Moerat to lead Boks in Bloem

Stormers lock, Salmaan Moerat, will captain the Springboks for the first time on Saturday in Bloemfontein when they take on Portugal in a one-off Test.

Bok coach, Rassie Erasmus, rang the changes to the team that played against Ireland, with seven uncapped players named in the match-day 23 with Moerat, RG Snyman, Sacha Freinberg-Mngomezulu, and Kurt-Lee Arendse the only players in the team that featured in the Ireland series.

The uncapped players in the starting line-up are former Junior Springbok captain, Phepsi Buthelezi, Johan Grobbelaar and Jan-Hendrik Wessels, while Andre-Hugo Venter, Ruan Venter, Morne van den Berg and Quan Horn are set to make their debuts off the bench.

Moerat (26) becomes the 66th Springbok captain having already captained the Stormers, SA Schools, and the Junior Springboks.

Erasmus heaped praise on Moerat after naming his team.

“Salmaan commands respect from his team-mates, so we’d like to congratulate him on this achievement, and we have no doubt that he’ll take on this responsibility as well as he has for the other teams he has led. He has come through the SA Rugby ranks and he went on to captain the Junior Springboks and SA Schools teams, as well as the Stormers and Western Province, which speaks volumes about his quality as a player and a captain,” he said.

Springbok team:

15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Phepsi Buthelezi, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels

Substitutes: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Ruan Venter,20 Elrigh Louw, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Quan Horn. Written by Ntsako Mukhari