CAPTON KOLISI

CAPTAIN Siya Kolisi will become Springbok number nine to reach the special milestone of 100 Test matches when he leads his manskap out onto the Stade de France at 10.10pm on Saturday against France in Paris.

Kolisi leads a starting team sporting five changes from the one that klapped Japan 61-7 at Wembley last week, as rookie loosehead prop Boan Venter was picked to replace the injured Ox Nche with Thomas du Toit in at tighthead, as Wilco Louw moves to the replacements bench.

At lock, Eben Etzebeth replaces RG Snyman (benched) as Lood de Jager retained his spot in the second row, while Pieter-Steph du Toit reclaims his No.7 jersey as Franco Mostert drops out of the matchday squad.

In the one backline change, Damian Willemse is back at fullback after missing the Japan Test match due to a hamstring injury.

Cheslin Kolbe moves back to his usual position of right wing as Kurt-Lee Arendse moves to the left at the expense of the dropped Ethan Hooker.  

However, one groot surprise on the bench is the omission of Kwagga Smith and inclusion of Andre Esterhuizen as the impact loose forward as coach Rassie Erasmus revealed the former misses out due to a niggling hand injury.

Meanwhile, Erasmus will also add a notch to his belt when he takes charge in his 50th Test as coach.

Of his and Kolisi’s milestones and the latter deserving of 100 caps, Erasmus wysed: “My 50th is really not a big thing… just to be part of this team, for me, is awesome.

“On Siya’s 100th... we are very proud of him reaching that milestone, but there are a lot of other guys getting close to milestones here.”

Advising his team not to get overawed by the occasion on Saturday, Erasmus added: “It’s important how you handle those milestones and not make it bigger than the game you play in because you will come second.”

Boks v France: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Boan Venter Replacements: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Ruan Nortje, 21 Andre Esterhuizen, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok