Heyneke Meyer’s men take on the World XV which will be led out by legendary Sprinkbok Bakkies Botha, a week before the Castle lager Rugby Championship begins with a meeting against Australia in Brisbane.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Boks deal with Botha’s feisty nature – should the ‘Blood Brother’s’ short fuse come alive.
As per most World Cup years, the Bok roster has its fair share of miss-timed injuries to key players – with their best player last year in Duane Vermeulen also on the nursing table. He is in a race against time to participate in England.
Scrum-half maestro, Fourie du Preez is also unavailable but is expected to be fit come September.
Captain Jean de Villiers is expected to make a cameo appearance tomorrow having made a miraculous recovery from a career-threatening knee injury he obtained late last year.
The result is a much changed side compared to the one which ended a bittersweet 2014. It should be an absorbing encounter.
Kick-off time: 5pm. My prediction: Boks by 10.
Teams:
Springboks:
15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Oupa Mohoje, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jean de Villiers
World XV:
15 Delon Armitage, 14 Lachlan Turner, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 David Smith, 10 Mike Harris, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Luke Whitelock, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Jordan Taufua, 5 Bakkies Botha (captain), 4 Ali Williams, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp
Substitutes: 16 David Roumieu, 17 Alexandre Menini, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Flip Van der Merwe, 20 Louis-Benoit Madaule, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Andrew Horrell, 23 Rudi Wulf – @SabeloBoksburg
