This Saturday, Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe, and Neethling Fouche will all make their Springbok debuts against Georgia in Nelspruit.
The three uncapped front rankers will increase the number of newly capped players this season to seven after Vincent Tshituka (flanker), Cobus Wiese (utility forward), Asenathi Ntlabakanye (prop), and Ethan Hooker (utility back) all made their Test debuts against Italy.
With Siya Kolisi also returning from injury, and Venter in the squad, it increases the size of the group used by Erasmus so far this season to 46 players, with the matchday squad for this weekend featuring 15 Rugby World Cup winners.
Erasmus was excited to see the three uncapped players and Kolisi in action and said: “We wanted to make sure that Siya is 100% fit before selecting him, so it’s great to have him back in the squad, while Boan, Marnus, and Neethling have been training hard and deserve their chance.
“Marnus and Neethling played against the Barbarians, so they have an idea of what international rugby is about, while Boan has shown great potential at club level and with the squad in the last few weeks, and we are looking forward to seeing him play.”
Erasmus added: “Building squad depth has been one of our pillars as a squad since 2018, and they are all undoubtedly ready to make the step-up.”
Kick off on Saturday is at 17:10.
SPRINGBOKS STATS AND FACTS FOR GEORGIA TEST
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SELECTION STRATEGY SO FAR THIS SEASON?
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