Three members of Rassie Erasmus’ starting XV are set to make their debuts- loosehead prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels, hooker Johan Grobbelaar and flanker Phepsi Buthelezi.
A further four more could make their deubts from the bench- hooker Andre-Hugo Venter, flanker Ruan Venter, scrumhalf Morne van den Berg and fullback Quan Horn.
Winger Kurt-Lee Arendse is the sole survivor from the 25-24 loss to Andy Farrell’s side in Durban.
Locks Salmaan Moerat and RG Snyman are the two other members from the 1-1 series with Ireland in the starting XV. The pair had previously been part of the Bomb Squad.
Stormers lock Moerat will lead the Springboks for the first time in his career.
For the third consecutive match, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will take his place on the bench, which on this occasion has a 5-3 split.
“Portugal are a quality team as we saw with their victory against Fiji in the RWC, while they also drew their clash against Georgia 18-18,” said Erasmus.
It was important for us to select a quality team with a bunch of experienced players, while at the same time delivering on our objective of growing our squad depth by naming a few debutants.”
South Africa XV
15 – Aphelele Fassi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 4 caps, 10 points (2t)14 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 17 caps, 70 points (14t)
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 35 caps, 30 pts (6t)
12 – Andre Esterhuizen (HollywoodbetsSharks) – 17 caps, 0 pts
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 42 caps, 135 points (27t)
10 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 14 caps, 87 pts (1t, 26c, 10p)
9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 32 caps, 65 pts (13t)
8 – Evan Roos (DHL Stormers) – 6 caps, 0 points
7 – Ben-Jason Dixon (DHL Stormers) –cap, 0 points6 – Phepsi Buthelezi (HollywoodbetsSharks) – uncapped
5 – RG Snyman (Leinster) – 36 caps, 10points (2t)4 – Salmaan Moerat (captain, DHLStormers) – 6 caps, 0 points
3 – Thomas du Toit (Bath) – 18 caps, 0 pts
2 – Johan Grobbelaar (Vodacom Bulls) – uncapped1 – Jan-Hendrik Wessels (Vodacom Bulls) – uncapped
Replacements16 – Andre-Hugo Venter (DHL Stormers) – uncapped
17 – Ntuthuko Mchunu (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 2 caps, 0 points
18 – Trevor Nyakane (Hollywoodbets
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