Du Toit's 100th, Nche's 50th, Pollard back at 10: the Boks reload for Cape Town

The Springboks named their side on Monday and it reads like a team that has been told, politely, to sort it out.

Second Test, Cape Town, Saturday 29 August. South Africa lost the first 33-16 at Ellis Park and now have to level a series they expected to be leading.

Two milestones in one match

Pieter-Steph du Toit captains the side in his 100th Test. He becomes the 11th Springbok ever to reach a hundred caps, and he does it wearing the armband, in Cape Town, in a Test his country has to win. That is about as good as a hundredth gets.

And Ox Nche makes his 50th in the same match. If you have watched any Springbok rugby in the last five years, you have watched Nche's scrum, usually with a South African commentator losing their mind over it.

The changes

| Position | Change | |---|---| | First five | Handre Pollard comes back in at 10 | | Halfback | Cobus Reinach starts at 9 | | Wing | Cheslin Kolbe out injured, Ethan Hooker comes in | | Back three | Arendse moves to the right wing, Willemse to fullback | | Blindside | Siya Kolisi bracketed as he works back to fitness |

Pollard at 10 is the clearest signal in the team sheet. After a first Test that got away from them, the Boks have gone back to their most reliable big-game goalkicker and game manager. That is not a side looking to open the game up. That is a side looking to squeeze it.

Losing Kolbe hurts more than a one-line change suggests. He is the Springbok who can manufacture something out of nothing, and Cape Town is his home town.

Erasmus is not hiding it

Rassie Erasmus has said his side is "hurting" and has to play smarter after Ellis Park.

Coming from Erasmus, that is not a complaint. That is a plan being announced out loud.

What the All Blacks are walking into

New Zealand arrive having won the first Test 33-16 and having beaten every South African franchise on tour, including a 41-35 escape against the Lions on Tuesday night in which they trailed 35-17 with half an hour left.

The Lions showed the blueprint for free: start fast, score early, make the All Blacks chase. The Springboks will have taken notes.

The bit most people have missed

This series is four Tests, not three, the first time the Freedom Cup has ever been played over four:

| Test | Date | Venue | |---|---|---| | 1 | 22 Aug | Ellis Park, Johannesburg (NZ won 33-16) | | 2 | 29 Aug | Cape Town | | 3 | 5 Sep | FNB Stadium, Johannesburg | | 4 | 12 Sep | M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, USA |

Yes, Baltimore. The Freedom Cup finishes in the United States.

And the third Test on 5 September is a double-header. The Black Ferns play South Africa at FNB Stadium beforehand, the first Black Ferns Test ever played on South African soil.

One caution

You may see it written that Siya Kolisi will captain in Cape Town. At least one South African outlet reported that. The later and clearer word is that du Toit has it, in his hundredth Test.

If that is how it plays out on Saturday, it is the right story anyway.