RUGBY NEWS - First starts at test level for Warrick Gelant and Dan du Preez are among the five changes that Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has made for the final match of the year against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.
As anticipated, Coetzee has stuck with the continuity mantra for this 13th match of an international season that started well before hitting a rocky patch in the middle that the Boks are still trying to recover from.
However, the absence of players who are contracted to Japanese and European club sides has necessitated changes, while Beast Mtawarira is injured and Malcolm Marx is now fit again.
Once he was pronounced ready to play again after being rested as a precautionary measure against Italy last week, Marx was a shoo-in to fit in between two Stormers props, Steven Kitshoff and Wilco Louw.
Kitshoff will be making just his second start as he returns for Mtawarira. The last time Kitshoff started he was outstanding against New Zealand in Cape Town so the Boks won’t feel they’ve lost a lot through Mtawarira’s absence.
Bongi Mbonambi, who played well against Italy, returns to the bench.
The big change was always going to come in the back row, where Francois Louw and Duane Vermeulen are both missing because of club commitments, and as anticipated there is only one player, blindside flank Pieter-Steph du Toit, who continues in the same loose-forward position he played in last week.
There had been some speculation that Du Toit would lose out this week to Uzair Cassiem but that never seemed like a logical selection given that Du Toit was the only back row starter surviving from the solid win over Italy.
Cassiem is, however, on the bench and could come in useful to the Boks if the game opens up in the last quarter. The Free Stater made his debut in the corresponding match against Wales last November.
Du Preez, who has impressed as a replacement on this tour, gets a deserved start at No 8 in Vermeulen’s place while Siya Kolisi returns from paternity leave to take the No 6 jersey worn against Italy by Louw.
If there is one slight concern about the back-row it might be that the players are too similar, with even Kolisi being more noted as a ball carrier and only a recent convert to openside while Du Preez doesn’t really play like a conventional No 8.
Perhaps that was where the speculation about Cassiem perhaps finding a place in the starting team came from.
