TRI-NATIONS:SOUTH AFRICA coach Peter de Villiers recalled World Cup winners Francois Steyn and Jaque Fourie to the backline for Saturday's Tri-Nations Test against Australia in Pretoria.

Steyn was named yesterday at fullback in place of Gio Aplon after returning from his club Racing Metro in France. Fourie replaces Juan de Jongh at outside centre, after being banned for four weeks for a dangerous tackle against Australia in Brisbane.

Fourie said he was excited about banding together again with long-time midfield partner Jean de Villiers. “It’s great to be back with Jean,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we played next to each other – the last time was in last year’s Tri-Nations. We’ll just try to keep it simple, get over the advantage line and keep our forwards in the game.”

De Villiers kept faith with the forwards who produced a much-improved display of intensity, physicality and accuracy at the breakdowns in the last-minute 29-22 loss to the All Blacks last weekend. The 2009 champions have not won any of their matches in this year’s competition, and have struggled to match the tempo at which new champions New Zealand and the Wallabies have played.

“We’ve got two games against Australia and we can certainly pick ourselves up,” captain John Smit said. “If we can forge the same intensity and urgency we showed last weekend, we can limit the way they want to play.”

SOUTH AFRICA:Francois Steyn; JP Pietersen, Jaque Fourie, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana; Morne Steyn, Francois Hougaard; Gurthro Steenkamp, John Smit, Jannie du Plessis, Flip van der Merwe, Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger, Juan Smith, Pierre Spies. Replacements: Chiliboy Ralepelle, CJ van der Linde, Danie Rossouw, Ryan Kankowski, Enrico Januarie, Butch James, Juan de Jongh.