There is always great interest around who is tasked with singing the national anthem before Springbok games, with Keabetswe “KB” Motsilanyane most memorably having produced a wonderful rendition at Loftus prior to the first Ireland Test.
With the Springboks now playing their second overseas game of the season, it has been confirmed that Bradley Kalo – a South African artist currently living in Australia – will be tasked with singing the SA national anthem in Brisbane this Saturday.
Kalo is certainly no stranger to singing the SA national anthem, having done so at previous Springbok games, as recently as last year – with that latest rendition able to be watched here.
The well-known gospel singer has a powerful voice and other examples of his performances can also be viewed on his Instagram here
The Springboks will hope for a stirring rendition of the SA anthem away from home
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Rassie Erasmus named the Springbok matchday 23 for this Saturday’s clash in Australia, which will see Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Elrigh Louw will make their first Test starts.
Team to face Australia in Brisbane:
15 – Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls) – 95 caps, 75 pts (15t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 33 caps, 96 points (15t, 3c, 5p)
13 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 71 caps, 80 points (16t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 81 caps, 55 points (11t)
11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 18 caps, 75 points (15t)
10 – Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers) – 4 caps, 17 points (7c, 1p)
9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 33 caps, 65 pts (13t)
8 – Elrigh Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 4 caps, 0 points
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 79 caps, 40 points (8t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Racing 92) – 85 caps, 50 points (10t)
5 – RG Snyman (Leinster) – 37 caps, 10 points (2t)
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 122 caps, 30 points (6t)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 72 caps, 5 points (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 71 caps, 70 points (14t)
1 – Ox Nche (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 31 caps, 0 pts
Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 67 caps, 85 points (17t)
17 – Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls) – 3 caps, 0 points
18 – Vincent Koch (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 52 caps, 0 points
19 – Ben-Jason Dixon (DHL Stormers) – 2 caps, 5 points (1t)
20 – Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 20 caps, 0 pts
21 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 43 caps, 35 pts (7t)
22 – Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 11 caps, 10 points (2t)
23 – Handré Pollard (Leicester Tigers) – 71 caps, 732 points (7t, 98c, 162p, 5dg)
Stats and facts:
Springbok record against Australia:
Played 93; Won 50; Lost 40; Drawn 3; Points for: 1 860, Points against: 1 653; Tries scored 218, Tries conceded 170; Highest score 61-22 (Pretoria, 1997); Biggest win 45 points (53-8, Johannesburg 2008). Win % 53.8%.
Miscellaneous:
- This will be Eben Etzebeth’s 123rd Test, leaving him four appearances away from equalling Victor Matfield’s Springbok Test record (127).
- Frans Malherbe will extend his number of starts at tighthead prop to 60 Tests, trailing only Tendai Mtawarira (102) and Os du Randt (75).
- The centre pairing of Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende will extend their record of playing the most Test matches together in the midfield to 31 (the previous record was held by Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie with 29 Tests).
- Cheslin Kolbe needs four points to reach 100 points in Tests for South Africa.
- Should Kwagga Smith take the field, he will need only six more Test caps to join the club of Springboks with 50 Test caps.
- Willie le Roux will take another step closer to joining select club of Springbok centurions as he earns his 96th cap on Saturday.
- The total Test caps for the Springbok starting line-up is 836.
- There are 335 caps in the backline, with 501 caps among the forwards. On the bench there are a further 269 caps.
- The average caps per player in the backline is 47, the forwards 62, while the players on the bench average 33.
