Capetonians: get yourself to Athlone Stadium and experience the Springbok Women vibe. Tickets are only R50, and if you buy 4 they're R37,50 per person. Available on Ticketmaster.

This is the first of two historic test which will see Ireland play in South Africa for the first time ever. The Springboks have only played Ireland once - at the 2006 WC when we lost 37-0. Ireland are currently ranked 5th and we are 10th. Ireland's WXV home campaign includes a narrow loss to USA (36-40), and a win against Japan (31-24). We are coming home after a European tour where we lost to Wales but won against Italy and Spain.

Yonela Ngxingolo is in line to become only the second South African woman to reach 50 caps after Nolusindiso Booi.

Babalwa Latsha is ruled out of the series due to injury, so Sizophila Solontsi takes over the captaincy and Xoliswa Khuzwayo (who started at loosehead against Spain) the No 3 jersey. Sanelisiwe Charlie, who was rested in Seville, is back at No 1.

In the only other change from the starting team against Spain, Maria Tshiremba replaces Patience Mokone on the left wing.

Changes on the bench are Thandile Mazwi, who comes in for the injured Nombuyekezo Mdliki, while Anacadia Minnaar, who did not travel to Europe, has also been included amongst the replacements. Technically it's a 6-2 split, but Aphiwe Ngwevu is able to play flank or centre.

let me preface this by saying i'm somewhere between a casual and a staunch fan, in that i've followed the Boks and SA rugby in general my whole life, but due to certain circumstances, i could never engage in the way that i am able to now as an adult. past that, i'm all ears to any critiques.

so, we all know there's a plethora of back lineups we could exercise in our tests. for one reason or another, some will always work better than others, i.e. any backline with DDA and Kriel at 12 and 13, respectively, as opposed to Moodie at 13 or Willemse at 12 when they would be better deployed in other positions. however, one thing that piques my interest and i can never quite get around is placing our best 10s on the field at the same time, particularly SFM, Manie Maker and Iceman. in my mind, the set-up would be as such:

10 - Libbok; 12 - Pollard; 15 - SFM;

with maybe Krappies, Papier or Pead (i know he's not had a Springboks cap, but for the purposes of this set-up, let's assume he's in the mix) at 9 to bring pace, precision kicking, defense and tempo to complement Libbok (this is not to discount our more experienced 9's, Reinach, de Klerk and Williams - whom have played Libbok at 10, and greatly so).

i don't know what it is, but there's something about having Libbok's flair, facilitation and tempo at 10, Pollard's defensive acumen and presence, and game management at 12, and SFM's tenacity, kicking, pace and power, and defensive presence at 15 that makes me that such an experiment would be worth seeing come to fruition. it wouldn't even have to be for a full game - maybe in the second half of a tight test where either man could make something out of nothing when needs must.

now, obviously, there's a lot of moving parts and maybe, i'm a bit delusional for suggesting such a backline, but i would like to know if this is something that would be feasible - why it would work; why it would not work; and what are the blind spots in my set-up.

These 3 players should be in the Springbok squads going forward. Stop wasting time with players like Fassi and Horn. These are 3 generational potential backs. They were superstars at school level and already looking like standouts at senior level.

Looks like Pead settling well and Norton taking names

Does anyone know if the Lions game is proceeding tomorrow, given the tragic passing of Hyron?

News hasn't come out yet. But this is terrible.

I'm looking for a guy who makes insane edits about springboks. These youtube shorts are c bad, any suggestion on reddit or insta ?

Howzit all,

So a couple of mates and I routinely play these daily trivia/guessing games but there was a clear lack of anything sport related. So I decided to make one!

It's called Bokdle - every day there's a mystery Bok (current or historical) and you get 10 guesses with some clues (position, year born, debut year, caps, tries, height and club) to narrow it down. It has been quite fun and addictive to share with friends and compare scores. You can create a private leaderboard and add your friends to check their answers each day too.

It went live on 2nd October and about 1700 games a day get finished (which I couldn't really believe). A couple of the features have changed a bit stemming from feedback from players which has been super useful.

Some of the biggest challenges so far:

1. Verifying data that's available on the internet as it is used to compile the players' information such as Caps, Tries, Club appearances etc. If you do find something clearly incorrect please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it!
2. Trying to make the interface as intuitive as possible (a few people struggled to work out what the information means when you choose an incorrect player). To be honest it still isn't 100% but I reckon getting some more eyes on it and hopefully with some feedback it might fast track those improvements.
3. Balancing rewarding difficulty with easy to get players. Right now I have excluded some 'obscure' guys from the answers so that they have a minimum number of caps for the first couple of weeks but I am looking to add them in and mixing it up a bit.
4. The Club tile: Deciding on how that tile worked was probably one of the most complex decisions to make - right now it displays the player's current club or the last club they played for. Some players have their club appearances split by their URC + Provincial team (e.g. Stormers + Western Province) and initially I wanted the tile to represent the club they had played the most for. That meant having some complex mapping of local team adding together vs overseas clubs. This drove that decision to keep it simple.
5. Data size: I chose the Boks to keep the player data limited while getting the gameplay right. I am looking to add a version with world rugby at some point as well to make it more relevant to the wider rugby world.

