MARCUS PRIOR, Glasgow | Wednesday 10.20am.
SPRINGBOK coach Nick Mallett got back to basics on Tuesday when he named his strongest and most experienced team to take on Uruguay in Glasgow on Friday.
There are two changes to the side that beat Scotland in the Group A opener – Henry Honiball comes in at fly-half for Jannie de Beer and Krynauw Otto replaces an unlucky Albert van den Berg at lock.
For Honiball, Friday’s game at Hampden Park will be his first international cap since the defeat to England at Twickenham in December last year.
Although he’s trained this week, team physician Dr Frans Verster was frank in his belief on Monday that the fly-half was still short of full fitness.
But at the team announcement Mallett was adamant his man was ready.
“We would never consider picking Henry unless he was fit enough”, Mallett said.
However with Jannie de Beer sitting out training today with what the camp are calling ‘a stiff groin’, fears must be growing that the ‘Boks could be staring down the barrel of a fly-half crisis just as the tournament begins to hot up.
But those fears were played down by Mallett, who did however admit that Percy Montgomery was ready to come in at fly-half should Honiball show any adverse reaction to his troublesome hamstring.
“Even though Henry is a hundred percent to play this game, there’s always the fear that his hamstring could give him problems after twenty minutes.
Jannie needs time to recover and will spend a lot of time with the physio over the next few days and Percy will stand in if there are any problems.”
For Krynauw Otto it was welcome news to see his name back on the team sheet, after a difficult time when he admits he wondered whether he’d ever play for his country again.
“Albert took his chance with both hands when I got injured. Suddenly there are a lot of good locks in South Africa – there’s so much competition that you can’t even relax in a training session. I can’t read too much into my selection though – now I’ve got to see if I can stay there.”
Although van den Berg was outstanding in the line-out against Scotland, Mallett justified Otto’s inclusion on the basis of his superior play in the tight.
“I wanted to have two good scrummaging locks who hit the rucks and mauls hard. It’s an aspect of our game that I haven’t been pleased with so far. But if the game opens up then Albert can come on and make a bigger impact.”
Uruguay shouldn’t pose too great a threat to the ‘Boks. They offer very little in attack but will certainly hit hard in the forward exchanges before they run out of steam.
They frustrated Scotland last week and will, theoretically at least, be playing for a place in the next stage of the tournament after their opening defeat of Scotland.
But we know that won’t happen. Rugby between two such teams is something sport should never be – utterly predictable. — MWP
Team:
Percy Montgomery, Deon Kayser, Robbie Fleck, Brendan Venter, Pieter Rossouw, Henry Honiball, Joost van der Westhuizen, Bob Skinstad, Andre Venter, Rassie Erasmus, Mark Andrews, Krynauw Otto, Cobus Visagie, Naka Drotske, Os du Randt. Replacements: Breyton Paulse, Pieter Muller, Werner Swanepoel, Andre Vos, Albert van den Berg, Ollie le Roux, Chris Rossouw.