The Springboks are set to take on Wales in their first game of the 2024 international rugby season on Saturday. The game at Twickenham, and it will be the first time the Springboks play since becoming back-to-back World Champions. This will also be the first game Rassie Erasmus will be in charge of since the 2019 World Cup final.
Because the game against Wales falls outside the international Test window, he could not select players from England and Ireland and France. He also, cannot call up players from the Bulls, as they will be contesting the United Rugby Championship final at Loftus on the same day. So he has used it as an opportunity to test the depth of the Springbok system.
Four Springbok debutants In doing so, Erasmus has named four debutants. Two of them playing from the start in Lions duo Jordan Hendrikse and Edwill van der Merwe . The other two being Stormers duo BJ Dixon and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu .
The mentor says he is delighted for the debutants. “This is an exciting playing squad and travelling group, and we are looking forward to seeing how the uncapped players step up at top international level and how we execute what we’ve been working on at training in the last few days and at the alignment camps. The likes of Edwill, Jordan, Ben-Jason, and Sacha have really impressed us at training, and we believe they have what it takes to make their presence felt against a quality team such as Wales.
” Said Erasmus. On the opposite side of the spectrum is prop V.