The Springboks take on the All Blacks at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday 25 July in a Rugby Championship showdown.
Springbok Head Coach Heyneke Meyer’s hand was forced by injuries as he announced three changes to his starting team and five on the bench. Cornal Hendricks is in for JP Pietersen, Lood de Jager for Victor Matfield and Heinrich Brussow for Marcel Coetzee. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen made seven changes to his squad, with the most notable being first Test caps for lock James Broadhurst and flyhalf Lima Sopoaga, who is rewarded for a fantastic season with Super Rugby winners the Highlanders.
Springboks vs All Blacks Rugby Championship Preview
This game looks to be a very tight game even though both sides are not at their strongest for this encounter. Not having a ball carrying blindside flank available for selection, Meyer has gone with two opensiders in Brussow and Louw to team up with Schalk Burger in the loose trio. This does compromise the Springboks in terms of lineout options as well as some bulk at scrum time.
The Springboks will be regretting stopping playing in the second half against Australia last weekend as well as the poor kicking options taken, most notably by fullback Willie le Roux. Their stagnation in the second half is reflected in the tackle statistics, with South African players filling the top five positions in the tackle count after round 1, with new Springbok captain Schalk Burger topping the list with twenty. Interestingly, Springbok center Damian de Allande tops the list of missed tackles with six. All stats courtesy of Opta Sports.
This game has all the hallmarks of being the kind of tough, close encounter we would expect from these two traditional adversaries. I expect the All Blacks to squeak this one, based purely on the fact that they are the more settled side this weekend and the Springboks could be a little battle weary after their physical effort trying to hold off the waves of attack the Wallabies threw at them.
Springbok Starting Team:
15 Willie le Roux 14 Cornal Hendricks 13 Jesse Kriel 12 Damian de Allende 11 Bryan Habana 10 Handré Pollard 9 Ruan Pienaar (vc) 8 Schalk Burger (c) 7 Francois Louw 6 Heinrich Brüssow 5 Lood de Jager 4 Eben Etzebeth 3 Jannie du Plessis 2 Bismarck du Plessis 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements:
16 Adriaan Strauss 17 Trevor Nyakane 18 Vincent Koch 19 Flip van der Merwe 20 Warren Whiteley
21 Cobus Reinach 22 Pat Lambie 23 Lionel Mapoe
All Blacks Starting XV:
1 Tony Woodcock 2 Dane Coles 3 Owen Franks 4 Brodie Retallick 5 James Broadhurst 6 Liam Messam 7 Richie McCaw (c) 8 Kieran Read 9 Aaron Smith 10 Lima Sopoaga 11 Charles Piutau 12 Ma’a Nonu 13 Conrad Smith 14 Ben Smith 15 Israel Dagg
Replacements:
16 Codie Taylor 17 Wyatt Crockett 18 Ben Franks 19 Samuel Whitelock 20 Victor Vito 21 TJ Perenara 22 Beauden Barrett 23 Malakai Fekitoa
For ticket information go here.
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