Springboks v Wallabies, preview

June 15, 2007 - 6:30am
Story by: Sportal

Venue & time

Newlands, Cape Town. Saturday June 16, 23:00 AEST

Head to head

Played 63: South Africa 39, Australia 23, Drawn 1

Last time

Sept 9, 2006 (Johannesburg) Springboks 24-16 Wallabies

Walking wounded & team changes

The Springboks have a few injuries but you'd hardly call them concerns. Scrumhalves Fourie du Preez and Ricky Januarie are both injured, paving the way for the very talented Ruan Pienaar to get his first start in the No.9 jersey in a full fledged Test. Veteran prop Os du Rant has been rested along with impressive No.8 Pedrie Wannenburg. Gurthro Stenkamp is the loosehead and Pierre Spies gets his chance at the back of the scrum. Try-scoring maestro Bryan Habana is also out, but the Boks will loose nothing with the speedy JP Pietersen and Ashwin Willemse on the wings. Veteran fullback Percy Montogomery is back at No. 15, while Jaque Fourie's Super 14 sees him given a start in the centres alongside Jean de Villiers.

John Connolly's experiment in the backline is officially over. George Gregan is back at No.9, Stephen Larkham is at flyhalf and Matt Giteau is at inside centre. Drew Mitchell and Lote Tuqiri are the wings and Julian Huxley retains the fullback role. George Smith starts ahead of Phil Waugh at openside, Rocky Elsom and Wycliff Palu are the other loose forwards. Dan Vickerman and Nathan Sharpe are back as the locks while the front-row is Matt Dunning, Stephen Moore and Guy Shepherdson. Connolly has gone for five forwards and two backs on the bench with Adam Freier, Al Baxter, Mark Chisholm, Stephen Hoiles and Waugh in the reserves along with utility backs Adam Ashley-Cooper and Mark Gerrard.

Form

The Springboks have been showing the best form in world rugby over the past month. They decimated a strong England team 58-10 and 55-22 before overpowering Samoa 35-8 with a second-string side last week. As usual, the Boks forwards are dominating the lineout and scrum, and at long last the backs are being productive - very productive running in a 16 tries in three games.

The Wallabies have also started the season with three wins from three attempts but struggled in their first match-and-a-half against Wales before also overpowering Fiji 49-0 in Perth with an experimental line-up. They are back to their tried-and-trusted backline of Gregan-Larkham-Giteau-Mortlock-Tuqiri so expect things to be slicker in attack than they have been at any time this year.

Teams

Springboks:

1. Gurthro Stenkamp,
2. John Smit (C),
3. BJ Botha,
4. Bakkies Botha,
5. Victor Matield,
6. Schalk Burger,
7. Juan Smith,
8. Pierre Spies;

9. Ruan Pienaar,
10. Butch James,
11. JP Pietersen,
12. Jean de Villiers,
13. Jaque Fourie,
14. Ashwin Willemse,
15. Percy Montgomery.

16. Gary Botha,
17. CJ van der Linde,
18. Johann Muller,
19. Danie Rossouw,
20. Michael Claassens,
21.Wynand Olivier,
22. Francois Steyn.

Wallabies:

1. Matt Dunning,
2. Stephen Moore,
3. Guy Shepherdson,
4. Nathan Sharpe,
5. Dan Vickerman,
6. Rocky Elsom,
7. George Smith (VC),
8. Wycliff Palu,

9. George Gregan,
10. Stephen Larkham,
11. Lote Tuqiri,
12. Matt Giteau,
13. Stirling Mortlock (C),
14. Drew Mitchell,
15. Julian Huxley.

16. Adam Freier,
17. Al Baxter,
18. Mark Chisholm,
19. Stephen Hoiles,
20. Phil Waugh,
21. Adam Ashley-Cooper,
22. Mark Gerrard