From Sport24, the following:

Dublin – Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has said he too would have dropped Ronan O’Gara in favour of Jonathan Sexton for Saturday’s game between Ireland and South Africa at Croke Park.

O’Gara, Ireland’s 93 times capped outside-half, was a shock omission from Declan Kidney’s starting XV, with the British and Irish Lions player dropped Thursday from an Ireland team against major opposition for the first time in six years.

He was heavily criticised during this year’s Lions tour of South Africa, where he conceded a penalty that cost the visitors the second Test and the series.

O’Gara’s defence has also been questioned and de Villiers backed his opposite number’s decision to start with the relatively unproven Sexton, a European Cup winner with Leinster last season.

“Sexton had a fairytale start last week to his international career,” said de Villiers, who saw the fly-half hit seven kicks from seven on his Test debut last weekend during a 41-6 victory over Fiji in Dublin.

“On that alone I would have kept him there, he brings a freshness to the team and for us he’s an unknown factor,” de Villiers explained after announcing his team.

“That kind of stuff is what you need. You need to be inventive if you want to keep the opposition guessing,” the South Africa coach added ahead of arguably the pick of this weekend’s internationals, with world and Tri-Nations champions South Africa facing Six Nations grand slam winners Ireland.

Morne Steyn will continue at stand-off for Springboks, despite a less than convincing display during last week’s 32-10 win over Italy but there are a host of changes up front.

Victor Matfield returns for the tour-ending showdown, in place of Andries Bekker, which reunites him with Bakkies Botha for what should be a tumultuous second-row showdown against Lions Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan.

Matfield was one of four changes, as well as two positional switches, made by the Springbok selectors to the team that beat Italy.

In the front row, powerful scrummager Tendai Mtawarira returns in place of Wian du Preez and BJ Botha starts at tighthead.

South Africa captain John Smit moves to his prime position of hooker, as opposed to a prop, in place of Adriaan Strauss.

De Villiers, explaining the reason behind starting Smit at hooker, said it wasn’t necessarily a one-off decision.

“It’s some good fortune we have at the moment. If you look at the squad, we can go horses for courses now and play how we want to play, stamp what we want to stamp on the game as a team and that’s why John’s there.

“Suddenly we can make tactical choices on the pitch, move the players around – what a great position to be in.”

The experienced Schalk Burger is back on the flank with Danie Rossouw moving from the side of the scrum to No 8 while there is one change to the backline with Wynand Olivier starting at 12 in place of the injured Adi Jacobs.

There are four changes on the bench with Bismarck du Plessis and prop CJ van der Linde returning from injury, Ireland based centre Jean de Villiers gets a shirt despite only joining the squad on Wednesday and flanker Dewald Potgieter is included in the Test 22 for the first time.

This tour has not been the triumphant finale to a fine year South Africa would have wanted, but Smit insisted his men could not use the excuse of a ‘long, hard season’ for their recent defeats by France as well as English club sides Leicester and Saracens.

“I think fatigue comes in many different forms,” he said. “But it’s silly to use that as an excuse. I don’t think the ‘end of season’ exists these days because of the way the two hemispheres’ calendars are.

“It (the Ireland match) is just the last game for this year.

“We don’t need any special motivation to win in Dublin,” the 2007 World Cup winning skipper added. “The motivation comes from playing for our country.”

The Boks come into this match looking to avoid a third straight defeat by Ireland, having lost both their two previous games in Dublin.