Rassie Erasmus <\/a>reacted overnight to their heaviest defeat at Ellis Park to New Zealand with four changes to the starting XV \u2014 the fewest changes he’s made this year \u2014 and brought in five new reserves.<\/p>\nSiya Kolisi was bracketed with Paul de Villiers in the only (possible) change to the forward pack, Handr\u00e9 Pollard and Cobus Reinach were the new halves, and winger Ethan Hooker replaced an injured Cheslin Kolbe.<\/p>\n
1News’ Andrew Saville weighs in on Richie Mo’unga’s return to the All Blacks after nearly three years away. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n
Onto another bench split 6-2 came hooker hybrid Deon Fourie, prop Thomas du Toit, lock Lood de Jager, flanker Cameron Hanekom, and scrumhalf Morn\u00e9 van den Berg. All bar Fourie were involved in the 17-10 win over Argentina on August 9.<\/p>\n
Erasmus believed South Africa did enough in the first hour to win at Ellis Park. It dominated the scrums and mauls and owned the sky. But it failed to convert numerous chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the things we inflicted on ourselves, and that’s frustrating,\u201d Erasmus said. “We are irritated with each other inside the camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got a big hiding of 17 points. When they got the two, three opportunities, like New Zealand most of the years in the past, they converted.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Fabian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fabian-holland-on-his-way-to-scoring-a-try-against-the-sprin-EXP7RUSTV5CUHMJVSQZDO7WXVQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Fabian Holland on his way to scoring a try against the Springboks at Ellis Park. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n
The bench didn’t have the impact he expected because the starters didn’t take their chances, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur plans didn’t work, and that’s on me,” Erasmus said. “They, and I’m including the coaches there, didn’t give those guys the platform to actually go on and finish those things. They had to chase the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kolisi has to survive training<\/p>\n
Kolisi is chasing a start. If he proves his hamstring can stand the rigours of training he’ll captain the Springboks on Sunday. Kolisi has played only 25 minutes in the last two months because of injuries to both hamstrings, the last time against Argentina. In his absence, de Villiers has received his first four caps and become a breakout star.<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul played well on Saturday and there’s no reason why we should keep him out,\u201d Erasmus said. \u201dBut Siya is our captain.”<\/p>\n
As good as de Villiers has been, Kolisi’s more all-round, veteran game would have strengthened the Springboks against New Zealand, Erasmus added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were lots of times that we played badly, not because they did anything illegal, but we couldn’t get the ball away out of the breakdown when we were in really good attacking positions. Siya’s really good at that,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n
“And then he’s really good at getting us from defence \u2014 him and Pieter-Steph [du Toit] together, we call it \u2018the gates\u2019 \u2014 they’re well organised in the defensive sets in the gates. That was definitely something which we lacked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Paul will just get better. He’s only played four matches. I think Siya will definitely help us in those two areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Pieter-Steph](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pieter-steph-du-toit-is-brought-down-by-ardie-savea-left-and-JR6YXTXFLNCUFAWOF2YDO4265I.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pieter-Steph du Toit is brought down by Ardie Savea, left, and Cam Roigard. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n
If Kolisi plays, South Africa will field its most experienced starting line-up at 1,012 caps, including four centurions: Kolisi, caps record-holder Eben Etzebeth, Damian de Allende and du Toit, the stand-in captain.<\/p>\n
Du Toit, a two-time world player of the year, will become the 11th Springbok to 100 Test caps. He made his debut in 2013.<\/p>\n
Pollard ‘delivered under pressure’<\/p>\n
Erasmus has rotated his flyhalf this year and returned to Pollard, who kicked South Africa to victory in the 2019 and 2023 Rugby World Cup finals. Pollard is more conservative than rivals Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who started the first Test, and Manie Libbok, who has been dropped.<\/p>\n
But Pollard’s game management and tactical kicking were his trump cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cHandr\u00e9 has delivered for us under extreme pressure,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n
Fourie parlayed an impressive game for the Stormers in New Zealand’s tour opener into a recall to the Springboks after two years ruined by injuries. His last Test cap was the 2023 World Cup final against New Zealand. If he comes off the bench on Sunday, Fourie will become the oldest Springbok in a Test at 39, surpassing Victor Matfield and Schalk Brits.<\/p>\n
Andrew Saville reports ahead of the Springbok Test at Ellis Park.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
\u201cOne could see the hurt on everyone\u2019s faces after Saturday\u2019s match, and we know what we have to do to bounce back strongly this week,\u201d Erasmus said. \u201cWe have regrouped and identified the areas of our game we need to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beside Kolbe, who has hamstring and ankle issues, South Africa’s wounded included scrumhalf Grant Williams (ankle), utility back Canan Moodie (hamstring) and flanker Ben-Jason Dixon (concussion).<\/p>\n
New Zealand will name its Test side early Friday morning NZT. It plays its last tour game against a club, the Lions, tomorrow morning at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n
South Africa team<\/p>\n
15. Damian Willemse, 14. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13. Jesse Kriel, 12. Damian de Allende, 11. Ethan Hooker, 10. Handr\u00e9 Pollard, 9. Cobus Reinach; 8. Jasper Wiese, 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit (captain), 6. Siya Kolisi\/Paul de Villiers, 5. Ruan Nortj\u00e9, 4. Eben Etzebeth, 3. Wilco Louw, 2. Malcolm Marx, 1. Ox Nch\u00e9. Reserves: 16. Deon Fourie, 17. Gerhard Steenekamp, 18. Thomas du Toit, 19. Lood de Jager, 20. Andr\u00e9 Esterhuizen, 21. Cameron Hanekom, 22. Morn\u00e9 van den Berg, 23. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa is no longer looking down the rankings on the rest of world rugby for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-579389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}