The latest reported injuries are fairly serious with potential long absentee results both in the rcase of Mtawarire and Flippie. Alberts may also be out - he has conciussion - a real surprise since I always thought a person needs a brain for that problem to occur.
I suspect he would not be playing - but bearing in mind his standard performance that would not affect the Springboks in any event.
Meyer called up Adriaanse - the Sharks bench player - and the question arises why not the Lions loosehed (Van der Merwe) or even Greyling. Both are far better scrummagers than Adrianse.
The call ups and injuries and Meyer's weird selection policy are making it difficult to select a strong team and I think Meyer will probably end up with a team with a better backline and forwards than he had in the second Wales test. Lets look at the various positions:-
Full Back - Willie le Roux - no change
Wings - Hendricks and Pietersen - No real change since Pietersen is really a wing and not a center. Habana is a top wing - vut did not do much in the test last Saturday. Mvovo will be on the bench to cover both full back and wing.
Centers - Serfontein will be the 12 - but the 13 is a problem. The choice will be between Jordaan and JJ - but JJ is a very limited player and Jordaan is better in both defense and attack than he is. If Jordaan - the center combination will be better.
Flyhalfs - think it will be Goosen or Pollard. Both are vastly superior than the Stade Francais Bench player. The abckline will function much better with either of those two.
Scrummie - Du Preez - but there is no sign of any back up. Should be Reinach, but Meyer is likely to go with Hougaard.
No 8 - Vernmeulen
Loosies - Meyer is under serious political pressure in this case. Coetzee is an obvious selection with Burger at 7 - but the back u is likely to be Mohoje.
Locks - Matfield, De Jager and Lewies on the bench. De Jager is a huge improvement on the poor discipline Van der Merwe. His slap performances notwithstanding Matfiedl will be retained because of the fact he is interim captain. Lewies would have produced more than Matfield will be capable of doing.
Props - here we have a problem. At loosehead Nyakane is likely to start with Adriaanse on the bench - at tighthead it is likely that Coenie would start with Jannie du Plessis on the bench
Hookers - Adriianse to start with Bismarck on the bench.
The backline will show a serious improvement on the one fielded on Saturday and certain positions will show an improvement among the forwards as well.
My guess is the team will be as follows:-
15 Le Roux. 14 Pietersen, 13 Jordaan, 12 Serfontein, 11 Hendricks, 10 Goosen, 9 Du Preez, 8 Vermeulen, 7 Burger, 6 Coetzee, 5 Matfield, 4 De Jager, 3 Oosthuizen, 2 Strauss, 1 Nyakane
Replacements :
16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Adriaanse, 18 Jannie du Plessis, 19 Lewies, 20 Mohoje, 21 Hougaard, 22 Pollard, 23 Mvovo
I think Meyer does not favour Engelbrecht anymore and that is the reason why he may go with Jordaan. He may yet prefer Pollard to start and Goosen on the bench - but that is highly unlikely since Goosen was in full training yesterday.
