South Africa announce very strong team to play Wales on Saturday

South Africa have announced a powerful team to face Wales on Saturday.

It will be the first international match for the Springboks since they won the World Cup in France last year. Prop Vincent Koch is in line to make his 50th appearance for his country.

There are two uncapped players named in the starting XV - Edwill van der Merwe (wing) and Jordan Hendrikse (fly-half). The team will be captained by totemic flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit.

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There are two more uncapped players on the bench - Ben-Jason Dixon (lock) and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (utility back). The latter has been impressive in the United Rugby Championship for DHL Stormers for the last few seasons.

Ten players in the matchday 23 featured in the World Cup final against New Zealand. The likes of Eben Etzebeth and Faf de Klerk are named in a very strong Springboks side.

Despite the controversial 7-1 split that was pioneered by the 'Boks in recent times, Rassie Erasmus has named a 5-3 split instead.

Speaking on his 23, Erasmus said: "This is an exciting playing squad and travelling group, and we are looking forward to seeing how the uncapped players step up at top international level and how we execute what we’ve been working on at training in the last few days and at the alignment camps. The likes of Edwill, Jordan, Ben-Jason, and Sacha have really impressed us at training, and we believe they have what it takes to make their presence felt against a quality team such as Wales.

"They will be surrounded by several experienced campaigners – some of whom are Rugby World Cup winners - so they will have enough guidance on the field to fulfil their roles even when the pressure is on. It is equally exciting for us to see players such as Aphelele (Fassi), Evan (Roos), Ntuthuko (Mchunu), and Salmaan (Moerat) back in the green in gold after earning their stripes in the last few seasons."

SOUTH AFRICA XV: Aphelele Fassi; Edwill van der Merwe, Jesse Kriel, Andre Estherhuizen, Makazole Mapimpi; Jordan Hendrikse, Faf de Klerk; Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx, Vincent Koch, Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert, Kwagga Smith, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Evan Roos.

Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Frans Malherbe, Salmaan Moerat, Ben-Jason Dixon, Grant Williams, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Damian de Allende.

KICK-OFF V WALES AT TWICKENHAM: 2PM, SATURDAY JUNE 22.