The Springboks host the Wallabies in thier last Tri-Nations and Mandela Plate encounter of 2010 against one another.

As far as Tri-Nations glory goes, this is a dead rubber apart from playing to avoid the wooden spoon.

We preview this game below.

The SPRINGBOKS have just had an important win over the Wallabies at Loftus but have had a disasterous Tri-Nations according to their standards.

There are glaring weaknesses in the Springboks at the moment, with defence and individual bloobs 2 of the main factors and coaching incompetance the other.

The Springbok team is a team with some players on the bring of fatigue-breakdown, with only guts and determination keeping some going, but connected to that there are still some serious questions which needs asking regarding their game plan and variation of play.

Players like Juan Smith and Francois Hougaard have been revelations in their importance to the team, whereas Pierre Spies, Bryan Habana and John Smit have been the complete opposite.

I recon we’ll see a momentous effort from this team, knowing that this is their last 80 minutes of rugby for a while, due to being rested and placed on conditioning programs.

The WALLABIES on the other hand are a relatively young team, in the building phase under Robbie Deans and the team selection of this week indicates that Deans was obviously unhappy about the way the Wallabie forwards fronted up, specially in set pieces.

Once the exciting Wallabie backline sniffs blood, they are a dangerous side with youngsters like Genia, Cooper, O’Connor and Beale all capable to be game breakers.

They came out like a house on fire last week against the Bokke but fell away heavily after the half-our mark, where the Bokke killed them off slowly but surely.

I recon that the Springboks will be weary of the initial Wallabie surge in the game and despite Wallabies beafing up the forwards, they won’t be able to surprise the Springboks early on like last week.

I predict another tough encounter, like it normally is but I favour the home side to do it….. Bokke by 10.

Teams:

South Africa: 15 François Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 François Hougaard, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Ryan Kankowski, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Gio Aplon.

Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 James O’Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (captain), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Mark Chisholm, 3 Salesi Ma’afu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benin Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga’a, 17 James Slipper, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Richard Brown, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Berrick Barnes, 22 Anthony Fainga’a.

Date: Saturday, September 4
Kick-off: 17.00 SA Time (15.00 GMT)
Venue: Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein
Expected weather conditions: Clear with a high of 28°C, dropping to 2°C and a westerly of 25 km/dropping to 3 km/h – perfect weather for rugby, as one would expect in Bloemfontein in spring.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
TMO: Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)