South Africa name unchanged side for second Test against Ireland

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus has named an unchanged side for the second and final Test against Ireland to be played on Saturday.

Erasmus has retained his faith in the same matchday 23 squad that defeated Ireland 27-20 in the first Test in Pretoria and in the process they become the most-capped side to take the field with 990 surpassing the 987 number that saw the Springboks defeat the All Blacks in the final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel will be pairing for the 30th time as they become the most-capped mid-field combination in South African history.

“It’s always tough facing Ireland,” said Erasmus.

“They are a quality team, they are ranked second in the world, and as we saw last week, they never stop fighting, so we know the magnitude of the challenge that awaits us this weekend.

“We have no doubt they’ll come out even stronger this week, but we also identified the areas of the game that we need to improve on, and it’s vital for us to build on our performance in our quest to win both matches.”

Team line up:

South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Kwagga Smith, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche

Reserves: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 RG Snyman, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu