(Reuters) -South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has kept faith with the squad which routed New Zealand 43-10 in their last Rugby Championship match for upcoming tests against Argentina in Durban and London that will complete their campaign.
The defeat was New Zealand's biggest in their test history and reignited the Springboks' flagging campaign.
Hooker Bongi Mbonambi has been retained after not travelling to New Zealand due to personal reasons, as has the experienced Faf de Klerk, who is the fourth scrumhalf in the squad and was called to New Zealand as cover.
Lood de Jager (lock), Jean-Luc du Preez (loose forward) and Aphelele Fassi (fullback) have all been ruled out of the fixtures with Argentina through injury.
"This group of players have been together for over 13 weeks now, and they’ve shown that they are the right players for this big task against the Pumas," Erasmus said.
"We’ve chopped and changed our squad a fair bit this season, playing a total of 46 players in our last eight matches, including in the Barbarians match, and by training together almost daily, we are confident that these are the players who can give us the best shot to try to retain the title."
With two rounds to play, Australia lead the table with 11 points, followed by South Africa and New Zealand (both on 10) and Argentina (nine) it what has been the closest Rugby Championship yet.
The defending champions host the Pumas in Durban on September 27 before the teams travel to London for the return fixture at Twickenham on October 4.
South Africa squad:
Forwards: Pieter-Steph du Toit, Thomas du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Wilco Louw, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Franco Mostert, Ox Nche, Ruan Nortje, Kwagga Smith, RG Snyman, Marnus van der Merwe, Marco van Staden, Boan Venter, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Jasper Wiese.
Backs: Damian de Allende, Faf de Klerk, Andre Esterhuizen, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ethan Hooker, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Manie Libbok, Makazole Mapimpi, Canan Moodie, Handre Pollard, Cobus Reinach, Morne van den Berg, Damian Willemse, Grant Williams.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
