Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has made just two changes to his side to face England, as Pierre Spies and Ruan Pienaar return to the starting line-up for the final Test match of the tour.
Rugby365
Following the disappointing 21-17 defeat at the hands of Scotland last weekend it would have been tempting to make mass changes to the team, but De Villiers said he had dismissed the idea of making wholesale changes.
Spies comes back into the side at his favoured No.8 in place of Ryan Kankowski, and will look to add an extra spark to the back row against a highly combative English loose trio.
Pienaar gets another chance in the No.9 jersey and will hope for a big improvement from his performance last weekend, while François Hougaard must settle for a place on the bench at Twickenham.
The good news for the Springboks was that Tendai Mtawarira passed a fitness test and will have recovered from his knee injury in time for Saturday’s Test.
“We just rested him [Mtawarira] as a precaution yesterday [Monday], but we are all ready to go,” De Villiers said.
De Villiers stressed that he is confident the team and that the last match is behind them now.
“This team has all the ability we need – but what we all know is that we have to execute more accurately than we did against Scotland,” he explained.
“That game is behind us now but we’ve looked hard at the lessons of it and know that we can’t allow let ourselves to make as many mistakes in our basic execution.”
The Springboks upset many predictions to beat Ireland in the opening match of the tour and followed up with victory over Wales before the four-point defeat to Scotland, who leapfrogged both of their Celtic rivals in the IRB rankings as a result.
The Springboks go into Saturday’s Test having beaten England on six successive occasions but with the home side installed as favourites.
“England have made good progress since they started their tour to Australia this year and will be full of confidence,” De Villiers said.
“A full Twickenham will ensure that this is the toughest Test of the tour for us.
“But Saturday’s performance wasn’t a true reflection of the talent in this squad and the players want to put that right and end the Test season on a high.”
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Frans Steyn, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 François Hougaard, 21 Patrick Lambie, 22 Adi Jacobs.
Date: Saturday, November 27
Venue: Twickenham, London
Kick-off: 14.30 (14.30 GMT)
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Simon Mcdowell (Ireland)
TMO: Iain Ramage (Scotland)
Bokke het gelyk soos kruppel Kosie Saterdag… hoop maar dit gaan goed Saterdag.
Was vir amper 2 dae uitstedig, gedeurnag werk laasnag in Mpumalanga… baie moeg, loop net op adrenalien op die oomblik.
@ grootblousmile:
You got a big job on there, you were there last week too?
2@ 4man:
Yes, you know how it goes, you do excellent work for one business in a little town, now every Tom Dick and Farmer Harry in that town and within a vicinity of 80 km wants me to fix their shit and networks…. the tills rolled properly in the last couple of days!
Word of mouth is a powerful weapon.
Stats say, give good service and the client will tell 5 people, do bad work and they’ll tell 20 people…. I prefer the 5 people stat….
@ grootblousmile:
So GBS, what perediction for the “injured” Bokke on Saturday?
Are they going to find a hiding place, lay down and bleed to death, or are they going to turn around like cornered beasts and fight for their (and PdeV’s) Rugby lives, and if they do do they have the goods to pull through?
Answer with your brain, not your heart. (We all want them to give England a Rugby lesson.)
4@ Scrumdown:
Eishhhhhh, difficult to say, but if we go with the general trend on tour… 2 narrow wins, one exasperating and farktup loss…. then we are in it to bleed profusely on Saturday and the week thereafter.
But the Bok is a resilient animal….
Fark knows…
4@ Scrumdown:
We don’t have the attacking nous to bother the Poms in the backline, kick too much possession away… and the Poms are very bloody strong in the forwards….
Recipy for disaster??
6@ grootblousmile:
Translate this one in # 6…. calls the Poms “Plaaswerf”… hehehehe
…. eerder meer vir my iets soos “Plaaswetters”… hehehe
Personally I think it’ll be closer than most people expect on Saturday, depending on the weather and the whether.
Whether the Springboks pitch up, and whether the Mud Island weather pisses down.
I reckon there won’t be more than 5 points in it either way, but I think we’ll lose by 10+ against the BaaBaas.
In recent years we don’t do well in games like this and invariably most of the players have their minds already on the plane.
I hope they throw the youngsters in against the BaaBaa’s and let them have their “head”.
IMO games like that shouldn’t count as an official cap anyway.
8@ Scrumdown:
So, you want us to play BaaBaas rugby against the BaaBaas… without a BaaBaas type coach and without recent success of attacking rugby… wrong medicine in my opinion.
I’d go a bit differently…. yes, play a couple of youngsters, but keep combinations going.
If we have ONE advantage over the BaaBaas it is that they are individuals and that we should be a team by now…. not that it has shown on tour at all.
I’d play possession rugby against the Pommies and the BaaBaas…. keep te ball, don’t kick aimlessly, don’t employ kick and chase…
When the Bokke held possession against the Irish, in difficult conditions, our forwards shut them out of the game. There’s a strongpoint we should work on, simply have superior possession, which inevitably translates into better territory and putting the opposition under pressure to concede penalties or tries.
GBS’s Book of Rugby… Chapter one… hehe
Kicking in general play must be reserved for the following:
1. To get out of trouble
2. As an unexpected ploy (as in a cross-kick or little chip, when least expected)
3. To drive home territorial advantage, but then the kicks have to be directed well and either needs to go well out or box the receiver into a pressure situation in the corners.
4. Testing a receiver’s steel with an up-and-under, but then in severe moderation and ONLY if a weakness under the high ball is noticed, then exploited, NEVER as prime ingredient of a game plan, NEVER at the cost of handing possession away on a silver platter. The CHASE during an up-and-under is just as critical as the kick itself.
Expected patterns of regular up-and-unders and building a style around that is flawed beyond repair….
dis die eerste keer in my lewe maar ek voorsoel engeland met tien plus saterdag rede,ruan pienaar jean steyn en dom subs saterdag jammer om te se maar ek dink die bokke is toast saterdag
Laat ek gaan slaap, my oë val toe….
Former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones, speaking to RugbyXV, says the Boks don’t believe in their game-plan and a win over England won’t plaster over the problems.
Jones has plenty of experience working with the Springboks after his stint as a consultant to Jake White at the 2007 World Cup, and sees the players lack of belief as a major problem.
Despite all the problems in the Bok camp Jones thinks a victory against England this weekend is not out of the question, although that would not solve the problems in the team leading into nest year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
With all the talent available to the Bok coaches, Jones is reluctant to discard them as World Cup contenders and highlights key aspects to how they can retain their title.
“They have got to get fit. They must decide on a strategy and build on that in the three months building up to the tournament next year. They must work out how they want to run and kick and when they want to attack.”
superBul wrote:
That is the problem maybe not every member buys the game plan, and the best exponents of the game plan is missing.
Think G Steenkamp, think Spies last week, think Danie Roussouw, think Schalk Burger and the director himself Fourie du Prez.
I would have started with Alberts and benched Stegman.
@ Loosehead:
That is the only changed I would have made as well. No point playing Lambie and Adi in wet cold possibly snowy game.
@ grootblousmile:
What I meant was if we play our game plan of recent weeks we’ll get well and truly varked over, so we may as well let the youngsters have a bit of fun.
If we’re going to implode, at least make it enjoyable to watch.
Users Online
Total 61 users including 0 member, 61 guests, 0 bot online
Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm
No Counter as from 31 October 2009: 39,486,201 Page Impressions
_