The Springbok team that will face New Zealand in the fourth Test in The Rugby Championship in Dunedin on Saturday shows two changes from the side that played Australia last weekend.
Both changes are in the forwards, where lock Flip van der Merwe replaces the suspended Eben Etzebeth while Francois Louw comes in for Marcell Coetzee at flank.
There are four more changes on the bench, where Coetzee joins Dean Greyling, Andries Bekker and Juan de Jongh amongst the replacements.
“The New Zealanders are good on the ground which is why we decided to go for a specialist openside flank in Francois,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
“Marcell has been very good this season and has played a lot of rugby, but in this match we feel he will be more useful as an impact option.”
Jannie du Plessis has been named at tighthead prop despite struggling with a hamstring niggle. Meyer said the Springboks’ medical team is working very hard on the injured players and that Du Plessis will be given until Friday to fully shake off his injury, but if he fails to recover in time, Pat Cilliers will start in the No 3-shirt.
“We will not take any chances with injured players and we have time to get him and Pat (Cilliers) match ready,” said Meyer.
Greyling will be on the bench to provide prop cover, while Bekker takes over from Van der Merwe in the No 18 shirt. De Jongh comes in for Lwazi Mvovo on the bench.
The Springboks’ starting XV have a combined total of 482 Test caps – 136 in the forwards and 346 in the backline.
The Springbok team to face New Zealand in Dunedin is (Test caps in brackets):
15. Zane Kirchner, Vodacom Blue Bulls (18)
14. Bryan Habana, DHL Western Province (80)
13. Jean de Villiers (captain), DHL Western Province (78)
12. Frans Steyn, The Sharks (52)
11. Francois Hougaard, Vodacom Blue Bulls (21)
10. Morné Steyn, Vodacom Blue Bulls (40)
9. Ruan Pienaar, Ulster, N-Ireland (57)
8. Duane Vermeulen, DHL Western Province (1)
7. Willem Alberts, The Sharks (14)
6. Francois Louw, Bath, England (11)
5. Juandré Kruger, Vodacom Blue Bulls (4)
4. Flip van der Merwe, Vodacom Blue Bulls (17)
3. Jannie du Plessis, The Sharks (36)
2. Adriaan Strauss (vice-captain), Toyota FS Cheetahs (15)
1. Tendai Mtawarira, The Sharks (38)
Replacements:
16. Tiaan Liebenberg, DHL Western Province (2)
17. Dean Greyling, Vodacom Blue Bulls (2)
18. Andries Bekker, DHL Western Province (26)
19. Marcell Coetzee, The Sharks (6)
20. Johan Goosen, Toyota FS Cheetahs (1)
21. Juan de Jongh, DHL Western Province (10)
22. Pat Lambie, The Sharks (14)
Stats and facts:
- Saturday’s Test will be the 84th between South Africa and New Zealand.
- The Springboks and New Zealand last met in the 2011 Castle Tri-Nations in Port Elizabeth, which was won by South Africa 18-5.
- The Springboks have played eight Test matches against New Zealand in Dunedin, winning only once – at Carisbrook in 2008 (30-28). This will be the first Test for the Springboks at the newly-built Forsyth Barr Stadium.
- With 39 Tests, Morné Steyn is the most capped Springbok flyhalf. He also holds the record for the most career tries in Tests as a flyhalf (7 tries) and is the Springbok record holder for most career points in this tournament (229 points).
- Steyn’s 56 penalty goals are the most by a Springbok in this tournament and he shares the overall record for most career drop goals in the tournament with André Pretorius (4). He needs 17 points to reach 500 career Test points for the Springboks.
- Steyn has scored 109 Test points for the Springboks against New Zealand – the most by any South African. He also holds the record for the most career penalty goals by a Springbok against New Zealand – 28.
- Bryan Habana, who will play in his 30th Test in this competition, is the most-capped Springbok wing (79 Tests) and the South African record holder for the most Test tries, which he extended last weekend against Australia to 42. Bryan needs one try to become South Africa’s top try scorer in the tournament.
- The referee is George Clancy from Ireland, who has refereed in five Tests involving South Africa. The Springboks have won four of those Tests and lost one.
- Springbok Test match records in Dunedin against New Zealand:
- Most points: 12 by Percy Montgomery (3c, 2p) in 2005.
- Most tries: 1 by eight players on nine occasions. Ricky January scored a try on two occasions, his last in the 75th minute of the match in 2008 which enabled the Boks to win their first test in 87 years at Carisbrook.
- Most conversions: 3 by Percy Montgomery in 2005.
- Most penalty goals: 3 by each of André Joubert in 1994 and Percy Montgomery in 2008.
