Sport

Springboks unchanged

CAPTAIN Francois Pienaar, fullback Andre Joubert and scrum half Joost van der Westhuizen are named in an unchanged South African…

Tue Jul 16 1996 - 01:00

CAPTAIN Francois Pienaar, fullback Andre Joubert and scrum half Joost van der Westhuizen are named in an unchanged South African side for Saturday's tri-nations rugby showdown with New Zealand in Christchurch.

Selectors believed no changes were warranted, despite the world champions' 21-16 loss to Australia in Sydney on Saturday.

"We have a policy not to chop and change too much," said South African team manger and former Springbok great Morne Du Plessis yesterday. "It's the first real test they've had this season. To take two or three guys out of it makes no sense.

X rays cleared flanker Pienaar of a suspected fracture to his upper arm and shoulder, while Joubert (hand) and van der Westhuizen (shoulder) were also passed fit.

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South Africa coach Andre Markgraaff said both Pienaar and van der Westhuizen would need to prove their fitness by tomorrow. Neither participated in yesterday's contact drill training. Van der Westhuizen worked on his own, while Pienaar spent most of the session on the sidelines receiving ice pack treatment.

"We have done some contact sessions for a full hour, so I think it would have been foolish for us to play Francois in a session like this because he's got that problem with his upper arm, said Markgraaff.

"If he can't pass a fitness test by Wednesday then we must take some other options."

He said van der Westhuizen had suffered from a shoulder problem for a number of weeks, and last Saturday wasn't the first, time he had taken a hard knock there.

"We hope he will be 100 per cent fit by Saturday, but if he's not fit we may play Johan Roux," said Markgraaff.

After watching the video of Saturday's match four times, Markgraaff was convinced South Africa had beaten themselves against the Wallabies.

We beat ourselves ... Sometimes we did some wrong things at wrong places, wrong options. We had 68 per cent territorial advantage in the test and we lost it," he said.

Saturday's match will be the first between the two nations since South Africa's 15-12 World Cup final extra time win over the All Blacks in Johannesburg 13 months ago.