Bok selection very telling

South Africa are going to take on the USA tomorrow with their best available starting XV, which shows that coach Heyneke Meyer believes the Springboks still have areas in which they have to improve if they are going to challenge for the World Cup crown.

Japan have taught us all not to take anything for granted, but the match against the USA should be the Springboks’ easiest in the pool stages and, with the quarterfinals only being played 10 days later, there was considerable interest in whether Meyer was going to rest his first-choice players and play the second-stringers; continue with the same players and build on the momentum acquired against Samoa and Scotland; or choose a mix-and-match squad that fell between those two options.

Meyer revealed last night that he would be taking no chances and chose his best available starting line-up, with JP Pietersen, Victor Matfield and Jannie du Plessis not considered due to injury.

Their replacements are Lwazi Mvovo and Frans Malherbe, while Matfield stays on the sidelines with his hamstring strain, allowing Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth to continue their second-row partnership that looks as if it is going to be an enormous strength for the Springboks moving forward.

The bench is where the fringe players will get their chance and, with Morne Steyn and Rudi Paige named as the halfback reserves, Meyer has happily ensured that every member of his squad will get some World Cup action.

It was a solid win over Scotland, who defended superbly, marred only by the number of penalties the Springboks conceded and the poor tactical kicking in the first half.

The Springboks have now conceded 26 penalties in their last two games and that sort of ill-discipline is going to burn them in the knockout stages. More accurate cleaning out at the rucks is required, but it was pleasing to see Francois Louw have his best match of the tournament thus far.

There were 41 kicks from hand by the Springboks, which is a lot, plus many of them were ill-directed.

The Springbok backline did not tear the Scots apart as many had hoped they would, but this was partly due to the conservative game plan that was employed.

If South Africa are to play that way in the knockout rounds, then, against teams with firepower like Australia, New Zealand or France, they will have to maximise every opportunity and cut back drastically on the number of penalties they are conceding.