Bok team announced

15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (c), 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruan Nortjé, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché.
Bench: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 André Esterhuizen, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok.

Interesting no room for Hooker or Moodie?

Libbok riding the pine, no Pollard as a backup and massive risk.

Front row backup is Jan Hendrik and Porthen. Two very mobile props but with size. Not the best scrummagers. AE in the team. Looks like they are going to up the tempo in the 2nd half.

Paul De Villers straight to six and rightly so

Much as expected. Reinach my biggest issue. Would have liked to see Cam on the bench but he is sacrificed for Esterhuizen's hybrid role.

Rassie has 3 guys who can play loosehead and three that can play hooker including including Van Staden. This may indicate a concern about how fit Ox is.
It will be interesting to see how Reinach will go. Personally I think he might surprise as he rises to the occasion for this big match. I had Morne as th reserve scrummie
I see Wilco is starting as I thought he might and I also selected Portens as the tighthead cover. Thomas Du Toit did himself no favours against the Argies. Wonder if he is carrying a niggle.
Arendse gets in before Hooker. Its a close call and I had Hooker starting.
One concern for the Boks will be match sharpness of some players.
This is a good Bok side and hopefully they will get the job done. The wee abs have played depleted Franchise sides the equivalent to Boland Cavaliers, Pumas, Griquas etc. On Saturday they will be in the furnace!

Thank heavens its Williams and Sacha.

Those two have the potential to cause havoc. Williams clears from the base so quickly and wants the game to flow. And that plays directly into where Sacha brings the most benefit.

I think Marco is there because he the closest thing to Jasper clone that Rassie can find.

Notice how when it comes to big games, Willemse is automatically the 15. Sorry for the guys who want Willemse to play at 12 but he'll never be the perma 12 for the Boks. He'll only ever play 12 when Rassie wants to switch things up a little.

No real surprises anyway but very happy about our 9/10 combo.

Another Rassie curve ball - no Thomas du Toit has he pulled up in training this week?

I think Thomas is one of our weakest scrummagers. He has a massive frame, great in general play. huge engine for such a massive guy, at least would have like to see him on the bench.

The incredible 32 year old three quarter unit……if maintained 33 at the WC. When I argued for experience in the past, I wasn’t quite visualizing this. But the 100 meter record by age shows only a 0.22 second drop between Bolts 9.58 at 23 and Gatland’s 9.8 at 34. Surely experience is worth 0.22 seconds of speed. TIC

The starting team is exactly as expected with PdV the only selection in doubt. The absence of Pollard and Hanekom on the bench is noteworthy. Porthen is a key selection….Wilco is a 60 minute man and the lad will be fully tested in the last 20.

One of the key things is Dud Toit as captain. I believe as an effort player he performs better with the arm band. Having the industrious PdV rather than Kolisi is also interesting, but the big boys will try to rock his boat.

Luv it, I also prefer Cam to van Staden but other than it’s a mighty team. Like the selection of PDV good onya Ras for backing yourself and the player.
This is a team with speed and skill who will win.

Go jou Lekker dinge!

Can't wait for Saturday, here is my take, All Blacks my be sharp and ready and up to the rigor that you need. They were able to dismiss France and Ireland, the latter being the most convincing of the Dave Rennie era. They are playing with grunt and all black flair. Rennie knows how to play against SA teams. But what has changed since his days as Chiefs coach and when SA sides were still competing is the fact that we have a different bread of players. We know longer have one dimensional players. We have players like Williams, Sasha, Willemse, Kolbe and so on. Why are super agile and great at applying pressure. What we saw that Arendse does extremely well is to poach sloppy play. So if they do cough up the balls we have the players.

My other theory is that the ABs super rugby comp has been watered down. There are 400 players between the 3 main groups like Australia, NZ and Pacific Islands that are no longer playing in Super rugby. They may not be test quality but they provide good competition to test and mould players. Then minus the SA teams and it is almost like 500 first class players no longer in your group.

They are also losing a lot of players to rugby league and the money and viewership is much higher. They struggled to get that right. So not only do the lack player quality but also the style they have to play. They misswed a trick League has brutal collisions and you can go shoulder to shoulder.

Remember when the Currie cup would still be worth watching. You would see players and teams doing really well at Currie cup, you think this is the year we'll beat them or perform well in Super Rugby only to have our teams destroyed as they couldn't handle the size or physicality.

So Saturday will tell if they can last the distance. They may take the first or 2nd win but it is four grueling test.

If they fall of the pace in the first half, it will be massive. But who knows.

They gave some proper props, hookers are great and loose forwards but not the locks. Their backline is up there too. So if SA can keep the pressure and tight in the first half it will definitely be a run away

I'm happy with the team...would have selected the same if it was up to me, barring Eskom, but that's my bias, I can understand his selection, hy's 'n yster despite my bias..

Thomas ahead of Porthen, vd Bergh ahead of Reinach and Hanekom ahead of Eskom

I’m not a fan of Nortje’s lack of physicality but I can live with him. He is a better version of Mostert

In the Bok pack you have to have some players who **go full on** for 80 minutes. Right now 2 come to mind. Nortje and Du Toit. This is makes these two players very valuable. Mostert was also an 80 minute big engine player and this was what kept him in the Bok squad.

There are of course others that could make 80 minutes if they had to. eg Marx and Casper Wiese.