Percy Montgomery and JP Pietersen will return to the Springbok starting lineup for the second test against New Zealand in Dunedin on Saturday. This means that we will be seeing the same ‘back three’ that started in the World Cup final; Montgomery, Pietersen and Habana. I feel Conrad Jantjes will be disappointed by being dropped to the bench. He put in a good display in the first test and hardly put a foot wrong. But I guess coach De Villiers is trying something new this time around in his quest to beat the All Blacks.

The only other change from the team that lost the first test against New Zealand is the introduction of hooker, Bismarck du Plessis who replaces captain John Smit, who has returned home with a groin injury. Lock, Victor Matfield will take over as captain. There is still no room in the match day 22 for eighth men Ryan Kankowski or Pierre Spies with Luke Watson keeping his place in the squad and Joe VanNiekerk continuing at number 8.

Yet again, as much as I would want the Springboks to win, I can not see them beating the All Blacks this weekend. South Africa do not have a great record playing in Dunedin and I think that record is set to continue. New Zealand will not win by a large margin, maybe by 5 or 7 points. We will have to wait for New Zealand to come play us in South Africa and then we can ‘teach them a lesson’.

The Springbok team in full is- 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Jean De Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Butch James, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Joe Van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield (capt), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ Van der Linde, 2 Bismarck Du Plessis, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp. Subs: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Brian Mujati, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Luke Watson, 20 Ruan Pienaar, 21 Frans Steyn, 22 Conrad Jantjes.

Subscribe

Sign-up to receive the latest updates from InTheNews.co.za to your mailbox

Loading ...