Nick Mallett, speaking on the Talking Boks podcast alongside Gavin Rich, has offered his read on how the Argentina warm-up should shape Erasmus's selection for the first All Blacks Test at Ellis Park. His headline take: Manie Libbok might be the shrewder call at fly-half over Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who looked off with both his kicking game and decision-making in Buenos Aires. Mallett stopped short of calling for the change, acknowledging Erasmus will have far more information than the outside world, but Rich made the supporting case more forcefully — pointing out that the Boks' biggest wins against the All Blacks have consistently come with Libbok orchestrating, and that his style lifts the players around him in a way Feinberg-Mngomezulu's more individualistic game doesn't always do.
On the Kolisi injury, Mallett sees Paul de Villiers as the frontrunner to slot in at seven, but flags Cameron Hanekom as the less obvious but entirely credible alternative — someone who mirrors what Kolisi brings in terms of turnover work, tackling and ball-carrying, and who could slot into a back row alongside Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese without disrupting the system. Elsewhere, Mallett was largely positive about Fassi and van der Merwe among the backs, felt Etzebeth's 80-minute return was a meaningful tick, and expects the bulk of the run-on XV to be drawn from the players who sat out Argentina entirely. Worth reading for the full Libbok-vs-Feinberg-Mngomezulu debate ahead of the Ellis Park opener.