Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer on Wednesday announced a Springbok line-up showing three changes and two positional switches from the team that played in Mendoza for their third Castle Lager Rugby Championship Test of 2013, against Australia at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
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Upfront, Bismarck du Plessis takes over at hooker and vice-captain from Adriaan Strauss, while Flip van der Merwe will pack down at lock for Juandré Kruger. Strauss and Kruger move to the replacement bench.
At the back, Willie le Roux shifts from fullback to right wing in the place of Bjorn Basson, with Bryan Habana moving over to the left. Zane Kirchner, who is back to full fitness following a hand injury earlier in the season, will start his first Test of the year at fullback.
“A few of these changes are purely rotational in order to give guys with fresh legs a go, while others are simply a case of horses for courses,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
“We’re fortunate to be in a position to rotate players of the calibre of Bismarck and Adriaan, while we felt this was the right opportunity to give Flip and Zane a go in the starting team.
“In the end, the most important factor still remains consistency in selection. In our squad, any player can slot in at any stage, and that is a good position to be in.”
Meyer reiterated the massive challenge of playing Australia at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday evening and said that the Springboks are looking forward to testing themselves against one of the best sides in the world.
“If we are going to progress as a team, we need to start winning away from home and Saturday’s Test provides this challenge,” said Meyer.
“It’s no use looking at history now – we have to focus on the Test, ensure we tick the right boxes and improve in the areas where we let ourselves down in Mendoza.”
Springbok Team: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Willie le Roux, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jean de Villiers (Captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Flip van der Merwe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Juandré Kruger, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Jano Vermaak, 22 Patrick Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein.
Stats and facts:
- The Springbok starting team boasts a total of 567 Test caps (327 in the backline and 240 in the forwards), while there are a further 122 caps worth of experience on the bench.
- South Africa and Australia have played each other 76 times since 1933, with the Springboks winning 42 tests, losing 33 and one was drawn. The Springboks have scored 1435 points and 172 tries and conceded 1337 points and 138 tries for an average score of 19-18.
- South Africa and Australia last met on 29 September 2012 at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The Springboks won by 31-8, a game in which Bryan Habana scored a hat-trick of tries.
- Jean de Villiers will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok centre, with 74 Tests in this position.
- Bryan Habana will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok wing, with 87 Tests in this position and if he scores a try, will extend his record of 51 Test tries for South Africa. He also just needs one try to equal the Rugby Championship record of Christian Cullen (New Zealand) who scored 16 tries in his Rugby Championship (Tri-Nations) career. He will also extend his own SA record of nine career tries against Australia.
- Morné Steyn will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok flyhalf, with 46 Tests in this position. If he scores a try, Morné will extend his record of seven Test tries as a flyhalf for South Africa and if he scores a drop goal, he will extend his own record of three career drop goals against Australia.
- Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis will extend their SA record of playing together in 26 Tests for South Africa. If he scores a try, Bismarck will also extend his own record of seven Test tries for South Africa as a hooker.
- If he goes on and scores a try, Gurthrö Steenkamp will extend his own record of six tries as a prop for South Africa.
- The referee is George Clancy of Ireland. This will be his eighth Test involving South Africa. In the previous seven South Africa have won five and lost two. His last game was the test against Scotland on 17 November, 2012 at Murrayfield in Edinburgh (SA won 21-10).
Springbok Test match records against Australia at stadiums in Brisbane (seven at Suncorp Stadium (previously Lang Park), two at the Exhibition Ground, one at Ballymore Stadium and one at the Gabba):
- Most points – 10 by Joel Stransky (2c, 2p) against Australia on 14 August, 1993.
- Most tries – two by Piet Visagie on 31 July, 1971 and Marius Joubert on 27 July, 2002.
- Most conversions – two by Joel Stransky on 14 August, 1993 and by André Pretorius on 27 July, 2002.
- Most penalty goals – three by Louis Koen on 2 August, 2003.
