{"id":579449,"date":"2026-08-25T03:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T03:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579449\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T03:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T03:32:11","slug":"all-blacks-vs-springboks-2026-south-africa-team-to-play-new-zealand-rassie-erasmus-siya-kolisi-dave-rennie-lions-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579449\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks vs Springboks 2026: South Africa team to play New Zealand; Rassie Erasmus, Siya Kolisi, Dave Rennie, Lions news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seething Springboks<\/a> coach Rassie Erasmus made four changes to his starting lineup after losing the world\u2019s No.1 ranking to the All Blacks<\/a> at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s stunning 33-16 upset of the world champions on Sunday (AEST) was a record margin of defeat for South Africa at their famed Johannesburg fortress.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New Zealand celebrate beating South Africa at Ellis Park.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Erasmus reacted by dropping No.10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to the bench after a poor performance in the first Test.<\/p>\n

Clutch goalkicker Handr\u00e8 Pollard will form a new play-making pairing with fellow veteran Cobus Reinach after halfback Grant Williams was ruled out with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n

Star winger Cheslin Kolbe (hamstring\/ankle) has been replaced by Ethan Hooker while iconic captain Siya Kolisi<\/a> will return at openside flanker if he can get through training.<\/p>\n

Kolisi has been battling a hamstring injury and Erasmus opted for young gun Paul de Villiers in the first of four Tests.<\/p>\n

Pieter-Steph du Toit led the Springboks in his absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul played well on Saturday and there\u2019s no reason why we should keep him out,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Siya is our captain. There were lots of times that we played badly, not because they (All Blacks) did anything illegal, but we couldn\u2019t get the ball away out of the breakdown when we were in really good attacking positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiya\u2019s really good at that. And then he\u2019s really good at getting us from defence – him and Pieter-Steph together, we call it \u2018the gates\u2019 – they\u2019re 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\u2019s only played four matches. I think Siya will definitely help us in those two areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa appeared to have New Zealand on the ropes with their dominant scrum before a remarkable late-game counterpunch from Dave Rennie\u2019s<\/a> tourists, who scored five tries to one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the things we inflicted on ourselves, and that\u2019s frustrating,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are irritated with each other inside the camp. We\u2019ve 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. We are angry with each other. The coaches did and said stupid things. The players did stupid things on the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe personally, I made wrong calls on some of the tactics we wanted to try and do inside their 22. It didn\u2019t work and that\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus also made five changes to his bench, including the recall of 39-year-old utility forward Deon Fourie.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks, meanwhile, have a tour game against the Lions on Wednesday (AEST) to navigate before the second Test.<\/p>\n

Veteran Richie Mo\u2019unga<\/a> will represent his country for the first time since the 2023 Rugby World Cup final after being named to start at No.10.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old was called up as an injury replacement in an effort by Rennie to integrate him into the squad a year out from the 2027 World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason for coming back (from Japan) was obviously to win a World Cup, but to not have any regrets of \u2018geez, I wish I had given it another crack\u2019 or maybe there was a bit more to give,\u201d Mo\u2019unga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just come back really grateful. I knew I missed it, but coming back in, you realise this is a really special circle to be in. I\u2019m just really savouring every moment and just not going to take these things for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rennie also confirmed that forwards Ethan de Groot and Josh Lord would miss the second Test with concussion after clashing heads at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n

Prop Ofa Tu\u2019ungafasi and lock Jamie Hannah have been summoned as cover.<\/p>\n

Flanker Anton Segner has also been ruled out after being a late scratching for the first Test.<\/p>\n

Segner has a swollen ankle which has been assessed as acute inflammatory arthritis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went into hospital for another checkup. I will be a bit clearer by tonight,\u201d Rennie said.<\/p>\n

Simon Parker took Segner\u2019s place on the bench in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

Lions team to play All Blacks (15-1): Quan Horn, Kelly Mpeku, Henco van Wyk, Richard Kriel, Erich Cronje, Chris Smith, Nico Steyn, Francke Horn (c), Batho Hlekani, Siba Mahashe, Ruan Delport, Etienne Oosthuizen, Sebastian Lombard, PJ Botha, SJ Kotze<\/p>\n

Reserves: Morne Brandon, Boan Venter, RF Schoeman, Hyron Andrews, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, JC Pretorius, Haashim Pead, Boeta Chamberlain<\/p>\n

All Blacks team to play Lions (15-1): Beauden Barrett, Fehi Fineanganofo, Rieko Ioane, Timoci Tavatavanawai, Emoni Narawa, Richie Mo\u2019unga, Noah Hotham, Semisi Tupou Ta\u2019eiloa, Ethan Blackadder, Wallace Sititi, Patrick Tuipulotu (c), Sam Darry, Pasilio Tosi, Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho, Siale Lauaki<\/p>\n

Reserves: Bradley Slater, Ofa Tu\u2019ungafasi, Saula Mau, Jamie Hannah, Peter Lakai, Kyle Preston, Josh Jacomb, Anton Lienert-Brown<\/p>\n

Springboks team to play All Blacks (15-1): Damian Willemse, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Ethan Hooker, Handr\u00e9 Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Jasper Wiese, Pieter-Steph du Toit (c), Siya Kolisi\/Paul de Villiers, Ruan Nortj\u00e9, Eben Etzebeth, Wilco Louw, Malcolm Marx, Ox Nch\u00e9<\/p>\n

Reserves: Deon Fourie, Gerhard Steenekamp, Thomas du Toit, Lood de Jager, Andr\u00e9 Esterhuizen, Cameron Hanekom, Morn\u00e9 van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu<\/p>\n

Watch Wallabies vs Argentina and the All Blacks\u2019 tour of South Africa.\u00a0Add the Stan Sport package<\/a>\u00a0to watch rugby live and on demand with no ad-breaks in play<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s rugby world rankingsNew Zealand\u00a0\u2013 94.03South Africa\u00a0\u2013 92.21Ireland\u00a0\u2013 88.08France\u00a0\u2013 87.43England\u00a0\u2013 85.68Scotland\u00a0\u2013 84.78Argentina\u00a0\u2013 83.13Australia\u00a0\u2013 82.67Fiji\u00a0\u2013 78.00Wales\u00a0\u2013 76.38<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seething Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus made four changes to his starting lineup after losing the world\u2019s No.1 ranking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-579449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579449","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=579449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}