named as the back rower on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a few big scores between the sides in the past, but also many tight battles, so the most important aspects for us will be to execute our game plan as well as we can, fight fire with fire, and be effective in every aspect of our game,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery point will count in this match, so we need to be sharp mentally and physically, and ensure that we leave nothing out on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springbok team to face New Zealand:<\/p>\n

15 Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 100 caps, 75 pts (15t)
14 Cheslin Kolbe (Tokyo Sungoliath) \u2013 42 caps, 111 points (18t, 3c, 5p)
13 Jesse Kriel<\/a> (captain, Canon Eagles) \u2013 82 caps, 95 points (19t)
12 Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) \u2013 90 caps, 55 points (11t)
11 Canan Moodie (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 16 caps, 40 pts (8t)
10 Handre Pollard (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 83 caps, 812 points (8t, 122c, 171p, 5dg)
9 Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) \u2013 21 caps, 25 pts (5t)<\/p>\n

8 Siya Kolisi<\/a> (Hollywoodbets Sharks) \u2013 94 caps, 65 points (13t)
7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) \u2013 89 caps, 60 pts (12t)
6 Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 29 caps, 15 pts (3t)
5 Ruan Nortje (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 9 caps, 0 pts
4 Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks) \u2013 135 caps, 35 points (7t)
3 Thomas du Toit<\/a> (Bath) \u2013 26 caps, 5 pts (1t)
2 Malcolm Marx<\/a> (Kubota Spears) \u2013 80 caps, 115 pts (23t)
1 Ox Nche<\/a> (Hollywoodbets Sharks) \u2013 43 caps, 0 pts<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/p>\n

16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels<\/a> (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 5 caps, 10 pts (2t)
17 Boan Venter<\/a> (Edinburgh) \u2013 3 caps, 5 pts (1t)
18 Wilco Louw<\/a> (Vodacom Bulls) \u2013 20 caps, 0 pts
19 Lood de Jager (Wild Knights) \u2013 69 caps, 25 points (5t)
20 Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) \u2013 55 caps, 50 points (10t)
21 Cobus Reinach (DHL Stormers) \u2013 42 caps, 70 pts (14t)
22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers) \u2013 11 caps, 54 points (15c, 8p)
23 Ethan Hooker (Hollywoodbets Sharks) \u2013 1 cap, 0 points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Springboks have named their team to play the All Blacks which includes inspirational icon Siya Kolisi, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-117621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}