Lock Riley Norton is among five uncapped players in the Springboks’ match 23 to face the Barbarians in Gqeberha on Saturday.
The Junior Boks captain and Bordeaux Bègles tighthead prop Carlü Sadie are the only two players in the starting lineup who have yet to make their Test debuts.
The uncapped players among the replacements are Stormers hooker JJ Kotze and flank Paul de Villiers, and Junior Boks flyhalf Vusi Moyo.
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Bok coach Rassie Erasmus recently gave a glowing assessment of 20-year-old Norton, who will lead the SA U20’s Junior World Championship title defence in Georgia later this month.
“I don’t want to single out a player because he’s standing out more than the others. But, he’s definitely a guy that’s got maturity about him, coming into the Springbok setup as a young guy.
“He’s definitely not at all windgat, he’s confident, and there’s an aura around him.”
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Aphelele Fassi, Cheslin Kolbe and Edwill van der Merwe form the back three for the Boks’ season opener, while André Esterhuizen and Jesse Kriel combine in midfield.
Lions fullback Quan Horn surprisingly starts at flyhalf with Grant Williams at scrumhalf.
Up front, Ox Nché and Sadie form a front-row trio with André-Hugo Venter, with Norton and Franco Mostert in the engine room, and the familiar loose trio of Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese.
The bench, which features six forwards and two backs, will see Kotze, Ntuthuko Mchunu and Zachary Porthen serve as the back-up front row, while Ben-Jason Dixon, De Villiers and Evan Roos will provide additional forward reinforcement. The two backline players on the bench are veteran scrumhalf Faf de Klerk and Moyo.
“We said from the outset that we wanted to give a few players returning from injury and others who have been playing overseas game time in this match, while at the same time exposing some of the younger players on our radar to top-class international rugby, and we believe this squad reflects those objectives,” said Erasmus.
“We have been very impressed with the way the new players have jumped straight into action and grasped our systems and structures, and we are excited to see what they can do alongside some of our regular Springbok players, as we build for what will be a challenging season with the Nations Championship and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series approaching.”
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Of the Barbarians, Erasmus said: “They have a group of exciting and experienced players in their squad, and they’ll come out guns blazing and try to produce an entertaining style of rugby, which will serve as a good test for us. They will challenge us, but this will be a good hit-out for our players to get back into top-level international rugby, with the England match a little over two weeks ago.
“That said, they are always a tough side to analyse because they have players from all around the world, and a quality coaching team, who will set high standards for them, so it will be important for us to focus on our game and what we would like to achieve.”
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SPRINGBOKS – 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 André Esterhuizen, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Quan Horn, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Riley Norton, 3 Carlü Sadie, 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Ox Nché.
Bench: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Paul de Villiers, 21 Evan Roos, 22 Faf de Klerk, 23 Vusi Moyo.
Photo: Richard Huggard/Gallo Images
The post Junior Boks captain starts for Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Lock Riley Norton is among five uncapped players in the Springboks’ match 23 to face the Barbarians in Gqeberha on Saturday.
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