adminSOUTH Africa have no special tricks up their sleeve for New Zealand and will stick with the game-plan that has served them well this year in the Rugby Championship decider at Ellis Park on Saturday, captain Jean de Villiers said.“We won’t be playing any differently than we were playing in the previous games,” De Villiers told reporters yesterday. “Our game plan hasn’t changed. I think to be successful tomorrow we have to execute what we have been doing”.
De Villiers said the side were confident that the mixture of brute force up front and fast backs out wide that has taken them to 10 wins in 11 tests since they lost to the All Blacks in last year’s Rugby Championship would be the right approach again.
“We have to put up a performance like we did for the first 20 minutes last week and we need to do it for 80 minutes,” De Villiers said.
The Springboks bamboozled Australia in the first quarter of their 28-8 victory in Cape Town last week, scoring two tries, but then let their intensity drop to miss out on what could prove to be a crucial bonus point.
They need to score four tries and win by seven points if they are to wrest the four-nations tournament title away from New Zealand.
“The fact of the matter is that it is not a Mickey Mouse team we are up against tomorrow,” De Villiers added. “They are the World Cup winners, the number one team in the world and they also want to win the competition, they want to win the game.
“It makes for a great game. We won’t change anything but hopefully we can execute well tomorrow.
“This year has been really good, we have only lost the one game. It does come down to tomorrow’s game . . . not so much the scoreboard but the way we play.
Meanwhile, Springboks centre JJ Englebrecht came through training unscathed on Friday and will start in the Rugby Championship decider against New Zealand at Ellis Park in Johannesburg today.
Engelbrecht had been suffering with a contusion to his quad muscle picked up in last weekend’s 28-8 victory over Australia in Cape Town and had been unsure of selection.
The 24-year-old came through full training sessions on Wednesday and yesterday and was given the all-clear by the medical team to make his 10th appearance for the Springboks.
As a result, Jan Serfontein will be on the bench with Juan de Jongh dropping out of the match-day 23.
Team: 15-Zane Kirchner, 14-Willie le Roux, 13-JJ Engelbrecht, 12-Jean de Villiers (captain), 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Morne Steyn, 9-Fourie du Preez; 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Willem Alberts, 6-Francois Louw, 5- Juandre Kruger, 4-Eben Etzebeth, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Gurthro Steenkamp, 18-Coenie Oosthuizen, 19-Franco van der Merwe, 20-Siya Kolisi, 21-Ruan Pienaar, 22-Pat Lambie, 23-Jan Serfontein. – Reuters
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