Boks bring back Rousouw

Habana keeps his place in the team for game in Bloemfontein

Last updated: 31st August 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Boks bring back Rousouw

Rossouw: back in the second row

We feel that Danie will be better suited the to the type of game we would like to play as well as to what we expect the Wallabies may bring to the game on Saturday

Peter de Villiers
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South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has drafted in lock Dannie Rossouw for Saturday's Tri-Nations clash against Australia.

The selection of the second-rower, who takes over from Bulls team-mate Flip van der Merwe, is the only alteration from the side that started at the weekend.

The Springboks registed their first win of this year's tournament on Saturday, defeating the Wallabies 44-31 at Loftus Versfeld.

Van der Merwe started that game in Pretoria and also the defeat to New Zealand in Soweto but has to make do with a seat on the bench.

Better suited

"We feel that Danie will be better suited the to the type of game we would like to play as well as to what we expect the Wallabies may bring to the game on Saturday," explained de Villiers.

There is also one change amongst the list of replacements for Bloemfontein; Gio Aplon named in place of the injured Butch James.

Prop Jannie du Plessis, who was considered doubtful for the match, has been named in the front row alongside skipper John Smit and Gurthro Steenkamp.

Out-of-form winger Bryan Habana, who many had thought was facing the chop in favour of Aplon, retains his place in the run-on XV.

With the title having already gone to New Zealand, both sides are playing to avoid the wooden spoon and also have the Mandela Cup to play for.

"I wasn't tempted to make more changes, all our focus is on this one game and we can only take our future planning from there afterwards," added de Villiers.

"There is still the Mandela Cup to play for and whilst we do not play only to win trophies we do see them as just reward for hard work.

"So hopefully our hard work will pay off and we can celebrate a win at the weekend."

South Africa:15 Francois Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Ryan Kankowski , 20 Ricky Januarie , 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Gio Aplon.