Five Springbok stats and facts

For the match against the World XV at Newlands on Saturday.

  • Saturday's match will not be regarded as a Test or a 'midweek' match by Saru, which means no Springbok caps will be awarded at all. The match is effectively just a first-class match and nothing else.
  • Ten players who played against the World XV in last year’s corresponding fixture, will be in action again on Saturday. They are Beast Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Victor Matfield, who also captained the team, Francois Louw, Ruan Pienaar, Bryan Habana, JP Pietersen, Willie le Roux and Schalk Burger, who was also selected as a replacement.
  • The Springboks have played three official Tests against World XV teams – on 27 August 1977 at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria (SA won 45-24), on 26 August 1989 at Newlands in Cape Town (SA won 20-19) and on 2 September 1989 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg (SA won 22-16).
  • The Boks also played three non-Test matches against World XV teams – on 3 June 2006 at Ellis Park (SA won 30-27), on 3 December 2006 in Leicester (SA won 32-7) and on 7 June 2014 at Newlands in Cape Town (SA won 47-13).
  • The referee is John Lacey of Ireland, who has been in charge of two Springbok Tests before, both in 2014 – against Argentina at Loftus Versfeld (SA won 13-6) and against Wales in Cardiff (SA lost 12-6).

Springboks vs World XV preview

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