15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Francois Louw, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 . Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements :
16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20
Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Embrose
Papier, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Damian Willemse
So lets look at the team as announced:-
* I am very worried about the defense of Kolbe - he is just not up to standard physically
* De Allende is the better player compared to Esterhuizen and he has done vastly better against SBW in the SR series this year
* Louw at 8 is to be replaced asap by a hardworking player with some pace. Would like to see Augustus of the WP coming into the position asap.
* Beast at 33 year of age is really showing his age in recent matches and I think a replacement will have to find for him as loosehead scrummager.
* I am not really surprised by Koch replacing Louw on the bench - the latter was not good enough in the Super Rugby series and tests he played in this year and one wonders whether he is not fit enough to compete
I hope that Willemse get some game time.
