South Africa make 11 changes for second round clash against Argentina

South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has made 11 changes for the starting line-up for the second round of the Rugby Championship to be played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Lood de Jager, Siya Kolisi, Jasper Wiese and Cobus Reinach were the only players to retain their places from the opening round of the competition against the Pumas that South Africa went on to win 32-12.

Willie le Roux comes at fullback replacing Damian Willemse while Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi are the preferred wings. Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am return to the midfield while Handre Pollard takes the kicking responsibility forming halfback partnership with Reinach.

Thomas du Toit, Malcolm Marx and Trevor Nykane will be part of the front row while Marvin Orie will make his debut for the Springboks forming second row partnership with de Jager, who is set to play his 50th game.

The final change in the starting line up sees Franco Mostert coming at openside in the place of Kwagga Smith. Uncapped Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg has been named on the bench that also has Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Smith, Dan du Preez, Jaden Hendrikse and Damian Willemse.

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

“While we were pleased with the victory and to start our Rugby Championship campaign on a winning note, there was a lot of room for improvement in our performance.

“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.

“Argentina plays with a lot of passion, much like we do, so they’ll want to show their fighting spirit, which will set the scene for another challenging Test match between us.”

South Africa XV: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Franco Mostert, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Marvin Orie, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Trevor Nyakane

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff,18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Nicolaas van Rensburg, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Dan du Preez, 22 Jaden Hendrikse, 23 Damian Willemse