adminSouth Africa have made one change to their starting line-up as wing JP Pietersen returns to face Wales in Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final at Twickenham.
Pietersen replaces Lwazi Mvovo and Bryan Habana is back on the left wing.
Coach Heyneke Meyer has also made four changes to his replacements from the squad that beat the United States 64-0.
Veteran lock Victor Matfield has failed to regain fitness following a hamstring injury.
Hooker Adriaan Strauss, prop Jannie du Plessis, scrum-half Ruan Pienaar and fly-half Pat Lambie are back on the Springboks’ bench.
Meyer said Pietersen and Habana “have been in superb form” with nine tournament tries between them.
Habana is also on the brink of overtaking New Zealand legend Jonah Lomu as the top try-scorer in World Cup history.
“They’re playing some of the best rugby of their lives,” said Meyer.
“They’ve been scoring some wonderful tries, as has Lwazi Mvovo, so it’s really great to know that there is good competition among the wings.
“It made sense to reunite Bryan and JP on the wing as it brings a lot of experience to our backline, which has been doing well despite the relative inexperience of Handré Pollard, Damian De Allende and Jesse Kriel.
Meyer also backed the experienced returnees to South Africa’s bench.
“We’ve seen first-hand how important it is to have experienced players on the field at the end of a match and to have this kind of experience available on the bench in a knock-out match is great,” said Meyer.
“Saturday’s match will be huge and we’re expecting an arm wrestle right until the end.
“We’re playing against a well-balanced side that always likes to mix things up when it comes to physicality.
“They’ve a good set piece and some strong ball carriers upfront and in the back – it’s what you expect to face at this stage of the competition and we’re very excited about the challenge.”
Meanwhile, the official line is that the great Victor Matfield is still feeling some tightness in that 38-year-old hamstring and was honest enough to concede as much to Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer this week.
That may well be the 100 percent truth … and just made it so much easier for South Africa to take the sensible and probably publicly-acclaimed step yesterday of retaining the youthful, dynamic lock combination of Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager for Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against Wales at Twickenham (1700hrs SA time).
Interestingly, Meyer said in the official release accompanying his match-day squad announcement that he had “planned to use Victor from the bench”, suggesting that he was always going to stick to the other pair as starters for the Wales clash regardless of Matfield’s state of readiness.— Sport24.
Online Reporter