Kolisi leads 33-man Springbok squad named for Rugby Championship

Bok captain Siya Kolisi. (Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images)

• Siya Kolisi remains Springbok captain for the upcoming Rugby Championship.
• Bok coach Rassie Erasmus on Thursday named a 33-man squad for the southern hemisphere showpiece.
• The Boks will open their campaign with two away Tests in Australia on 10 and 17 August.
• For more news on the Springboks, visit our dedicated page.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus on Tuesday named a 33-man squad for the upcoming Rugby Championship.

Flanker Siya Kolisi remains the captain in a squad that features 22 Rugby World Cup winners. Five players who made their Test debuts in 2024 – Jan-Hendrik Wessels (utility forward), Johan Grobbelaar (hooker), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (utility back), Ben-Jason Dixon (utility forward) and Morne van den Berg (scrumhalf) – are also included.

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The only newcomer to the group is Bulls captain Ruan Nortje (lock), who made his Springbok debut against Wales in 2022 and represented the SA A side in November that year. All the other players featured in South Africa’s first four Tests of the year.

Players not considered for selection due to injury or rehabilitation include Jean Kleyn, Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert (all locks), Steven Kitshoff (prop), Faf de Klerk, Jaden Hendrikse, Herschel Jantjies (scrumhalves), Canan Moodie, (centre), Edwill van der Merwe (wing) and Damian Willemse (utility back).

Jasper Wiese (No 8) is still serving a suspension, while Andre Esterhuizen (centre) awaits a disciplinary hearing after being sent off in the 64-21 win over Portugal on Saturday.

“This is a quality group of players, which includes a mixture of youth and experience, and we believe this is the best group of players we could select for this tough assignment in the Rugby Championship,” said Erasmus.

“We rested some players before the match against Portugal to recharge for this competition and we are excited to see the energy they’ll bring back to the squad. We’ve also included a few younger players who made a strong statement in the Tests we played so far this season.

“The injury to Franco Mostert opened the door for Ruan Nortje to make his comeback to the national team, and he brings a different type of experience as the captain of the Vodacom Bulls.”

“The injury to Franco Mostert opened the door for Ruan Nortje to make his comeback to the national team, and he brings a different type of experience as the captain of the Bulls.”

Erasmus also lauded the Bok newbies for making a statement thus far in the Test season.

“We were very impressed with the likes of Salmaan Moerat (who became the 66th Springbok captain against Portugal), Dixon, Grobbelaar, Wessels and Feinberg-Mngomezulu when they received a chance to play this season,” said the Boks mentor.

“While this may be a very different challenge to facing Wales, Ireland and Portugal, we have full faith in the players to make another big step-up against the southern hemisphere teams, who play a different type of rugby to the sides we’ve faced up to now.

“As always there are a number of unlucky players, but we could only select a squad of 33 to travel to Australia. The players excluded from the squad will be available for selection for their respective clubs, but we explained to them before we departed Bloemfontein that this squad is not necessarily the same group that will be selected for the matches against New Zealand and Argentina, so they have been put on specialised conditioning programmes to ensure they are ready should they get the call-up.”

The Springboks will face Australia in Brisbane and Perth on 10 and 17 August respectively, before returning to South Africa for two blockbuster Tests against New Zealand on Saturday, 31 August in Johannesburg, and 7 September in Cape Town.

The world champions will then take a short trip to Argentina to face Los Pumas in Santiago on Saturday, 21 September, before wrapping up the tournament in Nelspruit against Argentina on Saturday, 28 September.

“We faced New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final and won by a point, and we all know how tough the competition and rivalry is between the teams,” Erasmus added.

“Australia are also a quality team, and we’ve seen historically that are a force to be reckoned at home, while Argentina are a physical and competitive team and always push us to the limit, so we are under no illusions about what lies ahead.

“But we’re also excited to launch this new edition of the tournament and test ourselves against the southern hemisphere sides once again.” 

The Bok squad will assemble in Johannesburg on Sunday for a short preparation camp before departing for Australia on Wednesday 31 July.