Rassie Erasmus rotates Springboks’ backline for third All Blacks test in Joburg

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has named his team for Saturday’s third Test (of four) against the All Blacks at FNB Stadium in Joburg this Saturday, (September, 5 at 17.10), reports The Citizen.

The series is level at 1-1 after the All Blacks won the first Test at Ellis Park, while the Boks won the second test in Cape Town on Saturday (August, 29).

The fourth test of the series is next week in Baltimore, USA.

Erasmus on Monday (August, 31) named Cheslin Kolbe to start at fullback, rather than the wing, in place of the injured Damian Willemse, with Kurt-Lee Arendse coming in on the wing. Ethan Hooker will play on the other wing.

And up front, Erasmus named the same starting front row as he did a week ago to start at the FNB Stadium, though last weekend he swapped his front rows an hour before kick-off.

“Unfortunately, Damian Willemse took a knock in the first half and was not available for selection this weekend, and neither was Handré Pollard, and by sticking to these combinations and making one switch with Cheslin at fullback, we thought it would be the best for this match,” said Erasmus on Monday when he named his team for Saturday’s match.

“Kurt-Lee was unlucky not to play last week after Cheslin recovered from his niggle, so we are pleased to see him back. He is a quality player and his 25 tries in 33 matches so far shows the type of player he is.”

Regarding going with just about the same matchday-23 this week, the Bok boss said: “It was always our plan to have a little more continuity in player combinations for this series and we thought that the players who did the job for us last week really showed composure and did well to stick to the plan and what we wanted to achieve last week.”

Boks team for third test

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