South Africa v Barbarians Preview

South Africa’s Springboks take on the Barbarians at Twickenham Stadium, London on Saturday the 4th of December 2010 at 14:30 local time. It is the last match of the Northern tours by Southern Hemisphere teams. The All Blacks, Wallabies, Argentina, Samoa and Fiji all finished their seasons last weekend. However, many of them have representation in the Barbarians team. The Barbarians will be coached by South African Nick Mallet.

The Barbarians team features 10 New Zealanders, including former All Blacks Rodney So’oliao and Chris Jack. Following the tradition of having at least one uncapped player in the Barbarians team, Colin Bourke from Bay of Plenty and the Chiefs starts at No 8 and Anton van Zyl from the Stormers starts at lock against his country men. Joe Rococoko, Ma’a Nonu and Neemia Tialata start and other current All Blacks Andrew Ellis, Stephen Donald, Keven Mealamu and Daniel Braid make the Barbarians’ bench.

Mat Giteau captains the Barbarians and is joined by fellow Australians James O’Connor, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Drew Mitchell and Will Genia in an Australian-heavy ANZAC backline. Wallaby hooker Stephen Moore also starts. Wales’ Martyn Williams and Italy’s Salvatore Perugini are the only European players in the starting 15.

Elton Jantjies, Coenie Oosthuizen and Andries Strauss get their first opportunity in the Springbok jersey, while Charl McLeod and Werner Kruger could make their debut from the bench. Regular Springboks Zane Kirchner, Jean de Villiers, Victor Matfield, Jannie du Plessis and Bismarck du Plessis are out of the match due to injury. Juan Smith will captain the side.

Barbarians v South Africa teams

Barbarians:

15 James O’Connor (Aus), 14 Joe Rococoko (NZ), 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper (Aus), 12 Ma’a Nonu (NZ), 11 Drew Mitchell (Aus), 10 Matt Giteau (Aus, capt), 9 Will Genia (Aus), 8 Colin Bourke (Chiefs), 7 Martyn Williams (Wales), 6 Rodney So’oialo (NZ), 5 Chris Jack (NZ), 4 Anton van Zyl (Stormers), 3 Neemia Tialata (NZ), 2 Stephen Moore (Aus), 1 Salvatore Perugini (It).
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu (NZ), 17 John Yapp (Wales), 18 Quintin Geldenhuys (It), 19 Daniel Braid (NZ), 20 Andy Ellis (NZ), 21 Stephen Donald (NZ), 22 Seru Rabeni (Fiji)

South Africa:

15 Patrick Lambie, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Adi Jacobs, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 François Hougaard, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Juan Smith (c), 6 Willem Alberts, 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Coenie Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Keegan Daniel, 21 Charl McLeod, 22 Gio Aplon.

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France), Peter Allan (Scotland)

RugbyFix Picks:

Prediction for Springboks v Barbarians.
BARBARIANS to beat South Africa by 8