Boks Unleash Bakkies On Fiji
Sep 14,2011
The Springboks on Thursday made four changes to their starting line-up and two more on the bench when they named the team to meet Fiji in their Pool D Rugby World Cup 2011 match in Wellington on Saturday. Four of the six changes have been forced by injury.
Lock Victor Matfield (hamstring) and backs Butch James (hip flexor), Jean de Villiers (rib cartilage) and Bryan Habana (patella tendon) were all unavailable for selection due to injury. A fifth player, Johann Muller, will undergo a late fitness test on a tight hamstring. If he is unavailable he will be replaced on the bench by Francois Louw.
Matfield’s place is taken by the returning Bakkies Botha; Odwa Ndungane steps into the left wing berth in place of Habana; Pat Lambie starts at fullback with Francois Steyn moving forward to fill De Villiers’ inside centre berth and James’ place on the bench is taken by the versatile Ruan Pienaar who has appeared at scrumhalf, flyhalf and fullback for the Springboks.
In addition, Springbok coach Peter de Villiers made two tactical changes. Gurthrö Steenkamp was promoted to start at loosehead prop in place of Tendai Mtawarira (who drops to the bench) while the return to a conventional four/three split between forwards and backs among the replacements opens the way for Juan de Jongh to make a first appearance on a Rugby World Cup teamsheet.
De Villiers said Willem Alberts would act as a replacement lock if Muller failed to recover sufficiently.
“We have had injury problems at lock but we have versatile players to cover for most situations,” said De Villiers. “Danie Rossouw has now been picked to start at 4, 5, 7 and 8 this season and will call the lineouts this weekend.
“Willem Alberts is on the bench to cover four of the back five positions in the pack and we have a couple of scrumhalves on the bench who cover three other positions as well, so we are fortunate.
“Against a tough proposition like Fiji you’d prefer to have all your players available but this is tournament rugby and we picked our squad knowing that we would have to cover for many situations.”
The Springboks have played Fiji twice before, winning both games. In 1996 they recorded a 43-18 win in Pretoria before recording a momentarily tense, 37-20 victory over Fiji in the quarterfinals of the 2007 tournament.
South Africa: 15 Pat Lambie, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Frans Steyn, 11 Odwa Ndungane, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Danie Rossouw, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 Johann Muller, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Juan de Jongh.
Comments (13)
Sep 14, 2011 at 22:46:52
bissie on the bench again!!! noooooo this bunch of idiots in charge r faulty man! he must be getting so pissed off at being left on the bench all the time, agree with mullet about hougaard he should be on the wing or in for du preez! div is mal man! steyn at flyhalf is gonna kick all day, and as bissie said fiji,s player from 1 to 15 are faster than say 75 percent of the boks,, they gonna run it back at us all day! we need to keep ball in hand and get on the front foot. the only time we have even looked a threat in the last 6 months is when we keep the ball in hand!
Sep 15, 2011 at 01:57:55
Albersts our Strongest ball carrier is on the bench carrying the oranches at half time. Our best forward the top hooker in the world is on the bench.
Fiji and the Pacisific Island teams are weakest in the forward tight exchanges.
An Spies.... is on the bench. Look if Smit is not going to make way for Bismark then Spies should.
We need forwards that dominate, not wait for the domination to happen and then pitch up.
Sep 15, 2011 at 01:58:19
I agree with McMullet.....Hougaard should be starting! and Bismarck!
Sep 15, 2011 at 01:58:56
Spies should be on the wing signing autographs or the bench at best.
Sep 15, 2011 at 02:29:49
Hope Bakkies brings that breath of Fresh Air to the game this weekend!!
Sep 15, 2011 at 07:41:18
oops
must agree with others!
Why o why is Spies , Du Preez and M Steyn not on the bench. All out of form and had terrible games.
Hougaard could easily cover scrumhalf or wing. Not sure why hes on the bench.
Alberts should be at 7 or 8. Spies needs to take his position serious.
Pity Butch is injured as i would prefer him at 10 than boring m Steyn.
Du Preez is way off form ..guess Snor wants to give him as much game time as possible. Hope it works otherwise replace him with Hougaard whos on form .
Happy with the forwards. Just hope Bismark gets more time on the field.
Sep 15, 2011 at 08:12:42
Hopefully Spies, FDP hit heaps of form in this match otherwise they should be replaced.
A win is not enough in my eyes we need to get a bonus point and win by atleast 25 + points.
Sep 15, 2011 at 08:44:27
Bismark inplace Smit
Albert-Spies
Butch-Morney
Hougart-Du Preez
Beast was looking as tired as Smit in the last game so he deserves to warm the bench.
Other than that AAAAATTTTTTTTAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 15, 2011 at 08:48:54
Looks a bit a better but not sure I would stick with Steyn, this would have been the perfect time to start with Butch. Feel sorry for dejong, but I guess we need a big centre pairing to stop the fijians.
Sep 15, 2011 at 09:55:04
Morne turnstile steyn has another chance to kick away our ball. i think he is very very lucky to be there. i wont be surprized it old morne maybe used the knee on butch in training or something. to morne steyn the only defence is the the fence that is around the rugby field.
if his kick are even off with a few metres those cocunut lovers will run at us until the sun sets. we need to keep the pace of the match slow. talk to line outs take our time with everything. slow it down to disrupt them. no quick line outs ext. maul and scrum them.
i am super happy to see franna at 12. really hope snor uses him as he is used at metro. taking the ball up but offloading in the tackle and running into space. if he can repeat his form for metro we can own the midfield. unlike JDV he does offer a lot more problems for rival defences. hope they just dont use him as battering ram.
i am also happy for odwa. always a stable player that never lets you down. if he can get some ball in space then he can make something happen.
we are very close to having a proper backline in years so lets hope old butch comes back with a bang and franna has a great game. he is a great player just a pity so few has faith in his skill set.
we need to execute our plan and impose our style and not let them impose there style of running rugby. keep the ball put on phases and challenge there defence. they will leak tries so we need to exploit that. starve them of the ball. with we get 55 or 60 % of the ball with our playing style then we can crush and team. but we cant expect to just function with 40 % ball and think we can take it. wales bombed our rucks but i doubt fiji can do the same.
@kingcorn de jongh is a great player but franna is a natural 12. de jongh is a more natural 13 with his great running and side step.
Sep 15, 2011 at 15:48:02
lol mat vreter! u crack me up with that one!! turnstile steyn,, remember the game against the aussies when the muppet was spinning through the air like a fairy trying to tackle them!!!! ha ha ha,,,,, been laughing for the last 20 mins about that name u gave him ,,, lol
Sep 14, 2011 at 21:42:37
What does Hougaard have to do to get a start???
Im glad that P.Div did put F.Steyn at 12 so we should see the Boks crashing in the midfield a bit more Or we will see double the amount of up and unders.
Near quality backline except Butch instead of M.Steyn and Hougaard for Ndungane..