- Most drop goals – one by Tom van Vollenhoven on 2 June, 1956 and Morne Steyn on 5 September, 2009.
The Springboks have never beaten Australia at Suncorp Stadium. The only two previous wins against Australia in Brisbane were at the Exhibition Ground (in 1956 and 1971). The Springboks beat Samoa 60-10 on 1 November, 2003 during the Rugby World Cup.
grootblousmile wrote:
I totally agree with all your above mentioned sentiments. However, the Wobblies will follow the Graeme Henry recipe of avoiding set piece. They might not have brillinat loose forwards but they don’t rely on loose fowrads like us to play a recycle game; recycle fast pace rugby is part of their DNA. It is product of the Aussie love affair with leaque rugby.
If we want to enforce OUR game we need to stop all attempt their attempt to start with their flap flap stuff (recycle recycle recycle recyle until the overlap appears). They are goiung to keep the ball in hand avoid contact (so Alberts and Duanne is out of the game) and limit scrums and line-out to the minimum (so our big forwards are out of the game) and run at us. Genia is going to snipe and send the ball to some-one is space and Alberts and Duanne and Ruan is going to be too slow to stop him. When they start targeting him Genia will shift to Cooper who will test their (Alberts and Duanne) ability to cover in channels 2 and 3.
Everytime we high kick and charge they are going to run at us. Everytime we move the ball at tortoise pace to the wings they will beat us to the breakdown because every player in that team is a loose forward.
So how are we going to enforce our game plan?
The game plan you want is too predicatble. They know that’s what we are going to do and they will have counters in place. Question is can we surprise them. Stick with our true north but be innovated enough to negotiate around the tough spots. Staying on course with a swamp in front of you equals drowning. The muscle in the middle of our craniums is the key as well as some real urgency at the break downs by the whole team is key in my opinion. The Scotland and Menoza performances got me worried.
Is late here in NZ. I am making way to many typo errors. Time to go to bed. Hope you are right and I am wrong. Cheers.
31 & 32 @ McLook:
We still cannot play them at their game, somehow we have to make them play our game… and for that our forwards are vital.
We HAVE TO play it closer to the rest of our forwards pack and that means running at Quade Cooper’s inside and outside channells.
Sure, they WILL try to speed it up and swing the ball wide, therefore we have to get more possesion than they get and slow their possession down. We have to close Will Genia and Quade Cooper off, so their ball can’t go wide at will and more importantly we must cut down their backline space… with in your face defence.
I expect the Bokke to employ the umbrella defensive pattern against their backline, cutting their outside backs off and forcing play much narrower than they want.
Our territorial game will have to mimmic the 2011 Semi Final at the Rugby World Cup, where we should have won on all counts.. but could not land the final blows due to dubious blowing of the ground ball situations in that game.
@ grootblousmile:
With George Clancy having reffed SA 7 times and SA winning 5 of those, the chances are that we will have it better than that infamous game. It also seems from the stats that SA understand the way he blows. That will give them some comfort, and may make the muscle between SA’s ears work better.
34 @ Lion4ever:
Yeah, although he is a Northern Hemisphere ref, I seem more at ease with him.
It seems I disagree with most here.
The Ausies are afar less settled side that we are, they are coached and encouraged to play with Ausie flair as they think God gave them more that other mortals.
They will play with a lot of ball in hand and expect to see a lot of Folau and O’Connor on Saturday.
Boks will play the complete opposite, a tactical slower game and feed of their mistakes.
I think we can take this game, Ruan would had a long talking to and either Duanne or Willem will be appointed to protect him more that he can clear faster.
Zane at 15 is not bad, he is stable and with Willi at wing we have yonks more that what Bjorn will ever be able to provide.
My prediction, Boks by 5
Regarding captaincy, I have always preferred a good no 8 to be captain, best balanced view is obtained at 8.
Gena_ZA wrote:
agree
if not 6/7/9 or maybe 10 if they are brilliant. We dont have a brilliant 9 and 10 in the side there , Fourie du Preez can work
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