De Allende to earn 100th cap in RGR opener

Centre, Damian de Allende, will become the 10th player in history to earn 100 Test caps for South Africa when the Springboks face the All Blacks in the opening game of the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Pieter-Steph du Toit will captain the side in the absence of the injured, Siya Kolisi.

Young Paul de Villiers, who has played just three Tests, will take Kolisi’s place on the side of the scrum.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will start at flyhalf, with Grant Williams named at scrumhalf.

There is also place in the matchday squad for Cobus Wiese, whose brother Jasper starts at No 8.  Cobus is joined on the bench by Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Zach Porthen and Andre Esterhuizen.

“The All Blacks are a quality team, and we selected combinations we think would be best suited for the challenge this weekend,” said Erasmus.

“The squad is well balanced with players who remained in South Africa to train for this series and some of the players who featured against Argentina,” he added.

“It certainly helped to have some players return from injury last week and to get back into top-flight Test rugby, while some of the others who had a heavy workload in the Nations Championship had sufficient time to recover from the physical toll on them.”

Springbok team: Damian Willemse, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Grant Williams, Jasper Wiese, Pieter-Steph du Toit (capt), Paul de Villiers, Ruan Nortje, Eben Etzebeth, Wilco Louw, Malcolm Marx, Ox Nche.

Bench: Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Gerhard Steenekamp, Zachary Porthen, Cobus Wiese, Andre Esterhuizen, Marco van Staden, Cobus Reinach, Manie Libbok

Damian De Allende raises his bat as the #Springboks name a settled side for the opening match of #RugbysGreatestRivalry – more here: https://t.co/wnA3URrOkM 🤩

Limited tickets available here: https://t.co/uBngZcGS7g 🎟️

Stream every Bok Test LIVE on DStv: https://t.co/qFpxGWMbDp… pic.twitter.com/sVXjEgeYiq

— Springboks (@Springboks) August 20, 2026

Written by: Ntsako Mukhari