South Africa's last two injury doubts trained without incident on Tuesday, leaving Rassie Erasmus with something close to a full deck three days out from the opening Test of Rugby's Greatest Rivalry at Ellis Park.
Siya Kolisi and Ox Nche have both had broken seasons. Nche lasted eight minutes of the Nations Championship opener against England before going down. Kolisi missed that campaign entirely with hamstring trouble, then came off after 24 minutes of his comeback in the 17-10 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires on 8 August. Both went through Tuesday's session in Johannesburg and came out the other side.
"Both of them are tracking pretty good," assistant coach Felix Jones said of the pair.
"There have been no flags or issues from what we've seen today in training. We still have another session during the week, but there's been nothing majorly negative coming out of either of their recovery plans."
Erasmus had already narrowed the problem to those two names a day earlier.
"Injury-wise, they are probably the only two doubtful players," the head coach told reporters on Monday. "I wouldn't say Siya and Ox are still injured; it's niggles. If they get through today, they might be good for us."
What Erasmus will not do is tell anyone who plays. A coach who has spent 2026 naming his matchday 23 on Mondays and Tuesdays is holding this one until Thursday, and he was careful about how he framed the change.
"The announcement only being on Thursday is to respect New Zealand and knowing how tough this one is going to be," Erasmus explained. "For this one specifically, we think the less time they have to prepare for our team, the better. So, it's not an arrogance thing; it's respect."
The delay leaves a squad full of players guessing. Scrum-half Grant Williams is one of three specialist nines in contention and made no attempt to pretend he knows where he stands.
"We have to wait until Thursday for the team announcement," Williams said. "It might be Morne, Cobus, or Herschel, but if I get the honour to play on Saturday, my job will be to make sure the team goes forward.
"The All Blacks will come out on Saturday guns blazing, but whoever is selected for the weekend will try to front up and make sure we represent South Africa really well."
The selection secrecy sits on top of a plan Erasmus has never hidden. He split his squad in two for August, sending one group to Argentina and keeping the other in South Africa to prepare specifically for New Zealand.
"We decided that splitting the squad into two groups will be best for the Springbok team and the players," he said before Buenos Aires. Afterwards, having watched a disjointed 17-10 win, he was blunter: "I always expected us to look disjointed, having left 15 players back in South Africa."
The arithmetic backs him up. Only Thomas du Toit and Cameron Hanekom from the starting XV that beat England 45-21 at Ellis Park started against Argentina. The rest of that pack was at home.
Dave Rennie names his All Blacks side on Thursday too, and the New Zealand coach is already looking past one Saturday. His side have beaten the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls on tour, using 41 players across the three matches.
"When we name our side, we're going to leave out some really good players, but in four Tests, I think we'll end up using 30-odd players anyway," Rennie said. "So the guys who don't get their opportunity this week would certainly probably get a crack at some stage during a series."
He is not underselling what is coming. "It's a hell of a series, isn't it? Playing world champions in South Africa, over four tests, massive interest all over the world, huge amount of Kiwis coming over here to travel and embrace it. So we're really excited, and we'll definitely be ready."
Kick-off at Ellis Park is 17:10 local time on Saturday, the first of four Tests that run through Cape Town, Johannesburg again and, finally, Baltimore on 12 September.
