‘Eskom’ the hooker back-up as Grobbelaar gets his Bok chance

The most unusual thing about the Springbok team that coach Rassie Erasmus has called up for Saturday’s third end of year tour match against Italy in Turin is that there’s no Malcolm Marx in it. Not in the starting team, nor among the reserves.

That’s a rare thing for the Boks this year, with the world class hooker having been selected for all the matches so far outside of the one against Georgia in Nelspruit.

Otherwise Marx has been a constant presence, if not in the starting team at least among the reserves. And invariably he’s been on the field for most of the game, as he was last week in Paris, where he only got replaced in the 78th minute, when the Boks had already long since decided the contest.

It was Johan Grobbelaar who came on from the bench in that game and it is the Vodacom Bulls No 2 who will start against Italy, a much needed opportunity to show what he can do for a player who was excluded from the Bok camps and squads during the southern hemisphere international season but forced his way into the reckoning with on the weight of his performances in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

He started the Bulls’ URC campaign with a hat-trick of tries against the Ospreys at Loftus and built momentum from there. This is his chance to take that form onto the international stage, and it is a gilt-edged opportunity for him as while Marx has established himself as the top player in the position, there is less certainty about what happens if Marx is ever injured, as he was during the 2023 World Cup in France.

On that occasion coach Rassie Erasmus improvised, with Deon Fourie, these days normally a loose-forward, being pressed into playing hooker for most of the World Cup final against New Zealand when Bongi Mbonambi was injured early in the game.

The next cab off the rank at that point of the World Cup was Marco van Staden, the flanker known as Eskom for his ability to put his opponents’ lights out, and it looks like he is reprising the role of back-up hooker in this game.

GROBBELAAR SELECTED FOR 80-MINUTE ROLE

The Bulls player has been selected to start at No 8, but there is no other player with experience as a hooker listed in the match day 23. So if Grobbelaar doesn’t see out the game, then Van Staden is the man most likely to be pressed into the role, with Kwagga Smith replacing him at the back of the scrum.

The lack of a specialist hooker on the bench (there actually is no other hooker apart from Marx in the squad) is an indicator surely that Erasmus intends to give Grobbelaar 80 minutes against Italy.

It isn’t going to be easy for him though, for he is part of an inexperienced and re-worked front row, with Boan Venter, a relative newcomer to international level, the only member of that combination who started against France.

PORTHEN BACK FOR SECOND GAME

Erasmus’ faith in the young DHL Stormers tighthead Zachary Porthen has been underlined by his recall for what will be his second start following his debut against Japan at Wembley Stadium in London two weeks ago.

It needs to be stressed that while it looks like an inexperienced combination being thrown in at the deep end, Erasmus has covered himself by including the powerful Wilco Louw as the tighthead prop reserve, alongside his Bulls teammate Gerhard Steenekamp.

When it comes to the lineouts Grobbelaar will be throwing into a combination that has fronted for the Boks before but not in a while - locks Jean Kleyn and Franco Mostert will be supported at lineout time by Stormers blindside flank Ben-Jason Dixon, who will be making his first start of the year. He missed the southern hemisphere season because of injury.

HOOKER AT INSIDE CENTRE (ETHAN THAT IS)

Morne van den Berg and the experienced Handre Pollard are the halfback pairing while there is a completely new midfield combination playing alongside them in Ethan Hooker and Canan Moodie. Well, new in the sense that they haven’t played together before and Hooker has mainly played wing so far. They have both excelled for the Boks in recent games, just not as players playing together in combination.

Fullback Damian Willemse and left wing Kurt-Lee Arendse are two of very few players playing in this game who were also part of the team that came from behind to win in Paris last week, with Edwill van der Merwe returning on the other wing after missing out most of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship due to the injury he sustained in the first game against Australia in Johannesburg.

STABILITY ON THE BENCH

In all there are 11 changes to the team that started against France, with Siya Kolisi continuing as captain. There is far more stability when it comes to the replacement bench, with Steenekamp, Louw, RG Snyman, Ruan Nortje, Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams and Manie Libbok all continuing as reserves after doing well in those roles at Stade de France.

The continued presence of Esterhuizen, who played a pivotal role in the Bok comeback with 14 men under the lights in Paris, where he came on as a flank, throws some confusion over whether it is a six/two Bomb Squad split between forwards and backs or a 5/3 split, with Esterhuizen operating as a centre this time.

It could be either or, which is partly the point of the selection - it was adaptability that got the Boks home last week after Lood de Jager was red carded and that adaptability will be a core quality again against Italy.

SPRINGBOK TEAM TO FACE ITALY IN TURIN:

15 Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 46 caps, 66 pts (6t, 9c, 4p, 2 dg)

14 Edwill van der Merwe (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 4 caps, 25 pts (5t)

13 Canan Moodie (Vodacom Bulls) – 20 caps, 40 pts (8t)

12 Ethan Hooker (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 6 caps, 0 pts

11 Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 29 caps, 115 pts (23t)

10 Handre Pollard (Vodacom Bulls) - 84 caps, 815 pts (8t, 122 c, 172 p, 5dg)

9 Morne van den Berg (Emirates Lions) – 4 caps, 15 pts (3t)

8 Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 31 caps, 15 pts (3t)

7 Ben-Jason Dixon (DHL Stormers) – 5 caps, 5 pts (1t)

6 Siya Kolisi (captain, Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 100 caps, 70 pts (14t)

5 Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 82 caps, 20 pts (4t)

4 Jean Kleyn (Munster) – 7 caps, 0 pts

3 Zachary Porthen (DHL Stormers) – 1 cap, 0 pts

2 Johan Grobbelaar (Vodacom Bulls) – 5 caps, 0 pts

1 Boan Venter (Edinburgh) – 6 caps, 5 pts (1t)

REPLACEMENTS:

16 Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls) – 13 caps, 5 pts (1t)

17 Wilco Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 26 caps, 5 pts (1t)

18 RG Snyman (Leinster) – 48 caps, 15 pts (3t)

19 Ruan Nortje (Vodacom Bulls) – 15 caps, 0 pts

20 Andre Esterhuizen (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 26 caps, 20 pts (4t)

21 Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 60 caps, 55 pts (11t)

22 Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 26 caps, 30 pts (6t)

23 Manie Libbok (Kintetsu Liners) – 26 caps, 141 pts (2t, 46c, 13p)