- Most drop goals: 1 by Butch James in 2009
I am happy that Goosen is not starting.
The coach believes in his players and vision.
Good luck Boks.
Well at least Mvovo wont disgrace himself on the rugby field again this weekend.
What I do respect HM for is that he doesn’t allow anything to influence his belief in his selection and gameplan. Not public sentiment, not the players performance, not his teams results.
3 @ Loosehead:
Probably can’t read!
“The Springboks’ starting XV have a combined total of 482 Test caps – 136 in the forwards and 346 in the backline.”
..
is jake coaching again? 😉
I think HM got the forwards mix right, or at least as right as he could given the players available.
I don’t think that the backline is anything special though, and will really struggle to contain the All blacks.
I do agree that this is not the time to change things though. Bringing in a guy like Goosen to start against the All Blacks in new Zealand would be a mistake IMO, akin to the great Gaffie debacle of years ago.
HM has a certain game plan in mind, and we haven’t seen out guys execute that properly yet. This is what they are focusing on at the moment, not wholesale changes (any more than he has to).
Don’t see us taking this one though.
Nee flok… no Lambie at fullback, persisting with Crusty (not that he was bad but Lambie adds another attacking dimention)!
Can understand the inclusion of Flo at No 6, can also accept the inclusion of Flip because of Etzebeth’s suspension.
I also think Juan de Jongh on the bench makes sense in place of Mvovo.
The BIG question is however whether we will see more ball… more quality ball… and play more ball-in-hand rugby… and how good or how bad the breakdowns will be!
Hope Lambie and Goosen gets more than 10 minutes this weekend… but somehow I doubt it… pity.
For goodness sakes, I hope Ruan Pienaar clears faster at the back of rucks and stuggeling rucks…. THAT to me was the worst part of the past weekend!
6 @ BobbejanklimdiebergStormersboySpringbokJan:
I don’t see us taking this one either, in fact I expect a 15 Plus margin against us!
GBS, on the Ruan issue: he was clearing the scrum consistently faster than Hougie previously.
Surely, the manner in which he stalled (he even kicked a ball back in the scrum) was due to the tactics the Boks decided to employ? It looked like the gameplan was to set up pods but that these were often not in place, hence Ruan reluctance to clear as fast as he had been doing previously?
@ grootblousmile:
Ja I bet against us on the bru last weekend, as much as it pained me to do so. Ill be doing that again this weekend.
I agree with you on the Ruan situation. Our scrumhalf plight is worse than people think. I have long been critical of Ruan at 9 (I believe he’s a better 10 and should have grown his skills there more) because of this very issue. He’s been doing this for ages. In the past when i’ve been critical of him (on that other website) the one eyed sharks supporters attacked me and called me provincial and told me that he was Irish player of the year blah blah blah but the fact remains that he slows the game down to a point that almost every ruck ball becomes a first phase move rather than a speedy attacking sequence. It drives me flipping insane. The thing is, he’s been doing it for years now, this is nothing new.
I would love to see some changes, you and i agree on the Lambie situation, but Meyer has some view of Zane that we obviously can’t see. Having said that he’s not the worst player in the backline so I’m inclined to be less passionate about his exclusion at the moment.
I actually rate Jano Vermaak and would like to see him get a go. i may even be inclined to play Ruan at 15.
@ fender:
Go watch tapes of the past 10 games Ruan has played for the Boks. He does that all the time. Useless in the Southern Hemisphere. Fine up North though where games get won 6 – 3.
BS, can you exclude the possibility that he might have been playing to the gameplan last week?
I’m no Ruan fan, but in terms of distribution and intelligence I believe he is the best that we’ve got at the moment.
Lets hope the Boks can play as a unit at least, I doubt we will win, but it will be good to see a collective effort.
We need to stand flatter on attack as most of our gameplay happens behind the advantage line, but I don’t think it will happen with Morne there.
Like Meyer said, 80% of the time teams play the same way. What will the other 20% bring us this time?
@ fender:
I’m not excluding anything. But I am telling you that if you watch Ruan’s play for the boks, you will find innumerable instances of him stuffing around behind a ruck with the ball ready to go and getting counter rucked off the ball because he took too long. That doesn’t happen to our other scrummies nearly as much.
12 @ fender:
Kitaartjie,
For a number of years I’ve been critical of Ruan Pienaar, but I started believing in him again a bit when he’d been used as sub for the Bokke this year… thinking and believing his service was sharper than that of Hougie at scrummie…. but man I was disappointed this past weekend!
… and I can hardly believe a coach will tell a scrummie to boot the ball back into the rucks…
We lost a number of rucks because of his pedantic play on Saturday, gave a way a ruck penalty and generally our ball was made so terribly freegin slow.
