Andre leads Boks in Perth

Rassie has started to rate Andre Esterhuizen much higher of recent. So much so that he has named him as captain of the Boks against Australia in Perth – even though Handre Pollard and Eben Etzebeth are both in the starting team.

The team has been rotated heavily but Rassie has still kept his best front row plus Lood de Jager and Jasper Wiese on the bench for just in case. I would have much rather had Cameron Hanekom starting at 8 than Marco van Staden. The Aussies have some very fast loose forwards with Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson up there with the best jacklers in the world.

After the four epic tests against the All Blacks (plus travel to the US and then the next week to Australia) Rassie had no choice but to bring in fresh legs. However as we know from Ellis Park the Wallabies can punish the Boks if they don’t gel as a unit.

15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen (c), 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marco van Staden, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Zachary Porthen, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Quan Horn