SPRINGBOKS HEAD COACH Jacques Nienaber will be without key men Faf de Klerk and Pieter-Steph du Toit for Saturday’s third and deciding Test against the British and Irish Lions at Cape Town Stadium [KO 5pm Irish/UK time, Sky Sports].
De Klerk and du Toit have been ruled out due to injury, with Cobus Reinach coming in at scrum-half and Lood de Jager starting in the pack as Franco Mostert shifts to the back row.
The Boks are also without experienced number eight Duane Vermeulen, who returned to the squad on Sunday but hasn’t been deemed fit enough to be involved this weekend.
Nienaber has reverted to a 5/3 bench split, with 37-year-old Morné Steyn – who kicked the winning penalty in the 2009 Lions series – called into the matchday 23.
South Africa (v Lions):
15. Willie le Roux
14. Cheslin Kolbe
13. Lukhanyo Am
12. Damian de Allende
11. Makazole Mapimpi
10. Handré Pollard
9. Cobus Reinach
1. Steven Kitshoff
2. Bongi Mbonambi
3. Frans Malherbe
4. Eben Etzebeth
5. Lood de Jager
6. Siya Kolisi (captain)
7. Franco Mostert
8. Jasper Wiese
Replacements:
16. Malcolm Marx
17. Trevor Nyakane
18. Vincent Koch
19. Marco van Staden
20. Kwagga Smith
21. Herschel Jantjies
22. Morné Steyn
23. Damian Willemse
Referee: Mathieu Raynal [France].
- This article was updated at 1.15pm to correct the Springboks’ starting line-up, which erroneously listed Faf de Klerk.
I’d agree with the above, far too much credence put on the Bath win, who are a second tier English side, nearing third tier. We’ve beaten nothing this season really so far, just been consistent enough to keep winning. The toughest games were probably Munster and Cardiff last week to be honest, and we scraped a win over Bath away.
I do think that if we get a home QF and SF in the Aviva we can go back to Twickers, and anything can happen then, but Toulouse would be faves at the moment in my book, they’ve just got everything.
I’m a little worried about our second row options, Leo seems to be slowing and Browne is not really up to the white heat of a big HEC game I think. Today’s selection should be very interesting.
I certainly don’t fear Sarries or Quins though, Quins in particular have nowhere near the experience needed, and Sarries are one paced.
Agree completely! We seem to have forgotten that we have a relatively soft pool this year! To be anything but well in charge at this stage would be a disaster!
My big worry is what happens when we play a team with a serious pack and a good backline (eg Northampton for H1 of Heino Final). Defensively we leaked a lot of scores in that first half! If you were to have thrown some fitness and an out and out 7 into that Northampton team – what would the result have been? Haven’t forgotten what Clermont did to us in the RDS a couple of years ago (except on the scoreboard of course).