Victor Matfield
Victor Matfield will on Saturday become the most-capped Test player in the history of South African rugby when he leads the Springboks against Wales in his 112th Test match at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
Matfield made his Test debut on 30 June 2001 against Italy in Port Elizabeth. He retired after the Rugby World Cup in 2011 on 110 caps, but made a highly successful return to the game earlier this year.
“This is a fantastic accolade for Victor,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer on Wednesday.
“He has been a terrific servant of the game in South Africa and has led his country with distinction since returning to the Green and Gold.”
“When he returned to the game earlier this season, he set his goals on becoming a Springbok yet again and he’s worked extremely hard to get there. I don’t think anyone can doubt that he deserves his place in the team and he’s also been a great interim captain, with Jean de Villiers out injured.”
Matfield, who is also the most-capped Vodacom Super Rugby player in South Africa, will captain a Springbok starting line-up which shows two changes from the team which beat Wales by 38-16 in Durban last week.
Both changes are in the pack, where Tendai Mtawarira returns at loosehead prop, with Gurthrö Steenkamp reverting to the bench, while Flip van der Merwe will partner Matfield in the second row in the place of Bakkies Botha.
The only other change to the team is amongst the backline reserves, where Wynand Olivier replaces the injured Johan Goosen to provide necessary midfield cover. Ruan Pienaar will provide backup for scrumhalf and flyhalf, while Lwazi Mvovo can cover fullback and wing.
Commenting on the team selection, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said it was an easy decision to stick with the core of the team which beat the Welsh last weekend in Durban.
“I’ve always preferred to stick with a winning combination and the changes to the team were both part of our planning,” said Meyer.
“The backline really performed well last weekend and we would like to give them another opportunity to play together, as there were a number of new combinations.”
“The same applies upfront. Bakkies is fit for selection, but we decided to manage his workload this week and I know Flip, who has been outstanding in the last two seasons, will slot back in easily. The same goes for ‘Beast’, who upped the tempo with his work rate last weekend.”
Meyer said he is expecting another tough challenge from Wales this weekend.
“They’ve had another week together and will be keen to lift their game on Saturday, but at the same time we were not happy with certain aspects of our game and we’ve worked hard to rectify that,” said Meyer.
“This is their last match of the season, so we’re expecting them to come out firing. But we also want to make a step up and ensure we keep on improving as the season progresses.”
Springbok team:
15 Willie le Roux – (13 caps, 25 Test points)
14 Cornal Hendricks – (1 cap, 5 Test points)
13 JP Pietersen – (52 caps, 80 Test points)
12 Jan Serfontein – (10 caps, 5Test points)
11 Bryan Habana – (96 caps, 275 Test points)
10 Morné Steyn – (55 caps, 649 Test points)
9 Fourie du Preez – (Vice-captain, 68 caps, 75 Test points)
8 Duane Vermeulen – (17 caps, 10 Test points)
7 Willem Alberts – (31 caps, 35 Test points)
6 Francois Louw – (29 caps, 25 Test points)
5 Victor Matfield – (Captain, 111 caps, 35 Test points)
4 Flip van der Merwe – (34 caps, 5 Test points)
3 Jannie du Plessis – (52 caps, 5 Test points)
2 Bismarck du Plessis (Vice-captain, 58 caps, 45 Test points)
1 Tendai Mtawarira – (54 caps, 10 Test points)
Replacements:
16 Schalk Brits – (6 caps, 0 Test points)
17 Gurthrö Steenkamp – (50 caps, 30 Test points)
18 Coenie Oosthuizen – (15 caps, 10 Test points)
19 Lood de Jager – (1 cap, 0 Test points)
20 Schalk Burger – (69 caps, 65 Test points)
21 Ruan Pienaar – (75 caps, 130 Test points)
22 Wynand Olivier – (37 caps, 5 Test points)
23 Lwazi Mvovo – (8 caps, 5 Test points)
Date: Saturday 21 June
Venue: Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Kick-Off: 15:00 SA Time (14:00 BST, 13:00 GMT)
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Romain Poite (France), Francesco Pastrana (Argentina)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)
Stats and facts:
- The Springbok starting team boasts a total of 681 Test caps (295 in the backline and 386 in the forwards), while there are a further 261 caps worth of experience on the bench.
- South Africa and Wales have played each other 28 times since 1906, with the Springboks winning 26 Tests, losing one and one was drawn. The Springboks have scored 777 points and 97 tries and conceded 398 points and 33 tries for an average score of 28-14.
