South Africa v France: Teams

South Africa vice-captain Victor Matfield insists the Springboks will be fully focused going into their Test with France at Newlands on Saturday.

With football World Cup fever sweeping the country, rugby finds itself in the unusual position of being pushed out of the limelight.

However despite all the hype surrounding the tournament, Matfield insists his side's preparations for the clash with Les Bleus have not been affected.

"It's a great event for our country," said Matfield.

"We hear the vuvuzelas (plastic trumpets) from our hotel rooms all day long but we've been focusing on what we must do.

"We've done all the hard work and we're 100 per cent focused on this game."

Important

The Boks welcome back a number of their front-line players for the clash, with Wynand Olivier, Bryan Habana, Schalk Burger, Gurthro Steenkamp and Jean de Villiers all returning to the match-day 22 after missing the win over Wales.

Ricky Januarie also retains the No.9 jersey, while Flip van der Merwe is set to make his debut off the bench.

France captain Thierry Dusautoir believes the clash will be a good warm-up for his side ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Having won the Grand Slam and seeing Toulouse rule Europe, Dusautoir knows his side now need to start proving themselves against the southern hemisphere giants.

Dusautoir said: "It's always very important to win against a southern hemisphere nation but, with regard to the World Cup, it is more important to progress, to be improving and to be ready."

Coach Marc Lievremont has gone for experience for the one-off Test, although uncapped flanker Wenceslas Lauret does start.

South Africa:15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Jannie du Plessis, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Dewald Potgieter, 20 Ruan Pienaar, 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Jean de Villiers.

France: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 David Marty, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Aurelien Rougerie, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Wenceslas Lauret, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Jean Baptiste Poux, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 David Skrela, 22 Marc Andreu.