Rassie Erasmus: Springboks Coach Confirms His Half Back Pairing to Face All Blacks at Ellis Park
- Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus confirmed his halfback pairing for Saturday's Test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park
- Erasmus explained why five-cap Cobus Wiese was preferred on the bench over World Cup winners Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager
- The Bok coach revealed his thinking on managing player fitness across the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series
PAY ATTENTION: Mark Briefly News as a preferred source, and our content will appear higher in your Google feed!
Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus has thrown his full support behind flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and scrumhalf Grant Williams ahead of Saturday's opening Test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park, the first match in the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series.
Erasmus spoke to reporters on Thursday, a day after naming his squad, defending what he described as a genuinely difficult selection process across multiple positions.
**Halfback Selection Was No Easy Call**
PAY ATTENTION: You can now search for all your favourite news and topics on Briefly News.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu returned to the starting line-up two weeks ago in Argentina after recovering from an ankle injury. The 24-year-old had a standout 2025 campaign, setting a Springbok record of nine tries by a flyhalf, including a hat-trick and 37 points against Los Pumas in a single match.
Erasmus acknowledged the challenge of choosing between Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Manie Libbok and Handré Pollard at flyhalf, and similarly at scrumhalf between Williams, Morné van den Berg, Cobus Reinach and Herschel Jantjies.
"Sacha has done wonderful things for us when he's played. He was the flyhalf last year when we beat them in Wellington," Erasmus said.
He was also careful to clarify that the Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Williams combination was not simply a Stormers club arrangement carried over. "We look at which players understand what we're trying to do and which players have trained the best," he said.
**Wiese Preferred Over Mostert and De Jager**
The decision to include Cobus Wiese on the bench, ahead of World Cup winners Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager, drew attention. Erasmus was direct about his reasoning, citing fitness concerns with both experienced locks.
Mostert has been limited to just four minutes of rugby since suffering an ankle injury during the Barbarians match on 20 June. De Jager, who has dealt with a series of injury setbacks over the past seven to eight months, managed roughly 40 minutes off the bench against Argentina in his first Bok appearance of 2026.
"Our coaches and strength and conditioning staff are doing work with those guys to get them up to match fitness," Erasmus said, adding that the 2021 British and Irish Lions series had reinforced the value of preserving players across a multi-match campaign.
"They probably could have played, but if you risk them this weekend and then get to match three of the series with a lot of walking wounded, that becomes a problem," the coach said.
Erasmus also left the door open for rotation, noting that a positive result on Saturday could allow the coaching staff to make changes ahead of the second Test.
PAY ATTENTION: Stay informed and follow us on Google News!
Source: Briefly News
