By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
The Springboks could make a late change for the Saturday’s Nations Championship clash against Scotland at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Tshwane.
It is understood rising star wing Canan Moodie is in doubt to play due to injury.
Boks were dealt two major injury blows on the eve of their 45-21 victory over England last week, when Siya Kolisi (hamstring) and Eben Etzebeth (concussion) were both withdrawn.
That forced Rassie Erasmus to make changes, with Pieter-Steph du Toit moving to lock and taking over the captaincy, while Paul de Villiers and Cameron Hanekom started on the flanks.
Moodie, who will earn his 25th cap for the Boks, said they anticipate an aerial battle and are prepared for it.
“Very, very dangerous, you know, very attack-minded team. And you know, they got the ballplayers to do that. We saw on the weekend against Argentina that they know how to play the ball wide.”
“So yeah, we, we gotta have a good prep and, and make sure we are ready for that.”
Erasmus made changes to his starting team.
In total, 10 of the players in the match-23 from the England Test were retained as the Bok coach looks to balance consistency with spreading the workload within his squad for the challenging season, which also includes the series against New Zealand in August and September.
Scotland have climbed to fifth in the world rankings following four victories in their last five matches, but Scotland coach Gregor Townsend is well aware his side face the ultimate test this weekend.
Scotland have never beaten the Springboks in South Africa, and this is their first crack at it since 2014.
South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (captain), 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Boan Venter.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Zach Porthen, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Vincent Tshituka, 21 Elrigh Louw, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Quan Horn.
Scotland: 15 Kyle Rowe, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Rory Hutchinson, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (captain), 11 Jamie Dobie, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Gregor Brown, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Gregor Hiddleston, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Alex Samuel, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Magnus Bradbury, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Stafford McDowall.