Hooker starts in Wellington

Rassie has released his team for the crucial test in Wellington, and has thrown caution to the wind. Pollard, le Roux, de Allende, Kriel, van Staden (Kolisi a tad lucky) and Eben (possibly niggle) drop out of the squad. Grant Williams who had an error prone game although behind a losing breakdown drops to the bench. The backline has been completely rejigged = Reinach, Wunderkind, Hooker, Willemse, Moodie, Kolbe and Fassi.

Marx is still the starting hooker, but the lineouts are becoming a real problem for the Boks. I have seen video analysis showing the All Blacks stepping over the mark of touch every time just before Marx throws – putting pressure on Marx. Along with all the usual shenanigans at the breakdown the Boks will have to make plans against these as the refs just left it go. The Boks really need to call in a guy like Matfield to assist – all the teams are figuring out how to negate our lineout.

The main problem for the Boks is in their heads. I believe after everyone blowing smoke up their asses with the way they played against Georgia and Italy and that phenomenal start at Ellis Park, the Bok psyche took a major knock when the Wallabies just demolished them in the last 60 minutes of that match. At the moment the players make mistakes because mentally they are under pressure.

In the long run the Boks need to bring in younger players into the squad. Many of the old stalwarts will not make 2027. Likewise especially after seeing a great analysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRSbA9vf_bY by Andre Pretorius on what Tony Ball actually is, I believe the Boks need to continue with this evolution. The traditional SA way of reverting to one of runners is just going to end in more turnovers and slow ball on attack.

15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Ruan Nortjé, 4 Lood de Jager, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché.
Bench: 16 Marnus van der Merwe, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 André Esterhuizen.