Boks make five changes

Pieter-Steph du Toit will start at No 5 lock for the Springboks against Ireland at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Du Toit comes in for Lood de Jager, who has failed to recover from a calf strain, while Elton Jantjies replaces Pat Lambie, who was concussed at Newlands, at flyhalf.

Uncapped Lions duo lock Franco Mostert and utility back Ruan Combrinck, have been named on the Bok bench in place of Du Toit and Jesse Kriel respectively, while veteran flyhalf Morné Steyn is preferred to rookie Garth April.

'I believe the players who played in Cape Town deserve another opportunity and I am looking forward to see what they can do this week,' said Coetzee. 'We said we will not hit the panic button, and the decision to go with largely the same match-day squad is to give our players the opportunity to redeem themselves.

'Lood experienced some trouble on Monday and scans revealed he suffered a calf strain, so he won’t be in action this weekend. And Elton comes in for Pat, who is out with concussion, and he will have his franchise halfback partner Faf de Klerk next to him.

'Morné Steyn still has a lot to offer at international level and his experience from the bench will no doubt prove valuable for us. Pieter-Steph gave a good account of himself last week when he came on for Lood and he now has a chance to make another good impact from the start.

'Ruan has been playing very good rugby and so has Franco. I will look to the bench to maintain the intensity and again bring impact off the bench.'

Springboks – 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Trevor Nyakane,18 Julian Redelinghuys, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Warren Whiteley, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Morné Steyn, 23 Ruan Combrinck.

Ireland team

Photo: Anne Laing/HSM Images

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