Siya Kolisi to start on bench for Bok team to face Scotland in Nelspruit

The Springbok team to face Scotland in Nelspruit on Saturday shows five changes, three of them on the bench, from the match-23 which beat Italy in the opening round of the Castle Lager Incoming Series last weekend.

The two new players in the starting line-up are scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, who comes in for the injured Jano Vermaak, and loose forward Marcell Coetzee, who replaces Francois Louw.

On the bench, there is a return to Test rugby for Bismarck du Plessis, 10 months after he picked up a serious knee ligament injury against Argentina in Cape Town last year.

Du Plessis, who has come through numerous training sessions with the Springboks and The Sharks as well as three club matches in Durban, will be joined on the bench by the uncapped duo of Siya Kolisi (loose forward) and Piet van Zyl (scrumhalf).

“It’s great to have Bismarck back in the mix, but I’m even more excited about the inclusion of Piet and Siya on the bench,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

“This time last year, Piet and Siya, along with Arno Botha, were part of the group of six young guns who trained with us and now all three are in the Test match squad. I’m very happy with the progress they’ve shown in the last 12 months.”

Kolisi, Botha and abrasive lock Eben Etzebeth played together for the South African Under-20 team in 2011.

Apart from the experienced Pienaar’s inclusion at scrumhalf, the backline is unchanged from the one that scored four of the five tries against Italy last week. Coetzee’s inclusion at flank is the only change to the forward pack.

“To have this kind of continuity is good as we prepare for a Test where the focus is on ourselves, and how we want to improve on certain areas from last week where we felt we let ourselves down,” said Meyer.

“We respect Scotland, but we’ve set ourselves some benchmarks which we would like to achieve during this series. Saturday’s Test provides another opportunity to reach these aims.”

The Springbok team to face Scotland in Nelspruit is:

Position	Name	Province	Test Caps
15	Willie le Roux	GWK Griquas	1
14	Bryan Habana	DHL Western Province	84
13	JJ Engelbrecht	Vodacom Blue Bulls	2
12	Jean de Villiers (captain)	DHL Western Province	85
11	Bjorn Basson	Vodacom Blue Bulls	7
10	Morné Steyn	Vodacom Blue Bulls	43
9	Ruan Pienaar	Ulster, N-Ireland	64
8	Pierre Spies	Vodacom Blue Bulls	51
7	Arno Botha	Vodacom Blue Bulls	1
6	Marcell Coetzee	The Sharks	13
5	Juandré Kruger	Vodacom Blue Bulls	9
4	Eben Etzebeth	DHL Western Province	12
3	Jannie du Plessis	The Sharks	43
2	Adriaan Strauss (vice-captain)	Toyota FS Cheetahs	22
1	Tendai Mtawarira	The Sharks	42
Replacements
16	Bismarck du Plessis	The Sharks	46
17	Trevor Nyakane	Toyota FS Cheetahs	1
18	Coenie Oosthuizen	Toyota FS Cheetahs	3
19	Flip van der Merwe	Vodacom Blue Bulls	24
20	Siya Kolisi	DHL Western Province	0
21	Piet van Zyl	Toyota FS Cheetahs	0
22	Pat Lambie	The Sharks	21
23	Jan Serfontein	Vodacom Blue Bulls	1