Lloyd Burnard | Former outcast Mzwandile Stick increasingly important to Springbok coaching cause

When the Springboks meet the British and Irish Lions in the first of three Tests at Cape Town Stadium on 24 July, it is expected that their starting line-up will very closely resemble the one that made history against England in the 2019 World Cup final at International Stadium Yokohama. 

Tendai Mtawarira has retired and will be replaced by Steven Kitshoff, but elsewhere the Boks will be littered with the superstars who dazzled on that glorious night in Japan as the likes of Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi and skipper Siya Kolisi line up against the Lions. 

Those are the very players, of course, who made the 2019 Springbok triumph like no other.