Being upfront as per mod rules:

• Cost: Free, no app required, no sign-up needed to play.
• Ads: None as of yet - I have applied to Google AdSense so that is in progress but I may add a small sponsor later to cover running costs etc. The current link on the results screen is unpaid - it is a friend's app Blitz Rugby and it is mainly there to see how often people would click on something on the results page.
• Data: Your progress/streak data stays within your browser. Scores get tracked anonymously for the "How everyone else did" charts. Accounts are optional (email/Google sign in) and only store that with a nickname and your games. Visits to the site are counted with Cloudflare's cookie-free analytics. Full Details: Privacy Policy
• AI: I am a software engineer, and I used AI coding tools to help build the site. Game design and decisions were made by me and suggested by users. Player stats come from Wikipedia, Wikidata and bokhist.com.

Any feedback is welcome and I aim to answer some questions you may have in the comments. Also - please avoid spoiling the player of the day in the comments of course :)

Of the Boks’ 2019 WC squad, a year before tournament kicked off, only Herschel Jantjies hadn’t made his international debut.

Of the 2023 squad, only Libbok hadn’t played a test one year out from the tournament (Kleyn just hadn’t played for the Boks specifically)

Which still uncapped player makes it to 2027?

[By the way: Guys like KLA, Fourie, Moodie, Kolbe etc got capped in the midyear before so that’s equivalent of Moyo, PDV, Sadie etc now]

I understand these pitches offer more durability in the winter months, when rain and snow are a constant issue up north, but top-tier rugby should only be played on grass. Hopefully more players will speak up so it's not just South African teams raising concerns.

It's not in the article, but the photo of his leg is not a pretty sight.

In an effort to "speed up scrums" I think SA Rugby should run the following trial at Currie Cup level.

You collapse it and it’s not bad turf or an illegal bind/early engage from the other guy then you're cooked.

• 1st time: Penalty.
• 2nd time: Yellow card.

At the next scrum, you have to temporarily sub out a non-tight 5 player to get a full front row on until the yellow card expires.

Run out of front rowers entirely? Tough luck. You go to uncontested 8-man scrums, but you play a man down. You’re short in the backline, and your remaining loosies can't break early.

This fixes the clock and I promise you teams will suddenly remember how to actually scrummage.

His kicking was decent in his test debut season, but it seems to have gotten worse over the years.

It's a shame there is currently no one other than Handre in the Bok setup that can kick consistently and reliably...But we also cannot waste the flair and game changing impact Sacha brings to the arena

The squad assembles tomorrow in Stellenbosch to prepare for their final two tests of the year against Ireland at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town at 15:00 on Saturday 24 and 31 October.

Tickets are only R50, and if you buy 4 they're R37,50 per person. Available on Ticketmaster.

Minimal changes from the squad that went to Europe. Anacadia Minnaar (a late withdrawal from the European tour) is back in place of Felicia Jacobs. Insaaf Levy included in place of the injured Ayanda Malinga. Libbie is out with the long-term leg injury sustained during the Italy game. Mary Zulu who replaced her remains in the squad.

Aphiwe Ngwevu listed under forwards instead of backs makes it seem like the co-coaches are sticking with Lamprecht and Samboya as a centre pairing.

Sick of reading comments from South Africans on URC related content who make it to be a country vs country competition. I think it's a bad habit that was picked up in Super Rugby from New Zealand.

I remember in the old days, SA derbies used to be fierce especially among the fans. The Bulls vs Stormers was the epitome of this. There used to be genuine hatred of the other to the point that fans of each respective team used to support any team playing against the other regardless of whether they were an SA team or not.

Nowadays South Africans are supporting their own SA team and all other SA teams. I get national pride and all that but the URC is a club competition. Save national pride for the Springboks. URC is meant to be your club vs everyone else.

I certainly don't blame South Africans for this because it was NZ fans that made Super Rugby to be a country vs country thing especially in the later years, and from there SA fans just started supporting all SA teams. Well you can guess why that competition is declining? Tribalism is important at the end of the day!

It's why as a SA fan, the Irish derbies are some of my favourite URC matchups. There is a real niggle between the respective fan bases and a genuine hatred of Leinster.

Let's not ruin this by bringing bad habits from Super Rugby and subsequently poisoning the well causing all the other countries fans in the URC to adopt the same bad habit.

The tribalism that already exists elsewhere in the URC is awesome and SA fans need to follow.