There will be a lot of interest in the performance of the reigning world champions who didn't have the hardest build-up to the Rugby Championship.
The Springboks open their 2025 Rugby Championship challenge with a Test against the Australian Wallabies at Ellis Park on Saturday (5.10pm). The teams will meet again next week in Cape Town before the Boks turn their attention to two away Tests against New Zealand and home and away matches against Argentina.
Here then are five things to look out for at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Rusty or fresh?
Playing against the Barbarians, Italy and Georgia is hardly the strongest opposition going into the Rugby Championship, but that’s what the Boks were given. They won those games comfortably while coach Rassie Erasmus was able to test a few new plyers and combinations.
The question though is, with the Wallabies having taken on the British and Irish Lions in three hard-fought Tests in the last month, will the Boks be up to speed and at the level required to play against top-tier opposition?
The visitors will either be toughened up or they may show signs of fatigue after their gruelling recent series.
Wallabies resurgence?
If truth be told Joe Schmidt’s team were unlucky to not win the series against the Lions. They were denied a win in the second Test when another set of officials might have seen things differently, while they comfortably won the third match. It was only the first Test that they were out-played, but then also only just.
Was what we saw in the three Tests Down Under a resurgence of the Wallabies or were the Lions just not that great? We’ll know over the coming weeks, starting with Saturday’s match at Ellis Park, where the Wallabies have generally struggled to assert themselves.
Libbok at No 10
For the next few years there’s going to be an on-going debate about who should wear the Bok No 10 jersey – Manie Libbok, Handre Pollard or Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu?
This week Libbok has been handed the jumper and all eyes will be on him in what should be good conditions to play attacking rugby. The man is regarded the best attacking flyhalf in the squad and he’s sure to perform well and bring out a few tricks, but it will be his goal-kicking, again, that will come under scrutiny.
Erasmus and all of South Africa will hope he’s got his kicking boots on.
Kolisi in new role
The Bok skipper has played all his Test rugby on the side of the scrum but because of Jasper Wiese’s absence through suspension will pack down for the first time at No 8. It is a role Kolisi has performed well enough for the Sharks in the last year and there shouldn’t be too many issues for him.
The captain remains a strong carrier and link man and he’s set to continue fulfilling those tasks, but his change of position will still be keenly watched. The Aussies may have thoughts of trying to exploit it, whatever those could be.
Bok ‘bomb squad’
So much now revolves around the Boks’ replacements and how and when they are used and this weekend’s match will be no different.
Will Erasmus send them all on at the same time early in the second half or stagger the substitutions, will Franco Mostert play lock or flank and where will Kwagga Smith pack down?
Will we see centre Andre Esterhuizen shift to the flank “hybrid role” that was introduced to the world in June, and where will Damian Willemse play – flyhalf or fullback?
And, should we prepare for another new “innovation” from Erasmus? Probably.
