News

De Villiers sticks to his guns

Tuesday 19th August 2008

Back in: Jantjes comes straight back in for Montgomery

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has named his side to face Australia in Saturday's Tri-Nations clash at ABSA Stadium in Durban, making just two changes.

In the only two changes to the starting XV Conrad Jantjes is restored at full-back and Jongi Nokwe comes in for the injured Bryan Habana.

Nokwe's inclusion was an expected one, with Habana failing to recover from the hamstring injury that forced him off against New Zealand on Saturday, as he comes in for just his second cap.

Jantjes is preferred to Percy Montgomery at full-back after Montgomery failed to impress on his 100th Test outing, although he does retain his place in the squad having been named on the bench.

Given the nature of South Africa's 19-0 defeat against New Zealand many expected wholesale changes, especially given that several senior players failed to perform.

Yet De Villiers has stuck to his guns in only making only two with a pre-game plan already in motion.

"The All Blacks have some great tactical kickers so in a sense we had to slow the game down last week," De Villiers said, speaking to South African rugby website keo.co.za.

"The Aussies don't have great tactical kickers and we have to speed things up. That's why we've gone with Jantjes."

Under pressure De Villiers has also stuck with scrum-half Fourie du Preez over Ricky Januarie with a further loss on Saturday possibly signaling the beginning of the end for Jake White's successor.

"I think Fourie does have a yard or two on Ricky. Other than that, I don't think there's much difference between the two," De Villiers added.

In the Boks' other alteration, star wing Habana is expected to be a heavy loss to the world champions. And Wallabies flyer Peter Hynes has expressed his disappointment over missing out on facing the Blue Bull in Durban.

"You never hope a player's injured," Hynes explained, speaking to AAP.

"He'd be great to play against. He's a fantastic player, one of the best players obviously getting around as a winger."

South Africa: 15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Butch James, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Andries Bekker, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Brian Mujati, 18 Joe van Niekerk, 19 Luke Watson, 20 Enrico Januarie, 21 Francois Steyn, 22 Percy Montgomery.

Date: Saturday 23 August, 2008
Kick-off: 15:05 (13:05 GMT)
Venue: ABSA Stadium, Durban
Match Officials: tbc