All I want him to do is pull finger out the ass and get the ball out quicker, I still believes he passes better and more precise than Hougie.
@ BobbejanklimdiebergStormersboySpringbokJan:
I fully agree with you, I like ruan Pienaar, but waiting for a forward pod to settle whilst kicking the ball back into the ruck defeats the object of quick ball in an opponents 22 and the surprise element (not that have have any of those either), but if you have quick ball available and the pod is not ready then spread the ball.
By slowing the ruck it has three negative elements.
1. defences can organise
2. you can be counter rucked
3. the defence is also watching the pod being organised and knows eactly where you will attack.
ruan het nie genoeg mongrel in hom om n toets scrummie te wees nie,hy wil die bal mooi netjies voor sy voete he voor hy dit optel en sal nie baklei vir diw bal nie
@ biltong:
ja that new 5 second use it or lose it law will spell the end of his career.
Ja GBS, BS.
Guys, the point I’m making is that kicking the ball back into the ruck was so out of sinc with the snappy service Ruan was delivering earlier (well faster than Hougie anyway) this Bok season that such behaviour could only be part of the game plan. That’s my take on it and no offence but I’m gonna stick with it – for the time being.
May I also remind you that Ruan created a try against the English that only a scrummy with his vision and skill could have created. Remember, we are in the era of the “dom agterspeler”.
I realise that the man has his detractors and yes Smallies, mongrel might be an issue but I still believe that he is the best we’ve got at the moment.
He will have to adapt or die.
Yes Lion4Ever, and he will not be alone…
True, Hougie when he gets his forwards to make the worm, Bondisio who likes barking orders, and a few more.
I said earlier in the week that Ostrich wouldn’t change Morne and Crusty, and I am in complete agreement with his selection of this side for the weekend. He has said he wants consistency and with his game plan, changing these guys would have been the worst thing to do.
However, what is really concerning is the fact that during his latest interview he refers to the Boks chances of winning (amongst others, i am sure, but this was all that was in the soundbite), will be down to the fact that there is no pressure on the team because they are the ‘underdogs’, and luck.
Now for journo’s, bloggers, etc. to say that, is one thing, but when your national coach says it, then we’re in serious doodoo!!!!
lets kick off with a quote from twitter (according to news24) from ex-bok player rob louw:
(@roblouw6) “At this stage our love and support for our beloved Boks is being tested. Might just go 4 a surf.”
now
i wouldnt go to that extreme. i didnt expect heyneke to make a lot of changes anyway (if you consider the personnel available)
but
i cant see any reason for the continued inclusion of kirchner before lambie. i just dont get it. its not as if lambie is a rookie. he’s shown his worth on the international scene before. what is then? does the coach/es feel that he doesnt fit into the gameplan/wont be able to execute the gameplan properly? if thats the case, whats he doing there then?
24 @ Ashley:
Hello Ashley I know its a free society but sometimes feel disapointed to hear what people put out on twitter, its all very well for Rob Louw to be disapointed about how things are going but one would think that as he mentions they are his beloved Boks that the rest of what he tweeted is uncalled for, he is probably someone who is looked up to by many players and fans and if he wants to use twitter should be using the platform to try and help boost confidence. I hope the last bit was him suggesting he was going for a surf after his tweet and not for us to infer instead of watching the game on Saturday.
I have stopped making score predictions in 2012 as I am making an ass of myself
This time going to sit back and hope to enjoy the game.
May we play to our potential
On Kickers’ farm, this is how his goat felt at hearing the news about the Springbok team for this weekend’s Test against the All Blacks…
@ grootblousmile:Hahaha, No, that was the goats reaction when Ostrich Meyer told him he had no chance of pushing Morne out of the no.10 birth, even though he has sooooo much more potential than the incumbent fly half. He did however say it was welcome to join his circus where he has a lamb on the side, a beast in the ring, and a clown arseing around the stage.
He declined though, he feels that the glens of Scotland will give him more opportunities to find a wayward ewe, settle down, and make the Scottish team for the next world cup, alongside Josh strauss – a hero, who has on many occasions been mistaken for a billy goat with that wonderful beardy thing.
janmurray @ 25
i agree with you. just put it on there to show that the supporters aint the only ones dissapointed with the current state of our game
the good news in all of this is that we have a heck of a lot of our senior players out of action at the moment:
juan smith, schalk burger (will they ever return?)
bismark
jacque (was there murmurs a few months ago that he should never be allowed to play for the boks again? 😉 )
can one throw in a certain fdupreez also?
28 @ Just For Kicks:
I found some more of your funny animals on Youtube…
Hehehehe
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