South Africa coach Peter de Villiers on Tuesday made one change to his starting line-up for Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against Australia in Bloemfontein.
Lock Danie Rossouw, who has been struggling with a hip injury, returns to the starting XV after two weeks on the bench, swapping with Flip van der Merwe, the 25-year-old who impressed in his first Tri-Nations starts over the last fortnight.
De Villiers also made one injury-enforced change on the bench, with Gio Aplon replacing Bath flyhalf Butch James, who injured his shoulder when making a thumping tackle in last weekend’s 44-31 win over the Wallabies in Pretoria.
The match is the Springboks’ last in this year’s Tri-Nations, with New Zealand having already clinched the title. Some critics have suggested De Villiers should rest his senior players for Saturday’s match.
“I wasn’t tempted to make more changes, all our focus is on this one game and we can only take our future planning from there afterwards,” De Villiers told a news conference on Tuesday.
The coach said he was still keeping a close eye on other players, especially hooker Bismarck du Plessis and loosehead prop Tendai Mtawarira.
Du Plessis recently returned from a neck injury, while Zimbabwe-born Mtawarira has not played a Test this year after a controversy over his eligibility to play for South Africa.
“Both will be back at the end of the year and in top form. It’s good to have competition in the team,” De Villiers said.
Team: Francois Steyn; Pietersen, Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana; Morne Steyn, Francois Hougaard; Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Schalk Burger; Victor Matfield, Danie Roussouw; Jannie du Plessis, John Smit, Gurthro Steenkamp. Substitutes: Chiliboy Ralepelle, CJ van der Linde, Flip van der Merwe, Ryan Kankowski, Ricky Januarie, Juan de Jongh, Gio Aplon.