S Africa v Australia: Teams
South Africa winger Bryan Habana has been backed to rediscover his form, starting against Australia in Bloemfontein.
Last Updated: 04/09/10 10:06am
South Africa winger Bryan Habana has been backed to rediscover his form, starting against Australia in Bloemfontein.
Habana, the former IRB Player of the Year, has managed to score just two international tries in 2010 - with both coming against Italy.
However Habana has retained his place in the side for the Tri-Nations clash with the Wallabies - and Springboks assistant coach Dick Muir is confident the Stormers ace will come good.
"All great players have these spells where they lose form," the backs coach said.
"Bryan has set the bar very high, so we probably notice it more.
"He's one of the most dedicated players and he's working hard to get back to his best, so I'm not overly concerned about his form."
South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has made only just one change to his starting XV - with lock Dannie Rossouw getting the nod ahead of Bulls team-mate Flip van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe drops to the bench, where he is joined by Gio Aplon, who replaces the injured Butch James.
Australia coach Robbie Deans has made three changes to his line up following the 44-31 defeat to the Boks last time out.
Stephen Moore, Mark Chisholm and Ben McCalman have all been called into the line-up - with Dean Mumm, Saia Faingaa and Richard Brown making way.
Mumm, Faingaa and Brown drop to the bench, with loose forward Scott Higginbotham axed from the squad completely.
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.
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 James O'Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Mark Chisholm, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga'a, 17 James Slipper, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Richard Brown, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Berrick Barnes, 22 Anthony Fainga'a.