Four new names will be added to the list of Springboks Test caps on Saturday when Rassie Erasmus’s side takes on Wales at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban. Jaco Williams, Vusi Moyo, Ruben van Heerden and Carlu Sadie all win their first caps in the third round of the Nations Championship, and each of them has taken a completely different road to get there.
Williams starts on the wing at the ground he now calls home. Born in Somerset East in the Eastern Cape, he came through Glenwood High School and the Sharks academy before playing a role in South Africa’s Junior World Championship-winning campaign last year. At just 20, he has already forced his way into a crowded URC backline this season, crossing for tries and offering the kind of finishing pace that got Erasmus’s attention.
“Four completely different journeys, one team sheet. That’s what a rugby nation with real depth looks like!” – 🎙️Jay
Moyo lines up at flyhalf, also on his home ground, and his rise has been rapid even by professional rugby‘s standards. He is the sixth Springbok produced by King Edward VII School in Johannesburg, following Bryan Habana, Malcolm Marx, Joe van Niekerk, Skaap Forrest and Scarra Ntubeni.
He matriculated in 2024, lost several months of last season to a hip injury, made his senior Sharks debut only in May, and will win his first cap at 20 years and 27 days old. The Junior Boks he graduated from are playing their own World Championship final in Georgia on the same day he starts against Wales.
Van Heerden brings a very different story to the second row. Now 28, he began his professional career at the Bulls before spells at the Sharks and English club Exeter Chiefs, then three years at the Stormers, where he earned his 50th cap for the union this season.
He spent years behind South Africa’s famously stacked lock stocks before injury elsewhere in the squad finally opened the door to a Bok call-up in June, and he heads to Montpellier on a long-term French deal once this campaign ends.
Sadie’s path has been just as winding. The 29-year-old tighthead, nicknamed Fridge, started out at the Stormers before loan spells at the Lions and Stade Francais, a stint back at the Sharks, and now three seasons at Bordeaux Begles.
It was his form anchoring the Bordeaux front row through their Investec Champions Cup-winning campaign this year that finally earned him a first alignment camp call-up, and now, close to a decade after his provincial debut, his first Springbok cap.
Two academy products debuting on home soil, two well-travelled forwards finally rewarded after years in the game. Four different roads into the same green and gold jersey on Saturday.
📸 Images via Springboks
