Springbok centre Jean de Villiers has been cleared to win his 64th cap for South Africa on Saturday after passing a late fitness test in Dublin on Friday morning.
He takes his place in the centre alongside Zane Kirchner for the first test of the Springboks’ four-Test tour of Britain and Ireland and will go up against the formidable Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’ Driscoll.
Meanwhile uncapped backrower Willem Alberts has not recovered sufficiently from a calf strain and is replaced on the bench by his Sharks backrow team-mate and in the similarly uncapped Keegan Daniel.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers welcomed the news of his namesake’s recovery: “We have been hard hit by injuries to our centres so to have Jean available is a major boost.
“He is an experienced international and is in charge of the backs on tour so it’s great to see him back on the field.
“We had made contingency plans, and had trained with them in mind all week, but with Jean’s knowledge of Ireland’s players – having played for Munster – it was important to have him available for this match.”
Revised Springbok team:
15 Gio Aplon, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Zane Kirchner, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai (Beast) Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Adi Jacobs, 22 Patrick Lambie