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Louise Thomas

Editor

South Africa have suffered a major blow ahead of their Rugby Championship clash with New Zealand rugby with lock Eben Etzebeth ruled out.

Etzebeth had started the Springboks’ previous 22 encounters with the All Blacks but has suffered a foot injury, joining fellow locks RG Snyman, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert and Salmaan Moerat on the sidelines.

An injury crisis in the second row forces Rassie Erasmus to pair the inexperienced Ruan Nortje with Pieter-Steph du Toit, again moved away from his regular berth on the blindside.

Elsewhere, Aphelele Fassi is surprisingly preferred to Willie le Roux at full-back while Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu earns another significant opportunity at fly-half.

Jasper Wiese is back available after serving a six-match suspension and starts at No 8 as one of nine changes to the side that beat Australia in Perth.

“It’s not ideal that we have so many injuries, but we are pleased with the way Ruan stood up in our last match and we are confident he will combine well with Pieter-Steph,” coach Rassie Erasmus ahead of Saturday’s clash at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

“Eben may have been ready to play this week if we really needed him, but we feel we will benefit more from selecting a player that is 100 per cent fit.

“It’s also good to have a player of Jasper’s calibre back and we know that he’ll bring a lot of energy on attack and defence after biding his time to return to the field. We are looking forward to seeing his physicality combined with the rest of the back row.”

South Africa lead the Rugby Championship table after two rounds following two bonus-point wins over the Wallabies.

New Zealand are second with five points, with the two heavyweights meeting in back-to-back contests. The rematch will be in Cape Town on 7 September.

South Africa XV to face New Zealand at Ellis Park: 1 Ox Nche, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 3 Frans Malherbe; 4 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 5 Ruan Nortje; 6 Siya Kolisi (capt), 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 8 Jasper Wiese; 9 Cobus Reinach, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu; 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Jesse Kriel, 14 Cheslin Kolbe; 15 Aphelele Fassi.

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Marco van Staden, 20 Elrigh Louw, 21 Kwagga Smith; 22 Grant Williams, 23 Handre Pollard.

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