OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 10.30am.
FORMER Springbok skipper Joost van der Westhuizen could return for South Africa in Saturday’s one-off Test against Canada if scrumhalf Werner Swanepoel fails to recover from injury.
Swanepoel turned his ankle in training on Wednesday and has been given until 6pm on Thursday to get over the injury.
If Swanepoel fails to recover, Van der Westhuizen would make his first appearance in a starting line-up since he injured a knee in last year’s World Cup third place play-off against New Zealand.
He returned to competition as a substitute in a Super 12 series match for the Northern Bulls only last month.
Dan van Zyl has been called into the squad, ready to take a place on the replacements’ bench if Van der Westhuizen moves up.
Canada have made five changes to the side beaten by the United States last Saturday.
Australian-born coach Dave Clark has been able to recall both his first-choice props and scrumhalf from duty with their European clubs. He also makes changes at hooker and in the back row.
Loose-head prop Rod Snow of Welsh club Newport, tight-head John Thiel of France’s Narbonne and scrumhalf Morgan Williams of French club Begles-Bordeaux all return to the starting line-up.
Pat Dunkley is promoted to hooker and Philip Murphy comes into the back row.
”We know we are up against it,” Canadian skipper Al Charron said on Wednesday.
”We know we pale by comparison on paper but on any given day if a team fails to live up to expectations then anything can happen.
”We hope that happens on Saturday.”
Springbok coach Nick Mallet promised ”good rugby” against Canada.
”That means playing positively with ball in hand,” he said.
”What we need to achieve against Canada is to play the kind of rugby that allows us to score tries. If we can do that in our first Test match of the year, it would be very encouraging.
”It would be especially rewarding against a team like Canada; they are a very hard, aggressive outfit.” — Reuters/AFP