South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus says making 10 line-up changes for a rematch with the Australian team his side thrashed in their Rugby Championship opener is not “disrespectful”.
The world champions eased to a 33-7 victory over the Wallabies in Brisbane last weekend and have withdrawn some of their more established names for Saturday’s clash in Perth, live on Sky Sports at 10.45am.
“If you look at this team, there are 14 World Cup winners and there’s only two guys that are new caps, so this is not disrespect to Australia and this is not us feeling nonchalant about the game,” Erasmus said.
“This is us picking a team that we feel is good enough to still get us the win, although it will be really, really tough against a team that wants to bounce back.”
Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Elrigh Louw and Pieter-Steph du Toit are the only survivors from the opening fixture, with scrum-half Morne van den Berg and lock Ruan Nortje brought in for their first Test starts.
Salmaan Moerat will captain South Africa from lock while regular skipper Siya Kolisi was one of nine players from the opener who has been rotated in the squad. Loose forward Marco van Staden was promoted from the bench to take Kolisi’s No 6 jersey.
Kurt-Lee Arendse is among those to have been rested by South Africa
Erasmus added: “It’s important to win the Rugby Championship and it’s important to build into the next World Cup and it will be fantastic to win the Rugby Championship.
“I think it would be a slap in the face of the guys who’s playing this weekend if we think they’re not as good as the guys playing last weekend. We trust them fully.
“I think if they played the team last weekend, the Springbok team, they would give them a hell of a go.
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Highlights of Argentina’s stunning win over New Zealand in Wellington
Australia had won their first three matches of the season, beating Wales twice and defeating Georgia, before losing to the Springboks last weekend. The Wallabies are expected to name their team for the Perth Test on Thursday.
New Zealand and Argentina also meet again on Saturday after the Pumas stunned the All Blacks 38-30 in their tournament opener.
South Africa team to face Australia in second Test
15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Lukhanyo Am, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg; 1 Elrigh Louw, 2 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 3 Marco van Staden, 4 Ruan Nortje, 5 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 6 Thomas du Toit, 7 Johan Grobbelaar, 8 Jan-Hendrik Wessels.
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Handre Pollard.
Watch New Zealand vs Argentina at 8.05am, followed by Australia vs South Africa at 10.45am live on Sky Sports Action on Saturday August 17.
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