Nienaber makes 11 changes to Bok team for Pumas Test

The starting team shows 11 changes from last week,  with Nienaber bringing back a host of players who featured in the recent series win over the British & Irish Lions.

In total, the match-23 shows 17 changes from the squad that beat the Pumas 32-12 in the opening match last Saturday. 

The only players who will start again this weekend are Lood De Jager (lock), captain Siya Kolisi, Jasper Wiese and Cobus Reinach.

Reinach will start in the same backline that secured the Lions Series win in the final Test against the British & Irish Lions two weeks ago, which sees Handré Pollard back at flyhalf, Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am return to the midfield, and Makazole Mapimpi, Cheslin Kolbe (wings) and Willie le Roux (fullback) at their posts in the back three.

Martin Orie, who has made all five of his Test appearances off the bench, as well as Malcolm Marx and Trevor Nyakane have been promoted to the starting team, where Thomas du Toit will also start his first Test of the season.

The only change in the loose trio is at flank, where Franco Mostert steps in for Kwagga Smith, who moves to the bench in place of the injured Marco van Staden.

“This is a long season, so we need to get the balance right between building consistency in selection and in our performances, managing the players in terms of their workload, and building depth within our squad,” said Nienaber. 

 Nienaber said they are expecting Argentina to come out firing this week.

“Argentina will come hard at us, so we know we need to perform much better than last week to get the desired result.

“We’ve identified a few areas we need to work on if we want to defend our title successfully, and we will work on those aspects of our game at training this week.”