{"id":15260,"date":"2025-11-13T14:09:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-make-11-changes-to-starting-xv-for-italy-test\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:32","slug":"sa-make-11-changes-to-starting-xv-for-italy-test","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-make-11-changes-to-starting-xv-for-italy-test\/","title":{"rendered":"SA make 11 changes to starting XV for Italy test"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">South Africa (SA) have made 11 changes to their starting team and selected Andre Esterhuizen as a replacement loose forward for the Autumn International series clash with Italy in Turin on Saturday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Only captain Siya Kolisi, prop Boan Venter, wing Kurt-Lee Arendse and fullback Damian Willemse will start from the team that defeated France 32-17 in Paris last time out as coach Rassie Erasmus offers opportunities to others.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Handre Pollard will play his first game on tour from flyhalf, with Morne van den Berg in the number nine jersey and a centre pairing of Ethan Hooker and Canan Moodie.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Wing Edwill van der Merwe makes up a back three alongside Arendse and Willemse.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Hooker Johan Grobbelaar will have props Venter and Zachary Porthen either side of him, with Jean Kleyn and Franco Mostert the starting locks.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Kolisi is at the back of the scrum with Ben-Jason Dixon and number eight Marco van Staden.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Handre Pollard will play his first game on tour from flyhalf, with Morne van den Berg in the number nine jersey and a centre pairing of Ethan Hooker and Canan Moodie.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_text-module__text__0GDob x_text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 x_text-module__regular__qJJtA x_text-module__small__sph8i x_body-module__full_width__kCIGb x_body-module__small_body__gOmDf x_article-body-module__paragraph__Ts-yF\">Wing Edwill van der Merwe makes up a back three alongside Arendse and Willemse.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_text-module__text__0GDob x_text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 x_text-module__regular__qJJtA x_text-module__small__sph8i x_body-module__full_width__kCIGb x_body-module__small_body__gOmDf x_article-body-module__paragraph__Ts-yF\">Hooker Johan Grobbelaar will have props Venter and Zachary Porthen either side of him, with Jean Kleyn and Franco Mostert the starting locks.<\/div>\n<div>Kolisi is at the back of the scrum with Ben-Jason Dixon and number eight Marco van Staden.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Erasmus has selected what looks like a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench, though hybrid player Esterhuizen can come on as a flanker or centre.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>With no specialist hooker backup, Van Staden will fill that void in yet another experiment from Erasmus.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Marco played hooker for us at the (2023) World Cup, and he has been training in the position since, so it doesn\u2019t make a difference whether he starts at loose forward and moves to hooker,&#8221; Erasmus said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;We said from the outset of the tour that we want to give as many players as possible a chance to play, and we believe this team is best suited to the threats Italy will pose.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;One of our key pillars is to build squad depth, and it\u2019s great to have players like Jean, Handre, Edwill, and Ben-Jason back.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Handre and Jean have played in Rugby World Cups, while Ben-Jason and Edwill have both performed for us at the highest level, and we are excited to see what they\u2019ll bring this weekend.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">South Africa hosted Italy for two tests in July and won 42-24 and 45-0.<\/div>\n<div>South Africa team:<\/div>\n<div>15-Damian Willemse, 14-Edwill van der Merwe, 13-Canan Moodie, 12-Ethan Hooker, 11-Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Morne van den Berg, 8-Marco van Staden, 7-Ben-Jason Dixon, 6-Siya Kolisi (c), 5-Franco Mostert, 4-Jean Kleyn, 3-Zachary Porthen, 2-Johan Grobbelaar, 1-Boan Venter<\/div>\n<div>Replacements: 16-Gerhard Steenekamp, 17-Wilco Louw, 18-RG Snyman, 19-Ruan Nortje, 20-Andre Esterhuizen, 21-Kwagga Smith, 22-Grant Williams, 23-Manie Libbok.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14093,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-15260","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Erasmus has selected what looks like a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Erasmus has selected what looks like a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19574,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15260\/revisions\/19574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}