Butch may feature at flyhalf
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:22
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers may well give World Cup winner Butch James a run at flyhalf against Italy in Witbank on Saturday.
De Villiers on Tuesday named a team that shows 11 changes to the team that beat France last week, for the first of two Tests against Italy.
Six of the changes are in the starting XV - with a new centre pairing of Butch James and Jean de Villiers replacing Wynand Olivier and Jaque Fourie, Dewald Potgieter replacing Francois Louw at flank, Bakkies Botha replacing Danie Rossouw at lock to resume his world record second row partnership with Matfield, while Jannie du Plessis and Chiliboy Ralepelle replace BJ Botha and Smit respectively in the front row.
James finally returns to the Bok Test team after an absence of nearly two years - following his controversial exclusion from the encounter with Wales in Cardiff earlier this month.
In a saga with more twists than a Hollywood soap opera, James was named and axed from the Bok team three times ahead of the encounter in the Millennium Stadium in a tug-'o-war between the Bok camp and Premier Rugby, the umbrella organisation responsible for managing the 12 professional clubs in England, ensued.
Although the South African Rugby Union won over the IRB and James' English club, Bath, Premier Rugby dug in their heels and won the boardroom tussle with the Bok camp.
Now James, who has not played for South Africa for more than two years, gets the chance to put himself in contention for next year's World Cup.
De Villiers hinted that he might move a few players around during the game to see how they perform in different positions.
"Butch is starting at centre, but we might also make use of the opportunity to have a look at him at flyhalf during the match," De Villiers said.
"I also would like to give Ruan a run at scrumhalf," he said.
There are five changes on the bench – uncapped Bandise Maku provides cover at hooker, CJ van der Linde returns after missing the French Test, Alistair Hargreaves replaces Flip van der Merwe at lock, Ryan Kankowski replaces Dewald Potgieter on the flank and utility back Bjorn Basson comes in for Jean de Villiers.
Explaining the selection of Hargreaves ahead of Van der Merwe, whose Test debut lasted about 11 minutes last week, De Villiers said: "Alistair is a No.5 lock and I want him to learn as much as he can from Victor. Andries Bekker grew so much as understudy to Vic and I want the same for Alistair."
Hundreds of local fans watched the Boks training on Tuesday and Matfield was appreciative of the support.
"It is no often that we play in places like Witbank and it is great to see how passionate the fans are," Matfield said.
"There was a big crowd at the training and the guys were happy to sign a few autographs for them to show their appreciation.
"We expect the support to be great at the weekend and hope we can put smiles on the faces of the fans," Matfield added.
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