Smit back where he belongs
Peter de Villiers announced the team to day that will face Ireland on Saturday. With John Smit moving back to his more familiar position of hooker the Boks will be much more solid come scrum time. Three Irish based players have made it into the squad but only one cracks the nod to start namely BJ Botha, CJ van der Linde and Jean de Villiers start on the bench.
This is the Springboks last match of the year and they would dearly like to beat the 6 nations champions to add the win to their incredible 2009. The will be played at Croke Park, Dublin which holds a massive 82000 supporters.
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Danie Rossouw, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Dewald Potgieter, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Jean de Villiers.
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O’Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O’Connell, 4 Donncha O’Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Sean O’Brien, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Gordon D’Arcy
Kickoff – 16:30
