Pollard back at flyhalf as Boks eye Twickenham win
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber named Handré Pollard and Cobus Reinach in a fresh halfback pairing and recalled Lood de Jager at lock in three changes to his starting team for the Test against England at Twickenham on Saturday.
Elton Jantjies and Herschel Jantjies join Franco Mostert are among the replacements in other changes to the match-day squad that defeated Scotland 30-15 at Murrayfield last week.
Victory for the Springboks over a strong England team will not only see the South Africans retain the No 1 spot on the world rankings; it would also mark their first unbeaten Northern Hemisphere tour since 2013.
“We built up good momentum in the Tests against Wales and Scotland, and it is important for us to transfer that into our final match of the tour against England, so we opted to make only three changes to the starting team for this weekend’s clash,” said Nienaber.
“England will pose different threats to Scotland, and with that in mind we have decided to start with Handré, Cobus and Lood.
“Elton, Herschel and Franco have shown that they can inject energy and ignite a spark on attack off the bench, which will be handy against an English outfit that we know will be highly charged up for this match.”
Nienaber anticipated an epic battle between the teams.
“England have made it clear that they’ll come hard at us in this match, and with a few British & Irish Lions players in their midst, home ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia adding to their motivation this weekend, so we know it will be a hard grind,” said the Bok coach.
“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect.”
