Rugby Sell-out crowd all set for Bears v Boks clash

A SELL-OUT Ashton Gate crowd of 26,387 will watch Bristol Bears take on South Africa A tonight.

Joe Joyce, inset, will captain his hometown club against the touring South Africans in front of the biggest-ever crowd for a sporting event since the stadium’s redevelopment.

The Bristolian lock will partner with Joe Batley, with Yann Thomas, Bryan Byrne and Max Lahiff getting the nod in the front row.

Magnus Bradbury moves over to blindside in the back row lining up with Jake Heenan and Fitz Harding, with Will Porter and Callum Sheedy at half-back.

Sam Bedlow and Piers O’Conor are picked at centre, with Gabriel Ibitoye and Deago Bailey joining Luke Morahan in the back three.

Meanwhile, South Africa ‘A’ head coach Mzwandile Stick has, as reported earlier this week made five changes to his starting team to face the Bears following his side’s 28-14 defeat to Munster last week.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Marco van Staden earn starts in a South Africa squad that features 12 capped Springboks.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu joined the SA ‘A’ team in Bristol on Sunday after spending the last two weeks with the Boks in Dublin and Toulon respectively, while Van Staden joined the SA ‘A’ team after being ruled out of Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber’s original 35-man Castle Lager Outgoing Tour travelling squad due to a rib injury.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu replaces Johan Goosen at fly-half in a new half-back pairing with Grant Williams, while the only other change among the backs is at full-back, where Gianni Lombard takes over from Aphelele Fassi, who injured an ankle injury in the team’s 28-14 defeat against Munster last Thursday.

The changes in the forward pack were at hooker, where Andre-Hugo Venter is named in place of Joseph Dweba, who is on standby for the Springbok squad, with Van Staden replacing Phepsi Buthelezi at flank. » The Rugby Players Association is calling for a limit of 30 games per season to reduce injury risk.

New research funded by the RPA indicates that players making “31 match involvements” in a campaign face a “significantly higher injury burden” in the following year. The study, entitled: The Influence of Match Exposure on Injury Risk in Elite Men’s Rugby Union, and conducted by the University of Bath, defines match involvement as “any time spent on the field”. It builds upon a previous study conducted in 2017.

Mark Harrington, World Rugby’s chief player welfare and rugby services officer, said: “World Rugby welcomes all research that has the ability to inform evidence-based moves to reduce the risk of injury in rugby through prevention, management and education.”