Moerat to lead Springboks against Portugal

JOHANNESBURG - The Springboks have made wholesale changes to their matchday squad to play Portugal in a historic first in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

Lock Salmaan Moerat will captain the team that features 14 changes to the lineup that started in the 25-24 loss to Ireland in Durban last weekend, with wing Kurt-Lee Arendse the only player to retain his place.

Coach Rassie Erasmus rates Moerat’s quality as a player and a captain highly and has given him his full backing to carry the responsibility of leading the Boks in just his seventh Test match.

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"Salmaan commands respect from his teammates, so we’d like to congratulate him on this achievement, and we have no doubt that he’ll take on this responsibility as well as he has for the other teams he has led," Erasmus said 

Erasmus included all seven of the uncapped players in his training squad for the first-ever Test match between the world champions and the Portuguese side, who are currently ranked 15th in the world.

Of the newcomers, prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels, hooker Johan Grobbelaar and flank Phepsi Buthelezi will start, while hooker Andre-Hugo Venter, loose forward Ruan Venter, scrumhalf Morne van den Berg and fullback Quan Horn have been named on the bench.

Despite the relative inexperience of the squad, they will be bolstered by the presence of nine World Cup winners, including Lukhanyo Am, Manie Libbok, Cobus Reinach, Trevor Nyakane and Thomas du Toit, who’ll be making their first international appearances of the year.

Erasmus has full confidence that the 23 he has selected will get the job done against their opponents, who have shown they’re quite capable of causing upsets.

"Portugal are a quality team as we saw with their victory against Fiji in the RWC, while they also drew their clash against Georgia 18-18. It was important for us to select a quality team with a bunch of experienced players, while at the same time delivering on our objective of growing our squad depth by naming a few debutants," said Erasmus.

The match will feature another unique piece of history as Scotland’s Hollie Davidson will become the first woman ever to referee a match in which the Springboks play.

Springbok team to face Portugal in Bloemfontein:

15 - Aphelele Fassi 
14 - Kurt-Lee Arendse 
13 - Lukhanyo Am 
12 - Andre Esterhuizen 
11 – Makazole Mapimpi  
10 – Manie Libbok 
9 – Cobus Reinach 
8 – Evan Roos 
7 – Ben-Jason Dixon 
6 – Phepsi Buthelezi 
5 – RG Snyman 
4 – Salmaan Moerat (captain)
3 – Thomas du Toit 
2 – Johan Grobbelaar 
1 – Jan-Hendrik Wessels 

Replacements:

16 – Andre-Hugo Venter 
17 – Ntuthuko Mchunu 
18 – Trevor Nyakane
19 – Ruan Venter 
20 – Elrigh Louw 
21 – Morne van den Berg 
22 – Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 
23 – Quan Horn