{"id":29883,"date":"2026-03-25T12:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=29883"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:46:19","slug":"de-villiers-highlights-malcolm-marx-as-sas-springboks-most-important-player","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/de-villiers-highlights-malcolm-marx-as-sas-springboks-most-important-player\/","title":{"rendered":"De Villiers highlights Malcolm Marx as SA’s Springboks most important player"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers believes hooker Malcolm Marx is the key to South Africa (SA) winning a third consecutive Rugby World Cup title.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Because the Springbok game is built around the forwards, De Villiers says that losing a player as strong as Marx could have a massive negative effect on the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I will give you one name, Malcolm Marx. If we lose Malcolm Marx, we’re in trouble,” he told The Rugby Pod.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While SA have a plethora of props at their disposal, Marx has become absolutely critical at hooker.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The powerhouse forward became World Rugby Player of the Year for his performances in 2025 and in their big November games against France and Ireland, he played 77 and 73 minutes respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With Bongi Mbonambi, who is now 35, being eased out by Erasmus having been omitted from the first alignment camp of the year, the head coach is looking for an effective back-up to Marx.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Johan Grobbelaar, Marnus van der Merwe, Jan-Hendrik Wessels and usual flanker Marco van Staden were all picked in the 16 shirt in 2025, but the Boks have not yet found a reliable replacement for the 31-year-old.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–SABC–<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15506,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-29883","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rugby World Cup","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29883","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\/29883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29884,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29883\/revisions\/29884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}