Francois Louw (Gallo Images)

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Cape Town - Skipper Jean de Villiers and flank Francois Louware likely to start for the Springboks in their Test against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

Both players trained on their own on Monday, with De Villiers still recovering from a hamstring injury he picked up in the Currie Cup, while Louw hurt his neck playing for his English club Bath a fortnight ago.

However, both look set to start on Saturday with the Keo.co.zawebsite reporting that the duo took part in Tuesday's team training session.

Patrick Lambie is set to start at flyhalf, with Elton Jantjieshis likely replacement on the bench which means Morné Steyn is unlikely to make the match-day squad.

After the Test against Ireland on Saturday, the Boks face Scotland a week later in Edinburgh before concluding their tour against England in London on November 24.

 Easily one of our top players in 2012 so far, even though he has not played that many games. We became competitive at the ruck as soon as he joined the scene

Sharkbok

I really panicked when I saw the heading before I read the article.   In any event the real Louw was the topic.   What will happen if De Villiers get injured again?   Meyer did not take out any insurance against a potential center injury when he picked the squad.   If De Villiers is iut he has a combination of very poor choices to make to replace him. 

The only possible solution would be to play Taute at 12 - but would that work out?  Taute was picked as full back - not center.   Mapoe is way too small to be a center and is untested at 12 - although he did play at 13 before.

In any event from an attacking backline perspective Meyer's cit that possibility out completely and if Lambie he will have to kick continuously since the centers are bound to be meaningless.