England play the second of their midweek games on their tour of South Africa against the SA Northern Barbarians team today, Tuesday 19th June. The game will be played at Profet Olen Park Potchefstroom, home of the Leopards. Kick off is at 19.10 SA time.
Both teams have been announced with the England team consisting of a mixture of young players and some experienced ones.
England head coach Stuart Lancaster has named a starting team that has 6 changes from last week’s game against the SA Southern Barbarians team.
In the front row, hooker Tom Youngs starts in place of Joe Gray while at loose forward flanker Jamie Gibson is preferred to James Haskell, with Gray and Haskell both on the bench.
Another change up front sees eigthman Ben Morgan play in place of Thomas Waldrom. This seems to be a good indication that Morgan’s starting place in the test team will be taken by Waldrom on Saturday.
James Haskell will be looking to have a good game off the bench to try and force his way into the England test team for Saturday’s match in place of injured Chris Robshaw.
In the backline, fullback Nick Abedanon and scrumhalf Lee Dickson start in place of Alex Goode and Danny Care. Ugo Monye also gets a chance to play for England for the first time on this tour, replacing George Low.
The SA Northern Barbarians team, coached by Pumas Jimmy Stonehouse, is made up of players from Currie Cup First Division and includes players from northern unions the Pumas, Leopards, Valke and Griffons.
Stonehouse has named an almost complete Pumas backline to start. The only backline player not from the Pumas in the starting line up is inside centre Joubert Engelbrecht from the Leopards.
The Northern Barbarians match day squad of 22 consists of 4 Griffons, 4 Leopards and 13 Pumas players , as well as 1 player from the Valke.
Teams:
England: 15 Nick Abendanon (Bath); 14 Christian Wade (London Wasps); 13 Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers); 12 Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins); 11 Ugo Monye (Harlequins); 10 Charlie Hodgson (Saracens) ; 9 Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints) ; 8 Ben Morgan (Scarlets) ; 7 Carl Fearns (Bath); 6 Jamie Gibson (London Irish) ; 5 George Robson (Capt) (Harlequins); 4 Graham Kitchener (Leicester Tigers) ; 3 Paul Doran Jones (Northampton Saints); 2 Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers); 1 Mat Mullan (Worcester Warriors)
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray (Harlequins); 17 Rupert Harden (Gloucester); 18 Mouritz Botha (Saracens); 19 James Haskell (Otago Highlanders); 20 Karl Dickson (Harlequins); 21 David Strettle (Saracens); 22 Jonny May (Gloucester)
SA Northern Barbarians: 15 JC Roos (Pumas); 14 Danwel Demas (Pumas); 13 JW Jonker (Capt) (Pumas); 12 Joubert Engelbrecht (Leopards); 11 Deon Scholtz (Pumas); 10 Coenie van Wyk (Pumas); 9 Shaun Venter (Pumas); 8 Nicky Steyn (Griffons); 7 MB Lusaseni (Leopards); 6 Jaco Bouwer (Pumas); 5 Rudi Mathee (Pumas); 4 Eduan van der Walt (Pumas;, 3 Ashley Buys (Pumas); 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld (Pumas); 1 BG Uys (Leopards)
Replacements: 16 Pellow van der Westhuizen (Pumas); 17 Zane Kilian (Valke); 18 Boela Serfontein (Pumas); 19 Martin Sithole (Griffons); 20 Andries Mahoney (Griffons); 21 Hoffman Maritz (Leopards); 22 Tertius Maarman (Griffons)