Spies to tackle All Blacks
2006-08-25 17:29
Pretoria - Pierre Spies will replace injured flanker Joe van Niekerk for South Africa's Tri-nations Test against champions New Zealand on Saturday.
Van Niekerk was ruled out of the game in Pretoria on Friday due to a neck injury.
"Joe couldn't sleep last night and in the middle of the night he went to see the team doctor, who organised scans this morning," Springbok coach Jake White told reporters.
"The scans showed some movement between the C5 and C6 vertebrae, the same place where Schalk Burger had his injury. It's another over-use injury and it's too much of a risk to put him on the field."
White said Spies, named on the bench when Van Niekerk was promoted to replace the injured Juan Smith, beat reserve lock Albert van den Berg and the hastily-recalled Pedrie Wannenburg to the number seven jersey.
Van den Berg and Wannenburg will be on the bench.
"Albert was an option because he's played flank for Griqualand West and would cover for Juan as a lineout option, but Pierre has been part of training for the whole week and knows what we're doing," White said.
The Springboks have already lost Burger to a career-threatening neck injury and in-form Smith went down in midweek with a thigh strain.
New Zealand clinched the Tri-Nations title with a 34-27 win over Australia in Auckland last weekend. Their last appearance in Pretoria in 2003 brought them a 52-16 victory.
"The All Blacks have shown that they're the form team, the many changes they've made have added a lot more pace and they've done really well at Loftus Versfeld in the past," White said.
"But this is a new Test and all that is irrelevant. They've travelled a long way and have had a shorter time to recover, while we have the advantage of being at home and having a longer recuperation time," White said.
Recent meetings:
2006: New Zealand won 35-17, Wellington
2005: New Zealand won 31-27, Dunedin
2005: South Africa won 22-16, Cape Town
2004: South Africa won 40-26, Johannesburg
2004: New Zealand won 23-21, Christchurch
2003: New Zealand won 29-9, Melbourne
2003: New Zealand won 19-11, Dunedin
2003: New Zealand won 52-16, Pretoria
2002: New Zealand won 30-23, Durban
2002: New Zealand won 41-20, Wellington
Teams:
Revised Springbok team:
Percy Montgomery; Akona Ndungane, Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana; Butch James, Fourie du Preez; Os du Randt, John Smit (captain), CJ van der Linde; Victor Matfield, Johann Muller; Solly Tyibilika; Jacques Cronje, Pierre Spies.
Replacements: Chiliboy Ralepelle, BJ Botha, Van den Berg, Pedrie Wannenburg, Ruan Pienaar, Wynand Olivier, Andre Pretorius.
New Zealand:
Leon MacDonald; Rico Gear, Mils Muliaina, Luke McAlister, Sitiveni Sivivatu; Dan Carter, Piri Weepu; Neemia Tialata, Anton Oliver, Greg Somerville; Ali Williams, Greg Rawlinson; Reuben Thorne, Richie McCaw (captain), Chris Masoe.
Replacements: Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock, Chris Jack, Jerry Collins, Jimmy Cowan, Sam Tuitupou, Isaia Toeava.
Referee: Alan Lewis (IRL)
Kick-off: 15.00 SA time.
- SAPA