{"id":99994,"date":"2015-09-17T15:22:40","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T13:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/99994\/springboks-braced-for-different-challenge-from-japan\/"},"modified":"2019-09-18T02:54:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T00:54:32","slug":"springboks-braced-for-different-challenge-from-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/sports-news\/2015\/09\/17\/springboks-braced-for-different-challenge-from-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks braced for different challenge from Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Springbok will play their Rugby World Cup opener in Brighton on Saturday September 19 at 16:45.<\/p>\n<p>Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer on Wednesday September 16 named Jean de Villiers as captain of the national side for this very important match against a team South Africa has never played.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>The starting team boasts a combined total of 880 Test caps, eclipsing the previous most experienced side (836 caps), which played in the Springboks\u2019 last Rugby World Cup match against Australia in Wellington, New Zealand in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>The selection shows six changes from the side that beat Argentina in Buenos Aires a month ago. De Villiers\u2019 inclusion at inside centre is the only change to the backline, while Francois Louw returns at the side of the scrum.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">He&#39;s back! Jean de Villiers returns to lead a record breaking <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Springboks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Springboks<\/a> XV with 880 caps for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/RWC2015?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RWC2015<\/a> opener \ud83c\udfc9 <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/vGVO8hITNu\">pic.twitter.com\/vGVO8hITNu<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rugbyworldcup\/status\/644073676766355456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 16, 2015<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n<p>The tight five has been reshuffled, with Lood de Jager and Jannie du Plessis both back from injury, while Bismarck du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira will start yet again.<\/p>\n<p>On the bench, Coenie Oosthuizen, Fourie du Preez and JP Pietersen return from injury, while Adriaan Strauss, Trevor Nyakane and Siya Kolisi have also been included amongst the substitutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve decided to go with some form of continuity as it\u2019s important to get a good start in the tournament, but we also wanted to bring back a number of players who have recently recovered from injury,\u201d said Meyer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to see Jean, Francois, Lood, Jannie, Coenie, Fourie and JP back in action, and while we probably could\u2019ve played Duane Vermeulen and Eben Etzebeth, in the end we decided to give them another week to fully recover from their injuries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe backline is almost unchanged as we also decided to reward the players who did so well in Buenos Aires. There will in all likelihood be changes again next week but for now these players deserve another opportunity to stake a claim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meyer said Saturday\u2019s Test will be a great occasion against an opponent that will challenge the Springboks on different levels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe play against the big teams from the Southern and Northern Hemisphere quite often and with them it\u2019s mostly a case of you know what to expect,\u201d said Meyer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Japan will pose a different threat. They have a very astute coach in Eddie Jones and our players who play in Japan have warned us to expect a very high tempo game and good, low tackling to stop momentum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe players know that nothing but their best will be good enough on Saturday and we realise the importance of starting the World Cup on a good note, but having said that, we also know that there is no such thing as an easy game in rugby anymore and they will be just as fired up as us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecision-making will be key on Saturday and it\u2019s up the players to know when and how to vary our play. We can play tactically if we have to, but we can also attack with ball in hand and I\u2019d like to see a good blend of that this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Springbok team to face Japan in Brighton is:<br \/>\n15 Zane Kirchner\t\t&#8211; \t\t30 Test Caps<br \/>\n14 Bryan Habana\t\t&#8211; \t\t110 Test Caps<br \/>\n13 Jesse Kriel \t\t\t&#8211; \t\t4 Test Caps<br \/>\n12 Jean de Villiers (captain) \t&#8211;\t\t107 Test Caps<br \/>\n11 Lwazi Mvovo \t\t&#8211; \t\t13 Test Caps<br \/>\n10 Pat Lambie \t\t\t&#8211; \t\t44 Test Caps<br \/>\n9 Ruan Pienaar \t\t\t&#8211; \t\t44 Test Caps<br \/>\n8 Schalk Burger\t\t\t&#8211; \t\t79 Test Caps<br \/>\n7 Willem Alberts\t\t&#8211; \t\t33 Test Caps<br \/>\n6 Francois Louw\t\t\t&#8211; \t\t36 Test Caps<br \/>\n5 Victor Matfield\t\t&#8211; \t\t123 Test Caps<br \/>\n4 Lood de Jager\t\t\t&#8211; \t\t12 Test Caps<br \/>\n3 Jannie du Plessis\t\t&#8211; \t\t64 Test Caps<br \/>\n2 Bismarck du Plessis\t\t&#8211; \t\t73 Test Caps<br \/>\n1 Tendai Mtawarira\t\t&#8211; \t\t68 Test Caps<\/p>\n<p>Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Fourie du Preez, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 JP Pietersen<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Heyneke Meyer describes Fourie du Preez as the Best in the world by Caxton East and South\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F224259051&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=750&#038;maxwidth=500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"stream-item stream-item-below-post-content\">\n<div class='tenancy_slot tenancy_slot_1 jannah_ad' style='display: none;' data-query-id='869b837390b3094b66374cbf93558562'><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most experienced Springbok side ever will take on the Japanese side in their opening fixture of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5696,"featured_media":99995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Malcolm Maifala","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8428,3],"tags":[8519,8503,1122,7566,8510,1767],"class_list":["post-99994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby-world-cup","category-sports-news","tag-england","tag-japan","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-world-cup","tag-rwc","tag-springboks"],"amp_enabled":true,"category_labels":{"Category":"Sport","SubCategory":"Rugby World Cup"},"tag_labels":["england","japan","rugby","Rugby World Cup","RWC","springboks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5696"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}