Rugby Championship: Teboho Mohoje to make first South Africa start
Friday 26 September 2014 11:52, UK
Flanker Teboho Mohoje will make his first start for South Africa against Australia on Saturday - live on Sky Sports - after earning selection ahead of the experienced Schalk Burger.
The 24-year-old replaces the injured Francois Louw in the line-up, while Francois Hougaard comes in for Ruan Pienaar, who also picked up a knock against New Zealand two weeks ago, at scrum-half.
Mohoje, who goes by the nickname of Oupa, has become something of a cause celebre with his lack of caps leading Archbishop Desmond Tutu to voice his thoughts on the sensitive issue of more opportunities for black players in the South Africa side.
Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer insisted he had selected Mohoje for purely rugby reasons.
"There's really no pressure," he said.
"I will pick the guys who I believe are the best. Oupa's good in the line-out and a strong ball-carrier."
Burger, who has 71 caps, has returned from a spell playing in Japan and had been expected to come straight into the Springbok side but has had to settle for a place on an experienced bench which will also feature lock Bakkies Botha and winger JP Pietersen.
"Injuries forced our hand with Francois and Ruan Pienaar not available, but Hougie and Oupa have been part of the squad for the entire season and I've got the utmost confidence in them making the step up," said Meyer.
"Francois brings different strengths to the team at No 9 and has an opportunity to demonstrate the contribution he can make on Saturday, while Oupa is more of a traditional blindside flanker who will get another opportunity to show what he can do in his breakthrough season.
"He has really come on in leaps and bounds this season and responded to the goals set for him."
Mohoje has one cap, which came against Scotland during the summer, and has made just five starts for the Cheetahs in Super Rugby.
"It will be a very tough outing and we will have to fire on all cylinders for the full 80 minutes," added Meyer.
"It's great to be back in South Africa after three tough matches on the road and we're really looking forward to playing in front of our own supporters again.
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"We've had a couple of great training sessions and have been working hard on all aspects of our game this week. There is a definite resolve to improve the quality of our performance on Saturday."
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handrè Pollard, 9 Francois Hougaard; 1 Tendai Mtawarira, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Victor Matfield, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 7 Tebo Mohoje, 8 Duane Vermeulen,
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Bakkies Botha, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 JP Pietersen
You can watch South Africa v Australia live on Sky Sports 2 at 3.45pm on Saturday.
