On Now
Weekdays 06:00 - 09:00
The Good Morning Breakfast Shandor and Margaret
NEXT: 09:00 - 12:00 Mid-Morning Magic with Yolanda
Listen Live Streams

Rugby

Le Roux, De Klerk and Mostert return against France

───   MORGAN PIEK 15:04 Thu, 08 Nov 2018

Le Roux, De Klerk and Mostert return against France | News Article
Willie le Roux - Gallo

The Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, has made two changes to his backline which will face France in Paris on Saturday evening.


Willie le Roux and Faf de Klerk have both returned from their club commitments and start at fullback and at scrumhalf. Le Roux replaces Willemse in the number 15 jersey, while Ivan van Zyl makes way for De Klerk.

Up front, Franco Mostert, returns to start at lock alongside Pieter-Steph du Toit. This is due to the bruising lock, Eben Etzebeth, not being declared fit after injuring his ankle a week prior against England.

This sees Erasmus retaining the captain Siya Kolisi, Warren Whiteley and Duane Vermeulen as the backrow.

Erasmus says that it helps to have more experienced players at his disposal for this week.

“It’s good to have the experienced players back in the starting team for France.

“I thought Damian and Ivan did very well last week against England but you need as much experience as possible playing away from home.

“We are building squad depth for the Rugby World Cup and they will be back in the mix as the tour progresses.

“We believe it would be better not to rush Eben back as we still have two Tests left on the tour after the match against France.

 “Franco has started in eight of our 11 Tests this year and he starts with Pieter-Steph du Toit, who is obviously also a good option to move to loose forward later in the match.”

“The French are very physical and skillful, and we will have to be good on defense and also be disciplined.

“The conditions here in the northern hemisphere demand a different approach and while we created a lot of opportunities last week we have to better with our execution.”

Saturday evenings’ Test at Stade de France kicks off at 22:05.

France -15 Maxime Medard, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 11 Damian Penaud, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Arthur Iturria, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 3 Cedate Gomes Sa, 2 Guilhem Guirado (captain), 1 Jefferson Poirot.

Replacements - 16 Camille Chat, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Paul Gabrillagues, 20 Mathieu Babillot, 21 Antoine Dupont, 22 Anthony Belleau, 23 Gael Fickou.

Springboks – 15 Willie le Roux, 14 S’bu Nkosi, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff.

Replacements – Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Francois Louw, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Cheslin Kolbe.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport

@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.