- Victor Matfield will be playing in his 112th Test for the Springboks, breaking the record he shared with John Smit. He will be playing against Wales for the 12th time and will also extend his record of 111 appearances as a lock for South Africa.
- Bryan Habana will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok wing, with 95 Tests in this position and if he scores a try, will extend his record of 55 Test tries for South Africa. He has also played in one Test at outside centre.
- Morné Steyn will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok flyhalf, with 53 Tests in this position. If he scores a try, he will also extend his record of eight Test tries as a flyhalf for South Africa.
- If he scores a try, Bismarck du Plessis will extend his record of nine test tries for South Africa as a hooker. Bismarck and his brother Jannie will also be playing together in their 33rd Test, which is a Springbok record for brothers.
- Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis and Jannie du Plessis will extend their record of 15 Tests as a front row for South Africa.
- If he goes on Schalk Burger will extend his record as the most capped Springbok flank, with 67 Tests in this position. He also shares the record with Juan Smith for the most Test tries as a flank (11).
- If he goes on and scores a try, Gurthrö Steenkamp will extend his own record of six tries as a prop for South Africa.
- Ruan Pienaar, Schalk Burger and Flip van der Merwe are the sons of ex-Springboks Gysie Pienaar, Schalk Burger (Snr) and Flippie van der Merwe (Snr), while Francois Louw is the grandson of ex-Springbok Jan Pickard.
- Wynand Olivier last played for the Springboks on 23 June 2012 against England in Port Elizabeth.
- The referee is Steve Walsh of Australia (previously New Zealand). This will be his 16th Test involving South Africa. The Springboks have won 11, lost one and three were drawn. His last game was the Test against Argentina on 24 August 2013 in Mendoza, which the Boks won 22-17.
Springbok Test match records at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit :
- Most points – 10 (2c, 2p) by Morne Steyn on 15 June, 2013 against Scotland.
- Most tries – one each by JJ Engelbrecht and Jan Serfontein on 15 June, 2013 against Scotland.
- Most conversions – two by Morne Steyn on 15 June, 2013 against Scotland.
- Most penalty goals – two by Morne Steyn on 15 June, 2013 against Scotland.
- Most drop goals – none
@ nortierd:
88
The RWC soccer minus vuvuzelas seemed to work wonders for you?
🙂
Hondo wrote:
Anything without vuvuzelas work wonders for me
😀
Well done Oom vic! such a proud record to be the most capped Springbok ever.
Things I would like to see in this game:
1 Selections – Schalk replacing vermeulen at 8, Pienaar coming in at flyhalf, and Brits a bit more gametime to see what he can do, the feeling is his game does not suit the tightness of test matches.
2 General play – Jan and JPP gets another run to to boost their combo, Jan ran a lot of crash ball the last game, also a lot of the time there was no one on his shoulder to take a pop (we know how he can offload in the tackle).
Would like the Flip and vic combo to work wonders, till psdt and eben come back to compete this is without a doubt our premier lock combination.
Clean outs at ruck time needs to be more efficient (this is not alone the job of an opensider but of the whole team), I was mightily impressed with Alberts, what we often see in super rugby is our team just try to clean by diving into players as hard as they can, while Alberts was trying to lift them away from the ball by lifting up their upper bodies.
Line outs, anything less than winning all our lineout ball is a failure.
Scrums, hopefully coenie will come on and cement his place at 3 where we are lacking, like last week HM should send on most replacements before the 60minute mark.
In the backline our back three is really solid, I just hope our center combination can build, Mornes game improed dramatically from the world xv and they clearly discussed his running lines before he passes, so hopefully our makeshift center combination can only build from this with more experience of playing with each other and JPP running better support lines.
The second test wont be easy, hopefully we can make sure of victory before halftime, but keep our structures in the second half, in the first half we were pushing passes and offloads that were just not there, we can pull the urgency and “barbarian style” rugby people want back a bit.
@ nortierd:
92
I didn’t bother to watch any of it in 2010 so I didn’t suffer 😆
btw: an Israeli Hi-tech Com. created in a record time then a vuvuzela filter out software which they sold for an estimated 1,2 Billion Eur to networks around the globe after the Pool games stage
No use for it this time I guess?
@ MacroBok:
93
I agree with all
However, I can’t see the clean out by lifting works for the current Boks side, because:
Vic’s too lazy, preserves himself for the bigger things 😕
The Beast just jump on the mound as if it was a heap of 71 virgins, obstructing the other effective cleaners from doing their work 😆
Fatti’s too slow to produce useful cleanups 😉
Dyesel would be an ideal bouncer for that job, alas, he isn’t in the team?
