Johannesburg (AFP)
Eight black players will start with South Africa on Saturday in opening of the Rugby Championship against Australia in Johannesburg, a first, in which the third line of Toulouse Rynhardt Elstadt will know him his first selection, announced Wednesday the South African Federation .
Twice in the past, against France on 17 June 2017 (37-15) and against Wales on 2 June 2018 (20-22), seven black players had started, while an agreement concluded there is several years between the government and the federation requires that half of the group of 31 players selected for the World Cup in Japan (20 September-2 November) be black.
Under apartheid, Blacks, who make up 92 percent of the South African population, could not play for the Springboks. The world champion team in 1995, four years after the abolition of Apartheid, had only one Black in his ranks (winger Chester Williams), and the one that was in 2007, two, the Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen.
They will be eight Saturday at Johannesburg's Ellis Park: back Warrick Gelant, wingers Sibusiso Nkosi and Makazole Mapimpi, opener Elton Jantjies scrum half Herschel Jantjies, and the entire front row (the pillars Tendai "The Beast" Mtawarira and Trevor Nyakane, hooker Bongi Mbonambi). Winger Dillyn Leyds, Pillar Lizo Gqoboka and second row Marvin Orie are their substitutes.
Herschel Jantjies, scrum half of the Stormers revelation South African Super Rugby season, will know his first cape as Elstadt, champion of France on June 15 with Toulouse, where he arrived in summer 2017 from the Stormers, precisely . Gqoboka could also get his first selection.
The captain will be Eben Etzebeth in the absence of Siya Kolisi, injured.
The starting XV of South Africa against Australia: Gelant - Nkosi, Je. Kriel, Esterhuizen, Mapimpi - (o) E. Jantjies, (m) H. Jantjies - P.-S. of the Roof, Louw, Elstadt - of Jager, Etzebeth (Cape) - Nyakane, Mbonambi, Mtawarira
Replacements: Brits, Gqoboka, Koch, Orie, M. Coetzee, Reinach, F. Steyn, Leyds
© 2019 AFP