{"id":37344,"date":"2026-06-17T11:26:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37344"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:26:32","slug":"sas-erasmus-names-powerhouse-pack-to-face-barbarians","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-erasmus-names-powerhouse-pack-to-face-barbarians\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s Erasmus names powerhouse pack to face Barbarians \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s (SA) Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is banking on a heavily experienced forward pack to shake off match rust ahead of the upcoming European tour, loading his starting lineup with World Cup-winning muscle for Saturday&#8217;s clash against the Barbarians.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Up front, explosive prop Ox Nche and Carl\u00fc Sadie will lock arms with young hooker Andre-Hugo Venter, while Salmaan Moerat and Franco Mostert take charge of the engine room. The Boks are taking zero chances in the back row, unleashing their premier, battle-hardened loose trio of captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Jasper Wiese.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decision to start Venter comes as Erasmus deliberately rotates his squad and manages workloads before heading north to face England.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Experience-wise, you want to get guys who haven&#8217;t played together for six months to try to get them together,&#8221; Erasmus explained. &#8220;Malcolm is fine, he can play this weekend, but we feel it&#8217;s time to give other hookers a chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The rugby double-header at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium kicks off at 12:00 CAT on Saturday with SA &#8216;A&#8217; taking on Zimbabwe, followed immediately by the Springboks and the Barbarians at 15:00 CAT.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12966,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37344","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is banking on a heavily experienced forward pack to shake off match rust ahead of the upcoming European tour","published_date":"2026-06-17 11:06:40","news_description":"Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is banking on a heavily experienced forward pack to shake off match rust ahead of the upcoming European tour","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37344","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\/37344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37345,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37344\/revisions\/37345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}