Hondkak give us the ruck stats for the Bok forwards.
Rumour is Paul Willemse could be going to France at the end of the season… I swear if we lose him I would have to take a break from rugby for a while.
May the Boks beat “Assland” and his team real good at Nellies
MacroBok wrote:
Oh noes, just bring back Danie Rossouw man!
@ Gena_ZA:
hehe ek wens… maar danie se Rugby dae is verby
MacroBok wrote:
Spelers se rugby dae is eers verby as Heyneke besluit dis verby…..klink nogals na n Chuck Norris grappie daai
@ nortierd:
haha ja dit was moer cheesy 😛
Helloooooooooo
I’m back from Ermelo, Mpumalanga… lots of catching up to do this side… already 4 PC’s on the benches for Configuration and doing their things… then a heap of mails, then Rugby News & Articles, Live Game Articles, Bru picks ect…
Wish I had more arms, fingers, eyes…
@ grootblousmile:
Hello daar, vergeet maar van die Bru picks, na die fiasco met die useless Crusaders is my Junie toernooi poer in sy moer
@ nortierd:
14Kak Dan
regards @ nortierd:
@ nortierd:
14 Dan,Nou praat jy groot kak
106 @ ryecatcher:
Rye you old bugger, I see you are now managing with that PC of yours!
How’s it since I tweaked it a bit?
ryecatcher wrote:
Lol, now I had to first go back in time to see what I wrote.
So Rye, are you saying there are not any Shark supporters behind the Boks and that they all do not consider these real tests?
Because that’s what I was saying, only a small minority don’t support HM and his picks and only a small minority don’t think that these are real tests.
@ grootblousmile:
Excellent Rudi.Thanks again
@ nortierd:
Hi Dan.If I misread your comment,then sorry.thought that you said that
“no Sharks are Bok Supporters”
Regards
ryecatcher wrote:
He he, no worries bud
Macro and myself were discussing some of the comments on some of the other websites, we know it’s not a true reflection of the majority
Good to see you online and giving me some stick, it’s been quiet from a Shark perspective, so I’m very happy they have someone here to give us some stick
😀
@ nortierd:
14 MISSED THE “NO”
Flok, ek’s darem maar eenmaal ‘n uitmuntende Rekenaar boffin… almal is ALTYD happy met my…. hehehe
@ nortierd:
14 And to re inforce this.GO BOKKE.GIVE THEM HELL
ryecatcher wrote:
TO ALL BOYCOTTING SHARKS SUPPORTERS.
COME ON GUYS.MAN UP.THE STORMERS HAVE ENDURED VITRIOL
AND SCORN FOR YEARS WITHOUT RESORTING TO THIS SORT OF ACTION.
WHO ARE YOU HURTING BY YOUR BOYCOTT.?CERTAINLY NOT THE STORMERS.THEY ARE NOT QUAILING BEHIND THERE KEYBOARDS IN
REGRET FOR WHAT THEY HAVE SAID TO OFFEND YOU.
THE only persons being hurt by this are yourselves whose opinion is now
silent.And possibly Rudi, He is a decent man who finances this blog out of his
own pocket.To him it is a labour of love and a hobby which we all enjoy.
FROM THE SELF APPOINTED “TRIBAL ELDER”
116 @ ryecatcher:
Hehehehe
“Tribal Elder”… I will call you that from now onwards!
@ ryecatcher:
Well said Rye!
Perhaps we should sponsor our boy-cotters with black and white colored overalls and hardhats and request them to address GrootBlouCrusader as ‘Honorable Chair’ ! (had a good chuckle when Malema addressed that woman as ‘Sir’).
I still don’t get it, why are our Shark friends pissed off? I missed that little feud between them and Norty and whoever….
Nouja, nou het Brakkenjanpan WEER loadshedding… lekker ou farktup Eskom en lekker ou farktup Brakkenjanpan!
Genny hardloop nou maar… hy word nou permanent vol petrol gehou, reg om net gestart te word!!
@ Pietman:
“I still don’t get it, why are our Shark friends pissed off? I missed that little feud between them and Norty and whoever….”
Who me?
He he, was a culmination of a couple of things, including not agreeing that the Sharks and SR come before the tests and then…..boom….the Stormers went and won at the Tank.
That was all she wrote
I forgive them and humbly apologize for the Stormers spoiling their party, I wish I could say it won’t happen again, but unfortunately on the 5 of July 2014 it will happen again, only this time at Newlands
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