Springboks given huge boost as Eben Etzebeth passed fit for All Blacks clash

South Africa lock Eben Etzebeth has been passed fit to face New Zealand in a Rugby Championship showdown in Johannesburg on Saturday, but will start from the bench having originally been excluded from the team announced this week due to injury.

Coach Rassie Erasmus omitted the double World Cup winner from his matchday 23 when he named it on Tuesday, but amid a crisis in the second row that sees the Springboks still without five regulars, he has drafted the giant lock into the replacements.

Etzebeth takes the place on the bench of flanker Marco van Staden and should he come on will earn a 125th cap, moving into second place outright on the all-time list for South Africa, two behind former lock Victor Matfield.

“Our selection policy has always been that if a player does not train on a Monday, he will not play on Saturday, but Eben has made it through training pain-free all week, so we had to make the tough call to name him in the squad at the expense of Marco,” Erasmus said.

Etzebeth had started the Springboks’ previous 22 encounters with the All Blacks but suffered a foot injury, seemingly forcing him to join fellow locks RG Snyman, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert and Salmaan Moerat on the sidelines.

That led Erasmus to pair the inexperienced Ruan Nortje with Pieter-Steph du Toit, again moved away from his regular berth on the blindside, but the pair will have world-class cover among the replacements.

Elsewhere, Aphelele Fassi is surprisingly preferred to Willie le Roux at full-back while Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu earns another significant opportunity at fly-half.

Jasper Wiese is back available after serving a six-match suspension and starts at No 8 as one of nine changes to the side that beat Australia in Perth.

“It’s not ideal that we have so many injuries, but we are pleased with the way Ruan stood up in our last match and we are confident he will combine well with Pieter-Steph,” coach Erasmus said ahead of Saturday’s clash at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

“Eben may have been ready to play this week if we really needed him, but we feel we will benefit more from selecting a player that is 100 per cent fit.

“It’s also good to have a player of Jasper’s calibre back and we know that he’ll bring a lot of energy on attack and defence after biding his time to return to the field. We are looking forward to seeing his physicality combined with the rest of the back row.”

South Africa lead the Rugby Championship table after two rounds following two bonus-point wins over the Wallabies.

New Zealand are second with five points, with the two heavyweights meeting in back-to-back contests. The rematch will be in Cape Town on 7 September.

South Africa XV to face New Zealand at Ellis Park: 1 Ox Nche, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 3 Frans Malherbe; 4 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 5 Ruan Nortje; 6 Siya Kolisi (capt), 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 8 Jasper Wiese; 9 Cobus Reinach, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu; 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Jesse Kriel, 14 Cheslin Kolbe; 15 Aphelele Fassi.

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Marco van Staden, 20 Elrigh Louw, 21 Kwagga Smith; 22 Grant Williams, 23 Handre Pollard.

Additional reporting by Reuters