Springboks named to face All Blacks

Springboks named to face All Blacks

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer named an unchanged match-23 to face New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland in the fourth round of The Investec Rugby Championship on Saturday.  

“We’re very fortunate to have a touring squad of 28 fit players to choose from but following the performance last weekend against Australia, it made sense not to make any changes,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

“Continuity in selection has been something we wanted to address this year and I’m very happy that we’ve not been forced into making too many changes yet. The 23 who played against Australia, deserved another chance this week as we believe in rewarding good form.

“I have faith in all the players in the squad and I feel we’ve now got to a situation where any player can come in at any stage without too much disruption.”

After beating Australia for the first time at Suncorp Stadium last weekend, the Springboks travelled to New Zealand where they will face the tough task of securing their first away victory over the All Blacks since 2009.

“We had a good win last weekend, but that is in the past now,” said Meyer.

“Playing the All Blacks in New Zealand is the ultimate challenge in rugby and one we’re very excited about facing.

“But the hard work is never done as we want to continuously improve as we evolve as a team, on all aspects of our game.

“We’re only halfway through The Rugby Championship with three very tough games ahead, but this weekend we’re facing the best team in the world and it will not be easy.”

South Africa team to face the All Blacks:

15-Zane Kirchner, 14-Willie le Roux, 13-JJ Engelbrecht, 12-Jean de Villiers (captain), 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Morne Steyn, 9-Ruan Pienaar, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Willem Alberts, 6-Francois Louw, 5-Flip van der Merwe, 4-Eben Etzebeth, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira; Replacements: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Gurthro Steenkamp, 18-Coenie Oosthuizen, 19-Juandre Kruger, 20-Siya Kolisi, 21-Jano Vermaak, 22-Pat Lambie, 23-Jan Serfontein.

no surprises after the wallaby ass whipping they gave out last week.

powerful forward pack with loads of speed on the bench they can inject where and when its apporpriate.

momentum and confidence at an all time high, all ingredients which make a successful team.

mornes sniper boot is hitting its mark and will need to more so in this game then any other so far.

its weak links have been cleverly patched up by meyer with simple player positioning and bringing in krichner was a master stroke.

JDV is the key, needs to keep the boys especially the young uns focused the whole 80mins.

should be a great match.

GO THE MIGHTY MIGHTY ALL BLACKS!!!

@mozter,

i know ur taking the mickey out of mikey and i wish u two love birds would just kiss and make up, LMAO, :oP

but regarding some of ur comments just wanted to add my two cents worth,,,

jannie at tighthead, i would start connie personally, but while jannie hasnt been outstanding, he has been solid in ever department except ball carries and the Bok loosies are doing an excellent job at that so not really a problem.

locks are decent, would started kruger though over flip, lady elizabeth has plenty of power and grunt while kruger can give them some extra speed to boot. plus hes decent in the lineouts, dont want to throw it all to eban like last weekend.

louws a decent enough fetcher, but his style looks more like a blindside flanker IMO. the term fetcher is too heavily emphasised in todays game IMO, McCaw stopped being a fetcher 5 years ago which shows just how far hes evolved since then. dosent mean he dosent do it, but every part of McCaws game is at the top level, differfenc between him and everyone else, hence his 3 IRB player of the year awards and 4 million nominations.
burger is another who reminds me more of a blindside then an openside.

pienaars delivery is slow and his box kicking is a weakness IMO, but if the forwards give him the same platform with 9/11 security and clean ball, then speed is not so much of an issue.
dont think he will have the same luxury that he had aaginst the wallys though.

morne looks better then ever, easily the best 10 in SA at the moment.

JDV is prob the best back in SA and amongst the top 5 int he world, so glad to have nonu back, wouldnt want JDV schooling saili the way he did back when the stormers played the blues.

serfontein isnt better then JDV, but he will be. JDV still has plenty to add to the Boks cause, IMO JDVs is playing better now then he has the last 3 years previously.

krichner, was a real smart move, IMO it takes the pressure of le roux who can adjust accordingly on th wing without compromising the integrity of the backline which is a real wekaness of le roux.
glad to see krichner last week prove his many critics wrong, but its up to him to prove that it wasnt just a case of the luckies.

mikey makes plenty of good points and i really enjoy reading his comments, i dont agree with everything he says though, same with the majority around here. and thats what makes these forums top shelf.