Mzwandile Stick to lead South Africa 'A' team against Zimbabwe

It's the first time that SA'A will be in action since they faced off against the Bristol Bears and Munster in November 2022. Stick was also head coach for both of those fixtures, which South Africa lost.

The Bears claimed a 26-18 victory over the men in Green and Gold while Munster beat SA'A 28-14 at a sold-out Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork.

Johan Ackermann was previously the head coach of South Africa A, leading the side against the England Saxons back in 2016 and the French Barbarians a year later. England Saxons claimed a 2-0 series win 10 years ago, winning the first match 32-24 in Bloemfontein and the second 29-26 in George.

South Africa won the series against the French Baa-Baas 2-0, defeating the touring team 36-28 in Durban and then 48-28 in Soweto.

Former Blitzbok Stick first joined the Springboks' coaching team back in 2016 but was demoted that same year, but returned to the fold when Rassie Erasmus was named as Allister Coetzee's successor in 2018. He has since remained as a key cog in the coaching team that has won back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles as well as the 2021 British and Irish Lions Series.

While Stick is still searching for his first victory in charge of the SA'A team, Erasmus highlighted the importance of getting players into the Springboks' structures.

"The match between the SA 'A' team and Zimbabwe will serve as a fantastic opportunity for both teams to achieve some of their objectives with the Rugby World Cup in mind, and from a South African point of view, we have seen the benefits of having an SA 'A' team playing against quality opposition," said Erasmus in April when the clash was announced.

"Players such as Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu), Ruan (Nortje), Grant (Williams), Aphelele (Fassi), and Elrigh (Louw), among others, all played for the team in the early stages of their international careers, and have become important members of our squad since, so this match will offer us another chance to give guys within our squad and others who have really put up their hands to prove what they can do against international opposition.

"We have done well to rotate our squad and give several players a chance in the last two seasons, but there are others who have performed really well outside of that group, who we would like to see in action, so we'll be able to cast our net wider as we prepare for that encounter."

Erasmus and Stick will name their respective matchday squads for the double header in Gqeberha next week, SA Rugby have confirmed. The duo will pick their teams from the wider Bok training squad.

51 players were initially picked to prepare for the clash, 21 of whom are uncapped, but a few changes have occurred since. Phepsi Buthelezi and Carlu Sadie were called up to the squad and joined the camp in Johannesburg earlier this week - taking the total number of players to 53.

Meanwhile, an injury to Salmaan Moerat has led to a call-up for his Stormers teammate, Ruben van Heerden, who is set to join Montpellier ahead of next season. Moerat's setback has resulted in his release from the squad.