South Africa v Japan: Malcolm Marx on bench for Rugby World Cup match

Marx came off the bench to score a try in the pool-stage victory over Italy

Hooker Malcolm Marx has been left out of the South Africa starting XV to face Japan in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

The 25-year-old, a nominee for World Player of the Year award in 2018, is on the bench as Mbongeni Mbonambi starts.

Wings Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi both start, with Handre Pollard at 10 and Damian de Allende at 12.

Second row Lood de Jager, who will move to Sale after the tournament, is also included.

Coach Rassie Erasmus has named the same starting XV that beat Italy 49-3 in their penultimate pool match, after a second-string side swatted aside Canada 66-7 to secure second spot in Pool B.

However Marx is one of three players who were picked to start the meeting with New Zealand on the tournament's opening weekend, but have since fallen out of favour.

"Bongi is definitely a more physical, brutal, scrummaging, in-your-face hooker. Malcolm is very much in the same mould, and both will get close to 40 minutes," said Erasmus.

"But Bongi in the tighter first half, and if the game opens up a little bit more in the second half, Malcolm in the looser second half would benefit the team by selecting it in that way."

Kolbe and fellow wing Mapimpi scored five tries in South Africa's warm-up win over Japan

South Africa fell victim to arguably the greatest shock in the history of the World Cup when losing to Japan in in Brighton in the pool stages of the 2015 tournament, but recorded a comprehensive 41-7 victory when the teams met for the first time since in a warm-up match in September.

"That result is almost irrelevant. We can forget Brighton and Kumagaya now, and focus on the quarter-finals," added Erasmus.

"The way Japan have improved since that game is tremendous, because they have beaten Ireland and Scotland, and topped the pool. And they did it in style.

"Saying that they have improved is true, but we feel that we have also improved a lot since that game.

"There are big expectations in a quarter-final - it's not a friendly. It's about who handles the pressure the best, and expectations the best."

Erasmus announced his team more than 24 hours before he was required to, but said he "didn't care really" about giving Japan counterpart Jamie Joseph prior knowledge of his line-up.

"If they are going to change their team because of the way we picked our team, then I think there are some problems in their team selection policy," he said.

South Africa: Le Roux: Kolbe, Am, De Allende, Mapimpi; Pollard, De Klerk, Mtawarira, Mbonambi, Malherbe, Etzebeth, De Jager, Kolisi (c), Du Toit, Vermeulen

Replacements: Marx, Kitschoff, Koch, Snyman, Mostert, Louw, H Jantjies, Steyn