Springbok team to take on Italy

It’s been another disappointing week for the travelling Boks as the mid week team went down by a single point to Saracens.

No matter though, Saturday is a new game and it comes in the shape of the Italians. Peter De Villiers has made four changes to the starting line-up that went down to France last Friday.

Italian flag - nice

The backline stays the same , but in the forward pack Schalk and Bismarck are injured so Danie Rossouw comes in at no.7 and Adriaan Strauss at hooker. Then the Beast drops to the bench as does Victor meaning a debut test cap for the Cheetah’s prop Wian du Preez and a well earned starting place for Andries Bekker.

New faces on the bench include B.J Botha after fielding an S.O.S from the Springbok management, Jean Deysel and Francois Hougaard.

The Italians coached by Nick Mallet had an impressive showing against the All Blacks and will be far from push overs for the Boks. Gone are the days of the 100-0 scorelines of the late 90’s, these casanova’s can play a bit nowadays.

As always with the tests in this part of the world, the battle up front will be vital. Hopefully the fresh legs in the front row will make all the difference in at least lowering the volume of the hoards of critics that the Bok scrum has at the moment.

Upon a solid base our backs should have too much class and we should be able to comfortably secure our first win of the tour in this one.

Prediction: 28 – 13

Team: 15-Zane Kirchner, 14-JP Pietersen, 13-Jaque Fourie, 12-Adrian Jacobs, 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Morne Steyn, 9-Fourie du Preez; 8-Ryan Kankowski, 7-Danie Rossouw, 6-Heinrich Brussow, 5-Andries Bekker, 4-Bakkies Botha, 3-John Smit (captain), 2-Adriaan Strauss, 1-Wian du Preez.

Replacements: 16-Tendai Mtawarira, 17-BJ Botha, 18-Victor Matfield, 19-Jean Deysel, 20-Francois Hougaard, 21-Ruan Pienaar, 22-Wynand Olivier.