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Rossouw: Back in the second row
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- Sharpe wants a quick fix
- Boks are overplayed
- PdV not satisfied
Coach Peter de Villiers has made just one change to South Africa's starting XV for Saturday's Tri-Nations clash against Australia in Bloemfontein.
Lock Flip van der Merwe, who started in Soweto and at Loftus Versfeld, moves to the bench to make way for Bulls team-mate Danie Rossouw.
There is one more change to the matchday squad that beat Australia in Pretoria last week, Gio Aplon will start on the bench for the injured Butch James.
Out-of-form winger Bryan Habana, who many had thought was facing the chop in favour of Aplon, retains his place in the run-on XV.
De Villiers said that his players were determined to do well in Bloemfontein, which has so far been a happy hunting ground during his tenure.
"There is still the Mandela Cup to play for and whilst we do not play only to win trophies we do see them as just reward for hard work, so hopefully our hard work will pay off and we can celebrate a win at the weekend," he said.
Vice-captain Victor Matfield said he had been pleased with the improvements in the forward play in last week's 44-31 win over Australia in Pretoria.
"The lineouts were better but I was really impressed by how well we did at the breakdown," Matfield said.
"I was also very happy with the scrums which were a good launching platform for us. We will continue to see where we can improve this week".
South Africa:15 Francois Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Gurthro 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.
Date: Saturday, September 4
Venue: Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein
Kick-off: 17.00 (15.00 GMT)
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Television match official:Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)
Assessor: Steve Hilditch (Ireland)
Comments
trublu says...
Isnt it ironic that the first time we got decent refereeing we came up trumps in the tri-nations! Alain Roland knew that he cant nail us again with bad refereeing in our own country because it will look to obvious. All we as saffers ask is objective and honest refereeing and we will rule the world again! Go bokke kick them wallabies azzes yet again this weekend!
Posted 11:34 01st September 2010
scot_rsa says...
Simple player mis-management. Does the coaching staff of any other top-flight country allow this to go on? The players must be running the show because PDV "won't force" anyone to rest. What the heck is the point of a coaching staff that won't rest tired players or give in-form players a chance? I used to think these odd selections were solely down to quota issues but now it just appears to be a lack of guts in making tough decisions (dropping heroes like Habana or favourites like Januarie) or laying down the law with players he doesn't get on with (F Steyn). OK, the Boks should win, but it doesn't prove anything. On the positive side, well done Chilliboy. Wish you had a chance to show us 80mins regularly then there would be no ambiguity as to whether you're up to the job or not.
Posted 13:07 31st August 2010
martinmarais78 says...
Our Nasa chief rocket coach has engineered yet another piece of brilliance! I still want our Boks to lose the next game plus the November tests in order to get rid of the true problem in Saffa rugby before the World cup... Fact still remains despite last Saturdays win: PDV = ZERO change for World cup... Even if Habana & co is rested and in there best form ever! Stop blaming the players that formed the basis of the 2 best teams in this year¿s Super 14 and get rid of the true affirmative action problem!
Posted 12:59 31st August 2010
cyperus says...
Its a very silly decision. The senior players including Habana, should be rested and the up and comings played in ther place. This team will not win the world cup but this team a very good experiences bench (squad actually) can. It time to play the Chilliboys, Aplons etc. Get them to face half decent oppositon now so that we can field a team in the future that could paly without Smit, Habana and Matfield for example.
Posted 12:26 31st August 2010