‘Sacha has done wonderful things for us’

Rassie Erasmus backs the Springbok halfback pairing of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Grant Williams on Saturday, along with his choice of Cobus Wiese as his preferred lock cover.

Erasmus was speaking on Thursday after naming the Bok team to face the All Blacks at Ellis Park, in the opening Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu made his first start in Argentina a fortnight ago following an ankle injury. Last year, the 24-year-old set a Bok record of nine tries by a flyhalf, including a hat-trick and 37 points against Los Pumas.

While he will run out again at 10 this week, Erasmus said choosing between Manie Libbok, Handré Pollard and Feinberg-Mngomezulu was difficult, as was the call involving scrumhalves Williams, Morné van den Berg, Cobus Reinach and Herschel Jantjies.

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“Sacha has done wonderful things for us when he’s played. He was the flyhalf last year when we beat them in Wellington,” the Bok coach told reporters.

“Cobus and Grant are clearly our first- and second-choice scrumhalves at this stage. We don’t always select combinations simply because Cobus and Sacha play together at the Stormers.

“We look at which players understand what we’re trying to do and which players have trained the best. The players on the other side also help the guys prepare as well as they can. It’s always a tough call.

“Hopefully, if things go our way on Saturday, we can make a few changes next week.”

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That thinking informed five-cap Wiese’s selection on the bench ahead of World Cup winners Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager.

Mostert has been sidelined with an ankle problem since the Barbarians season-opener on 20 June, while De Jager played just over a half after starting against Argentina in his first Bok outing of 2026.

“Sous [Mostert] is definitely a bit undercooked. If you look at his minutes over the last six weeks, it’s four minutes. He got injured really early,” Erasmus said.

“Lood has struggled with a hell of a lot of different injuries over the last seven or eight months, and he only got about 40 minutes against Argentina.

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“Our coaches and strength and conditioning staff are doing work with those guys to get them up to match fitness.

“We saw it in the British & Irish Lions series in 2021, and we’ve seen it in World Cup pools; it’s about who is still standing and how many players you still have fit and ready to go when it gets to the latter stages.

“We see it in the same way here. They probably could have played, but if you risk them this weekend and then get to match three of the series with a lot of walking wounded, that becomes a problem. So, with those two, that’s definitely the thought process.”

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