More green than gold in Bok team for Wales game
SPRINGBOK coach Allister Coetzee has jettisoned experience and looked to the future by naming one of the most inexperienced Springbok teams in history to take on Wales at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow.
Seven changes from the team that lost 20-18 to Italy is a predictable and necessary response after such a huge setback, but of those changes four players are uncapped.
The squad, which shows 12 changes from Italy, has a total of 365 caps.
Wing Jamba Ulengo, flanks Uzair Cassiem and centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg will start, with Jean-Luc du Preez set for a debut off the bench.
The starting Bok backline has a total of 40 test caps among the seven players, with Johan Goosen at fullback being the most experienced with 12 caps.
Wales’s backline has a combined 335 caps, with wing Liam Williams, who has 37 caps, and scrumhalf Gareth Davies (21), the only players with fewer caps than the entire Bok backline.
The Bok coach has also reinstated Lions halfbacks Faf de Klerk and Elton Jantjies, who along with No 8 Warren Whiteley and Janse van Rensburg, form a Lions spine in those crucial positions.
After failures with experienced heads such as Bryan Habana (124 caps), JP Pietersen (70), Willie le Roux (40) and to a lesser extent Damian de Allende (22) over the past two weeks, Coetzee has drawn a line under the past and cast his gaze forward to Rugby World Cup 2019.
Springboks:
15-Johan Goosen, 14-Ruan Combrinck, 13-Francois Venter, 12-Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11-Jamba Ulengo, 10-Elton Jantjies, 9-Faf de Klerk, 8-Warren Whiteley, 7-Uzair Cassiem, 6-Nizaam Carr, 5-Lood de Jager, 4-Pieter-Steph du Toit, 3-Lourens Adriaanse, 2-Adriaan Strauss (capt), 1-Tendai Mtawarira. Reserves: 16-Malcolm Marx, 17-Steven Kitshoff, 18-Trevor Nyakane, 19-Franco Mostert, 20-Jean-Luc du Preez, 21-Piet van Zyl, 22-Pat Lambie, 23-Lionel Mapoe.