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PREVIEW: Rassie’s cut will be motivation enough for Boks

rugby18 July 2025 06:31
By:Gavin Rich
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Springboks © Gallo Images

The Springboks will be expected to win by plenty when they face Georgia in their final Castle Lager Rugby Incoming Season test at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday but any questions about their motivation will be squashed by when the game falls in their schedule.

There are a few weeks between now and then, but the next game the Boks will play will be against Australia. In terms of expectation, the Wallabies will on Saturday be going into a vastly different scenario to the one that the world champions will.

It doesn’t get too much bigger than a British and Irish Lions series and the Wallabies, injury ravaged as they are, are both in sharp focus in their own country and up against it in their quest to show they are still globally relevant.

Whatever comes out of the series for Australia, however, the consensus is that by the end of the three match rubber they should be a better and more cohesive team than they were when they went into it. \

It has been a long time since the Wallabies have come to South Africa and threatened to get any kind of positive result, but after being battle hardened by the Lions they will provide a challenge that will be a considerable step up from what the Boks have faced so far.

 

 

SQUAD TO BE REDUCED AFTER THIS GAME

You wouldn’t put it past Bok coach Rassie Erasmus to continue experimenting to some degree against the Wallabies. He has done it against those opponents before. Indeed, he did it in their country last year, so why not in South Africa, where the Boks have won by fairly comfortable scores against that team in recent times.

However, with the massive Rugby Championship games against the All Blacks next up after that, you’d imagine that Erasmus will settle on the core of his team to use the two Aussie games, one in Johannesburg and the next in Cape Town, to build towards the visit to Eden Park, where the Boks hope to break down a fortress that has proved to be impregnable for 31 years.

That means this is the last chance for players who want to be in the pound seats to impress Erasmus and it is also the last game before Erasmus cuts his squad by almost a quarter. He said after last week’s 45-0 win over Italy in Gqeberha that he would be cutting from 45 to 35, and this week spoke of it being 36, but no matter, it is a considerable cut.

The Boks who get to play on Saturday in the lowveld, at least those who’d consider themselves to be on the fringes of selection, have a choice - play well and have a chance of staying, play poorly or fail to make an impression and you could be going and watching the Rugby Championship on television.

FOCUS ON THE FRONT ROW

As it turns out, there are probably more fringe players playing in Nelspruit who occupy the positions that generally get tested most against Georgia, namely the front row of the scrum, than there are anywhere else. Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe and Neethling Fouche all make their test debuts in this game and will be eager to match the marker of the scrummagers who have gone before them.

It is unlikely we will see the Boks start off with the same kick-off ploy designed to start the game with a scrum as we saw at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, but then you never know. Erasmus might like to make a point.

And while there was a debate during the week about the legality of what happened there, surely if you want to have a scrum you just make sure your kick off goes directly into touch? There shouldn’t be any question marks over that and no talk of a penalty to the opposition.

There has been a lot of much ado about nothing over Erasmus’ ploys in Gqeberha, as if they impacted the result (not!) and as if he was planning to introduce them as a Bok staple. As he said himself afterwards, now that he has aired what we could call a midfield lineout drive, the opportunities to do it again will become more limited.

Where opportunities are limited is to some of the players playing on Saturday, and their personal motivations should drive the Boks to a big victory. Apart from the front row, Siya Kolisi will be hungry to be back in his No 6 jersey as captain, and Cobus Wiese might feel he quite likes the feel of the No 8.

CHANCE FOR SACHA TO STAMP AUTHORITY

Scrumhalf Grant Williams was promising last week alongside Manie Libbok and this week he gets a chance to gain more momentum alongside the skilful Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who must have been eager to get hold of the No 10 again ever since he wore it for half a game against the Barbarians at the start of the international season.

This will in fact be Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s first test match in the No 10 since his excellent performance in the win over New Zealand in last year’s first game against the Kiwis in Johannesburg. The Georgians are lesser opposition, but that’s all the more reason why Feinberg-Mngomezulu will be looking to stamp his authority.

Probably the biggest challenge for him is to find a way to do that without overplaying, and he should also be eager to show his connectedness with the players around him. If there is anything holding back this prodigiously talented player, it is a perception in some quarters that he is too individualistic.

Individualism, if that's what you want to call it for it is really more complex than that, is good though when he scores those tries or comes up with scintillating plays that others are just incapable of.

No-one, least of all Erasmus, would want to see him put away what makes him special. It’s about finding a blend and in Nelspruit he has a chance to work on that in a slightly less pressured environment than he will face in the matches that come after this.

Teams

South Africa: Aphelele Fassi, Edwill van der Merwe, Canan Moodie, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Grant Williams, Cobus Wiese, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), Ruan Nortje, Eben Etzebeth, Neethling Fouche, Marnus van der Merwe, Boan Venter. Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Thomas du Toit, Vincent Koch, RG Snyman, Kwagga Smith, Faf de Klerk, Handré Pollard, Damian Willemse.

Georgia: Davit Niniashvili, Aka Tabutsadze, Giorgi Kveseladze, Sandra Todua, Luka Matkava, Vasil Lobzhanidze, Ilia Spanderashvili, Beka Saginadze, Luka Ivanishvili, Lado Chachanidze, Mikheil Babunashvili, Irakli Aptsiauri, Vano Karkadze, Vano Karkadze. Replacements: Irakli Kvatadze, Giorgi Tetrashvili, Beka Gigashvili, Demur Epremidze, Sandro Mamamtavrishvili, Tornike Jalagonia, Tedo Abzhandadze, Tornike Kakhoidz.

Referee: Matthew Carley (England)

Kick-off: 5:10pm

Prediction: Boks to win by more than 40

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