“You suddenly feel how it feels to lead a country.” Rassie Erasmus on the one Test that makes André Esterhuizen captain.
André Esterhuizen is the Springboks captain for Perth, and Rassie Erasmus wants him to come out of it a better follower.
“We just think being Bok captain, you suddenly feel how it feels to lead a country and then you become better in supporting the other captain when he’s captain,” Erasmus said at the team announcement in Terrigal on Tuesday 22 September.
The other captain is still Siya Kolisi. Erasmus said so himself, in Afrikaans, later in the same press conference.
So when Kolisi sits out, should the armband keep moving round the senior players like this, or go to one deputy every time?
It wasn’t a question of who
Esterhuizen becomes the 68th player to captain South Africa when he leads them out at Optus Stadium on Sunday 27 September.
His side has 13 changes from the win in Baltimore that finished the series, with Eben Etzebeth and Ethan Hooker the two survivors. Kolisi is rested. Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende have been sent home.
The first question of the press conference put Handré Pollard’s name next to Esterhuizen’s. Erasmus answered a bigger one.
“It wasn’t a question of who we’re going to make captain, it was a question of, listen, how can we build our senior players”
Then he went round the room. Etzebeth, he said, brings “the same attitude and wise and calm head on his shoulders to the party” with or without the armband. Jesse Kriel is not playing in Perth, “but he’s been our captain”, the 67th, against Italy at Loftus in July 2025.
A leadership group, then, built on purpose. Perth adds a name to the list of men who have done the job.
The centre who came off the bench for Kolisi
Ten days ago in Baltimore, Esterhuizen came on for Kolisi, the blindside flanker, on 44 minutes. On Sunday he takes Kolisi’s armband and plays at 12, inside Canan Moodie.
Erasmus described the career in one breath.
“Accepting that, listen, I’m now a flanker, I’m now a centre, now I’m playing off the bench, you know, now I’m a loose forward. So, that’s the kind of players we enjoy in a team”
A hybrid has to carry two sets of calls.
The lineout and maul calls belong to the forwards, the strike plays belong to the backs, and a man who switches between them inside one Test has to hold both in his head at once. Most of what a captain needs from the middle of the field is already there.
The Sharks saw it first. He has captained them, and they have kept him on as captain for the new season. Erasmus credited him with holding that side together when it was struggling.
“The way he’s been carrying himself whilst he’s been the Sharks captain, you know, when they went through a tough time, I really thought he sort of pulled them together, together obviously with JP [Pietersen] and the whole set up there.”
Read also: how Kolisi leads, and why the man with the armband this week is supposed to learn from watching it.
The Springboks captain is still Siya Kolisi
Erasmus was clearest when the questions switched to Afrikaans. Kolisi is the captain, he said, and everyone in the squad knows it. He is being rested because he has played three Tests in a row.
He also named the men he could have picked instead. Etzebeth and Pollard were both options. Paul de Villiers, he said, is a good captain who is still a bit too young to be given it.
In English he had already explained why the vice-captain did not get it again.
“We could have just given it to [Eben] again, but we know what [Eben] brings as a captain”
The reason for spreading it around is next year. South Africa open the World Cup against Italy in Adelaide next October, and a side that wins the tournament plays seven matches in it.
“If we get a couple of injuries going forward into the World Cup and so on, you know, and we have to present somebody’s number, [André] will be another one.”
Somebody’s number. Erasmus is planning for the day a captain has to be replaced in the middle of a tournament, a year before the tournament starts.
Erasmus captained the Springboks once, against Australia
The coach has done the one-Test version himself. Erasmus captained South Africa once as a player, from the back row, against Australia in Brisbane in the 1999 Tri Nations. The Wallabies won 32-6.
Esterhuizen’s version comes against a Wallabies side that has not lost since Les Kiss took charge in August: two wins over Japan, then a win and a draw in Argentina. It is a proper Test, and the armband comes with the result attached.
The Springboks team to face Australia
Aphelele Fassi; Edwill van der Merwe, Canan Moodie, André Esterhuizen (captain), Ethan Hooker; Handré Pollard, Herschel Jantjies; Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar, Zachary Porthen, Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert, Paul de Villiers, Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden.
Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Ox Nché, Wilco Louw, Lood de Jager, Jasper Wiese, Morné van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Quan Horn.
Etzebeth extends his caps record to 147, and Wiese wins his 50th off the bench, according to SA Rugby’s team announcement. Kick-off is 5.45pm in Perth, 11.45am in South Africa.
One name is missing for a different reason. Grant Williams had been picked, Erasmus said in Afrikaans, then withdrew himself: the scrum-half told the coaches he was 99 per cent right and wanted to be fully fit before he played.
Read next: Kieran Read thinks Australia are better matched to South Africa than the All Blacks were, and Jeremy Paul has already called Perth for the Wallabies.
Your turn: move the armband, or keep one deputy?
Two ways to run it. Erasmus’s way hands the armband to a different senior player each time Kolisi rests, so the World Cup squad carries several men who have done the job. The other way gives it to one deputy every time, Etzebeth as vice-captain, so nobody on the field wonders whose voice it is when Kolisi goes off.
One builds a bench of leaders. The other builds a chain of command. Which would you take to Australia next year? Say so below.
Frequently asked
Who is the Springboks captain against Australia in Perth?
André Esterhuizen captains South Africa at Optus Stadium on Sunday 27 September, the 68th player to lead the side in a Test. Siya Kolisi remains the Springboks captain and is being rested, Rassie Erasmus said at the team announcement on Tuesday 22 September.
Why is Siya Kolisi not playing against the Wallabies?
Erasmus said Kolisi is being rested after three Tests in a row against the All Blacks. Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende were sent home to rest.
What time is Australia v South Africa in Perth?
Kick-off is 5.45pm local time on Sunday 27 September, which is 11.45am in South Africa and 10.45am in the UK.
