Friday 16 July 2010

Tri Nations Round 2 preview: All Blacks vs Springboks

After last week's lackluster showing by the Springboks in going down 32-12 to the All Blacks, they'll need a much improved performance to get their 2010 campaign on track. And what's more, they'll have to do it without hard man Bakkies Botha who can surely have no complaints about his 9 week ban for blatantly headbutting Jimmy Cowan. His replacement Danie Rossouw has had a great year so far mind you, so they won't lose much in the physicality stakes there.

The All Blacks meanwhile will be quietly confident after comprehensively winning the physical battle at the contact area against their much vaunted opponents. They were dominant both on attack and defence, not giving the Boks any time or space to play with the ball, and forcing them into kicking from where the Kiwis could launch their devastating counter-attack. Whether the Blacks can reproduce the intensity that won them the match last weekend remains to be seen, but they must be firm favourites going into tomorrow's game.

Here are the team lineups:

All Blacks


15. Mils Muliaina
14. Cory Jane
13. Conrad Smith
12. Ma'a Nonu
11. Rene Ranger
10. Daniel Carter
9. Piri Weepu
8. Kieran Read
7. Richie McCaw (captain)
6. Jerome Kaino
5. Tom Donnelly
4. Brad Thorn
3. Owen Franks
2. Keven Mealamu
1. Tony Woodcock

Replacements: Corey Flynn, Ben Franks, Sam Whitelock, Liam Messam, Jimmy Cowan, Aaron Cruden, Israel Dagg

Springboks


15. Zane Kirchner
14. Jean de Villiers
13. Jaque Fourie
12. Wynand Oliver
11. Bryan Habana
10. Morné Steyn
9. Ricky Januarie
8. Pierre Spies
7. Francois Louw
6. Schalk Burger
5. Victor Matfield
4. Danie Rossouw
3. CJ van der Linde
2. John Smit (captain)
1. Gurthrö Steenkamp

Replacements: Chiliboy Ralepelle, BJ Botha, Andries Bekker, Ryan Kankowski, Ruan Pienaar, Butch James, Gio Aplon

Kickoff is at 07:35 GMT. See you there.

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