Saturday, December 19, 2009

Boks Set for a Reshuffle



Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is likely to make a few changes for this weekend's second test against Wales at Loftus.

Lineout king, Victor Matfield, looks set for a return to the starting lineup after making his presence felt as a replacement in the Boks' 43 - 17 win over the Red Dragons in the first test at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein. Test debutant Andries Bekker will then drop down to the bench after a quiet outing.

The second change is likely to be at tighthead where either BJ Botha or CJ van der Linde steps in for Brian Mujati who struggled a bit in the front row on his debut. Experts however say M! ujati should be given another chance because new combinations take a while before being completely settled.

The big selection poser for de Villiers will be at scrumhalf and fullback. Bolla Conradie played out of his socks after being named in the starting lineup because of a one test ban against Ricky Januarie. The nuggety Stormers scrumhalf is up for selection this week but it's not a done deal that he'll walk back into the starting lineup.

Percy Montgomery showed some nice touches aswell on Saturday after coming off the bench and scored one of South Africa's four tries. But he played outside centre and it's doubtful that de Villiers will replace the solid and much quicker Conrad Jantjes at fullback.

De Villiers is due to make the team announcement on Thursday.