PERTH, Australia — South Africa has made wholesale changes — a total of 13 — to its starting lineup for Sunday’s one-off rugby test against the Wallabies in Perth, Western Australia.
Only lock Eben Etzebeth and winger Ethan Hooker retained their starting roles from the team that beat the All Blacks 43-28 at Baltimore to seal a 3-1 series win in the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
Etzebeth will extend his record as the most capped Springbok of all time to 147 test matches.
Props Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Zachary Porthen will join forces with hooker Johan Grobbelaar in a new-look front row, while two-time World Cup-winning flyhalf Handre Pollard returns from a calf injury to form a new halves pairing with fit-again scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies.
Centre Andre Esterhuizen has been named skipper, making him South Africa’s 68th captain.
Lock Franco Mostert will play his first test since facing Wales last November.
Despite the mass changes, only three players named in the starting lineup have fewer than 10 test caps — winger Edwill van der Merwe, lock Paul de Villiers and prop Porthen.
“Australia poses a completely different threat to New Zealand in the way they play, so we believe these combinations would be best suited for the challenge that we will face against them,” South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus said.
“This is going to be a big challenge against a team that has been playing good rugby, and who have won four of their last five matches, with their other result being a draw against the Pumas in Argentina.”
Erasmus had no second thoughts about allowing veteran duo Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende to return home so they could spend time with family.
“They had a heavy workload in the last few months, and they deserve a break,” Erasmus said.
