SOUTH AFRICA v PORTUGAL – TOYOTA STADIUM, BLOEMFONTEIN – KO 5pm
Referee
Hollie Davidson (Scotland
Test debut: 9 November, 2018 – England 57-5 USA
Tests as referee: 34 (28 women’s, six men’s)
Davidson will take charge of this fixture for the first time.
It will be the first time she referees a team from The Rugby Championship, never mind the side top of the World Rugby Men’s Rankings.
Davidson has refereed Portugal on two occasions, including a 38-31 defeat to Italy in June 2022 when she became the first female to referee a Guinness Men’s Six Nations team, leading an all-female match official team.
She also refereed Portugal’s 54-17 victory over Belgium in the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship 2023.
This will be her fifth Test of year in the middle, having also overseen Spain’s win over the Netherlands in the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship and then Italy win over Ireland, France’s defeat of Wales in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations and Canada’s 35-22 defeat of Romania last weekend.
She also became the first female to be an assistant referee in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations in February when she ran the line for England v Wales at Twickenham.
Davidson was in the middle for Canada’s 35-22 victory over Romania last weekend and will also referee the Japan v USA match in the Pacific Nations Cup in Japan on 7 September.
She recently became the first female official to referee men’s domestic top flight play-off match after taking charge of the United Rugby Championship quarter-final between Munster and the Ospreys.
She refereed finals at the Commonwealth Games, Rugby World Cup Sevens and Rugby World Cup 2021 while becoming an ever-more familiar face on the men’s international scene.
The Scot was also the first female to referee at the World Rugby U20 Championship in 2023 in South Africa.
Head-to-head
This will be their first meeting
Team notes
South Africa suffered their first defeat of the year when they were beaten 25-24 by
Ireland in Durban last Saturday.
The Springboks looked set to win the game after coming back from 16-6 down at half-time. However, Ciaran Frawley snatched victory for Ireland with the last kick of the game after slotting his second drop goal.
Handré Pollard kicked all of South Africa’s points through eight penalties, equalling the record for a Springbok player in a test set by Morné Steyn against New Zealand in 2009.
South Africa have failed to score a try in two of their last four Tests (also 12-11 v New Zealand in the RWC 2023 final).
South Africa were try-less from nine visits into the Ireland 22 and only came away with three points for an average of 0.33 per visit.
South Africa failed to make a single breakdown steal in the match, whereas Ireland made three.
South Africa only put width on the ball 4% of the time (at least 20 metres away from the ruck) compared to 16% in the first Test win.
The defeat to Ireland ended South Africa’s six-game winning run, which included a 41-13 win over Wales and the first Test 27-20 win over Ireland in 2024.
Four of South Africa’s last six games have been settled by a single point, with the Springboks having a W3, L1 record in these cliffhangers.
South Africa have only lost to Ireland in the last 12 months, having also been beaten 13-8 in the pool stage of RWC 2023.
Last Saturday’s defeat was South Africa’s first at home since they lost 35-23 to New Zealand at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg in August 2022.
Portugal beat Namibia 37-22 in Windhoek last Saturday, outscoring the Welwitschias four tries to one.
Flyhalf Domingos Cabral kicked 14 points on debut and had a hand in their first try, his cross-field kick picking out winger Rodrigo Marta.
Flanker Nicolas Martins scored their second try as the game ebbed and flowed before winger Jose dos Santos added another.
Fullback Manuel Cardoso Pinto completed a full set of tries for the back three when he danced over 15 minutes from time.
It was Portugal’s first Test since they finished runners-up to Georgia in the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship for the second consecutive year.
Portugal lost the final 36-10 in Paris after a consolation try from Rodrigo Marta right at the death. Hugo Aubry converted the try, to add to Hugo Camacho’s earlier penalty.
Abel da Cunha and José Madeira were sin-binned for Portugal in a game of five yellow cards.
Portugal went into the final with Georgia seeking their first title at this level since 2003, when the competition was known as European Nations Cup Division 1A.
Portugal qualified for the final after beating Iberian neighbours Spain 33-30 in a thrilling semi-final in Lisbon.
Os Lobos bounced back from their shock 10-6 loss to Belgium in round one to qualify for the knockout stages as winners of Pool B.
Portugal picked up 11 points, the losing bonus point against Belgium backed up by consecutive bonus-point wins against Poland (54-7) and Romania (49-24).
