Bulls captain Victor Matfield, playing in his 58th Test, has been named to lead the Springboks in their Tri-Nations Test against the All Blacks at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday.
Significantly, the man widely tipped to take over from the injured John Smit, who limped off the field with a hamstring injury against the Wallabies last weekend, Bobby Skinstad, has not been included in Jake White’s 22-man squad for the game.
That does not mean he is out of contention altogether, as there are still 72 hours to go before the kick-off and depending on the roll call of injured players, changes could still be made, according to coach Jake White.
”But for the moment we have picked the form side and we believe flank forward Juan Smith has recovered sufficiently from his injury at Newlands to make the starting line-up at this stage.”
It is worth noting that Sharks teammates Percy Montgomery and Bismarck du Plessis are on opposite sides of the scale in so far as Test Caps are concerned.
When Percy runs on against the All Blacks he will be playing in his 85th Test and will hope to improve on his 713 international points. Bismarck, on the other hand, will be hoping at some stage during the game that he will be sent on by White for what will be his first Test appearance.
If that should happen it will be an experience never to be forgotten for the popular hooker who has made Durban his hometown for the past three years after a move to the Sharks from Bethlehem in the Free State.
Matfield and Bakkies Botha will be playing their 29th Test together as a lock pairing for the Springboks and Os du Randt returns for his 72nd Springbok Test.
The Durban match will be refereed by Alain Rolland of Ireland who has handled four previous Springbok internationals, of which they have lost three.
The match will be played for the Freedom Cup while forming part of the Tri-Nations series.
Speaking about the team, White said: ”With regards to the inclusion of Juan Smith, he is much better today [Wednesday] that he was yesterday. Obviously if there is no problem he will take the field as planned Saturday.
”Changes are not out of the question. There are a lot of things we could change but for now this is the team we have selected.”
White said the choice of Matfield as captain was not at all problematical. ”He has a long international record, has successfully captained the Bulls franchise in the Super 14, took over the reigns against the Wallabies when Smit was injured and in my mind was the only logical choice.”
Looking ahead to the World Cup, White pointed out there are only three Test matches to be played by the Boks in the build-up, which so far has seen a run of four successive victories, against England (twice), Samoa and in the Tri-Nations against Australia.
For this reason players in the squad under medical treatment and rehab were not considered. ”Indeed for now this is the strongest team we could put in against the All Blacks this weekend.” — Sapa
Springbok team: Percy Montgomery; Ashwin Willemse, Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, JP Pietersen; Butch James, Ruan Pienaar; Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Schalk Burger; Victor Matfield (captain), Bakkies Botha; BJ Botha, Gary Botha, Os du Randt. Substitutes: Bismarck du Plessis, CJ van der Linde, Johann Muller, Danie Rossouw, Michael Claassens, Wynand Olivier, Francois Steyn.