Victor Matfield will captain a South Africa team that contains six changes for the first of two Tests against Italy in Witbank Saturday.
Regular captain John Smit misses the match against the Six Nations stragglers because of a hamstring injury, but three of the changes are because coach Peter de Villiers has decided to rest centres Jaque Fourie and Wynand Olivier and lock Danie Rossouw after a 42-17 win over Six Nations champions France in Cape Town last weekend.
Butch James and Jean de Villiers are the new centre pair for the Springboks, and Bakkies Botha returns after suspension in place of Rossouw.
Chiliboy Ralepelle comes in for Smit at hooker. In other changes, Jannie du Plessis replaces BJ Botha at tighthead prop and Dewald Potgieter takes over from Francois Louw at flank.
With De Villiers keen to decide on his best 30 players ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup, he has brought an additional five players who played no part in the match against France on to the replacement bench.
The Italians are due to arrive in Witbank Tuesday and announce their team Thursday.
Team: Zane Kirchner; Gio Aplon, Jean de Villiers, Butch James, Bryan Habana; Morne Steyn, Ricky Januarie; Pierre Spies, Dewald Potgieter, Schalk Burger; Victor Matfield (captain), Bakkies Botha; Jannie du Plessis, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Gurthro Steenkamp. Replacements: Bandise Maku, CJ van der Linde, Alistair Hargreaves, Ryan Kankowski, Ruan Pienaar, Juan de Jongh, Bjorn Basson — AFP