Hugo Aubry was the competition’s leading points scorer with 55 overall, having missed just two of his 25 attempts at goal (92%).
Os Lobos achieved their maiden Rugby World Cup win in their second tournament in France when they beat Fiji 24-23 in their final pool game.
This followed an 18-18 draw with Georgia and 28-8 and 34-14 defeats to Wales and Australia respectively, with Os Lobos finishing fourth in Pool C.
Team news
Salmaan Moerat will become the 66th player to captain the Springboks when he leads out a much-changed team for the match against Portugal this weekend.
The 26-year-old is the third different captain in four Tests this year – as he makes the step up having previously led SA Schools, the Junior Springboks and the DHL Stormers.
The new-look squad features seven uncapped players – three in a starting line-up which has a combined total of 228 caps, 672 fewer than the one that took to the field for last weekend's second Test defeat to Ireland and was the most experienced in Springbok
history.
Debutant hooker Johan Grobbelaar and loosehead prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels have a Rugby World Cup 2019 winner alongside them in the front row, with Thomas du Toit making a return to Test rugby on the tighthead for the first time since he faced Argentina on the eve of France 2023.
Moerat and RG Snyman in the second row are promoted from the bench and are two of only four players to be retained from last week's match-day 23.
The uncapped Phepsi Buthelezi is named at blindside and Ben-Jason Dixon wins his second cap at openside. Evans Roos completes the new-look back-row.
Cobus Reinach and Manie Libbok, who needs 13 points to reach a century in Test rugby, combine as the starting half-backs for the first time since the semi-final of RWC 2023.
Centre Lukhanyo Am also makes his first appearance of the year outside Andre Esterhuizen in midfield.
Makazole Mapimpi returns to the side on the right wing, while Kurt-Lee Arendse retains his spot on the right and Aphelele Fassi is back at fullback.
In addition to the three new starters, hooker Andre-Hugo Venter, loose forward Ruan Venter, scrumhalf Morne van den Berg and fullback Quan Horn could also be in line to make their debuts from the bench.
Should Venter be called upon, he will follow in the footsteps of his father, Andre Venter, who played 66 Tests for South Africa between 1996 and 2001. They will become the 16th father/son combination to play for the Springboks.
Veteran prop Francisco Fernandes, who made his Test debut against Russia in 2010, is joined in an unchanged front row by hooker Luca Begic and tighthead Diogo Hasse Ferreira.
Duarte Torgal returns to the second row and is joined by uncapped Nicolas Fernandes.
Madeira retains his spot on the blindside, Diego Pinheiro is the openside as Martins makes way and Vasco Baptista replaces João Granate at No 8.
Talented youngster Hugo Camacho partners Joris Moura at half-back, with Moura starting for only the second time.
The midfield combination of captain Tomás Appleton and José Lima is unchanged.
Pinto shifts from fullback to wing after scoring the winning try against Namibia last weekend, with Marta out wide on the left and Simão Bento on the right.
Bento makes his first appearance for Os Lobos since the opening round of the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship 2024.
Coach notes
Rassie Erasmus – the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – has returned to the role of head coach for the next four years following the departure of Jacques Nienaber to Leinster
Erasmus coached the team in 2019 and was Director of Rugby four years later.
Erasmus’ reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.
Former All Black flyhalf Tony Brown has been brought in as attack coach and the responsibility for the defence now falls to former Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery.
Erasmus has also added a performance analyst in Paddy Sullivan, who worked with the team as a consultant at RWC 2023. Sullivan has been a performance analyst for French Top 14 team, Montpelier, for the last three seasons.
Double RWC-winning Springbok No 8, Duane Vermeulen, has also been appointed to a roving coaching role with all SA Rugby’s national teams, while former referee Jaco Peyper has come on board as a laws advisor.
Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward.
Portugal’s Simon Mannix enters his second spell as an international head coach; however, the Namibia game was his first Test in charge of a team as his spell with Singapore came during the Covid-19 pandemic when the Asian side didn’t take to the field.
A former All Blacks flyhalf, Mannix has a wealth of experience in the club game, predominantly in France.
He linked up with Portugal following the end of the Pro D2 season having helped to keep Biarritz in the French second division.
He won the Pro D2 with Pau in 2015 and has had previous spells with Racing 92 and Munster.
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