First choice centres who don’t penetrate defensive systems, locks and loose forwards that camp in the backline and a national captain who can’t even make his union’s starting line-up – these are but some of the nightmares that should keep Peter de Villiers up at nights. However, the national coach seems to be more than satisfied with the state of S.A. Rugby and says he is sleeping like a baby. A baby ostrich, with his head firmly buried under ground possibly, seeing as things are not where they have to be with a World Cup tournament less than 65 days away!

The Stormers’ crushing defeat at the hands of the battered and bruised Crusaders in Cape Town last Saturday did little else except to underline the desperate state of the level of the game in the Republic. Jean de Villiers and Jacque Fourie (widely regarded as the centre pairing for the RWC) had a horrid time of it; between trying to restrict Sonny Bill Williams, fighting their own forwards for possession in the backline and trying to look for some inkling of direction from Peter Grant!

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Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has stuck to his winning formula by making only one change to the team that won against Ireland.

De Villiers drafted in Frans Steyn to the outside centre berth to the team that beat Ireland 23-21 in Dublin on Saturday. Zane Kirchner drops to the bench while the replacement looseforward position will be confirmed later in the week.

Here is the team (name, province, age and number of Tests):

Injuries to some players have hampered Springbok coach Peter de Villiers‘ plans to name an unchanged team for Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash against Australia.

While there was an expectation that some players may have been rested for the Boks’ final game, De Villiers resisted tinkering with the team, and was keen to ensure the momentum was kept from the victory at Loftus Versfeld last week.

Two players who went for scans necessitated the move, with Butch James ruled out of action after popping his shoulder while Flip van der Merwe’s neck strain was sufficient enough to let Danie Rossouw back into the starting line-up for the weekend’s game.

De Villiers was consistent in the Van der Merwe move as he started Flip two weeks ago against the All Blacks when Rossouw had a niggling injury.

Van der Merwe has been given extra time to rest, but has been cleared for the game.

“Butch will not be part of the Tri-Nations any further. He popped his shoulder and has been ruled out. The other guys have been cleared and will be part of the squad.”

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Graham Henry has spoken out on the refereeing controversy that Peter de Villiers has embroiled himself into.

De Villiers made the outlandish claim last week that the All Blacks’ recent supremacy over the Springboks was part of a conspiracy aimed at generating support for next year’s World Cup.

Henryon Saturday flew to Brisbane and watched the Wallabies open their Tri-Nations campaign against South Africa. But before he departed on his spying mission, he expertly distanced himself from the fuss.

”I can’t really take anything [de Villiers] says seriously,” Henry said. ”The penalty count in the two matches was in favour of South Africa. I appreciate they had a couple of yellow cards; one was very warranted and the other questionable. But I don’t want to get into it too deeply for the reason I just outlined.”

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Springbok coach Peter de Villiers will be asked to ‘test combinations’ as a way to rotate players to avoid player burnout ahead of the World Cup next year in New Zealand.

This proposal comes from South African Rugby Union President Oregan Hoskins, who on Tuesday confirmed earlier media reports that the Boks will feature in an additional Test against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on June 5.

Labelling the game a “rematch of the first game ever played at the Millennium Stadium” – when the two teams met in Cardiff 10 years ago – SARU glossed over the fact that the game will bring to 15 the number of internationals South Africa will feature in this year.

Media reports earlier suggested that SARU is ‘killing the Goose that lays the golden egg’.

With the Test against Wales now confirmed, it means the Boks will play seven Test matches in sevens weeks (eight Saturdays) in June and July.

Those seven Tests in June and July are two against New Zealand and one against Australia, one against the top Six Nations team France and two against Italy. Plus the one against Wales, of course.

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Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said that the Springboks will not underestimate the Italians when they meet at the Stadio Friuli in Udine on Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference in the Northern Italian city after making four changes to the Bok starting XV that lost to France last weekend, De Villiers said the Italians had shown great improvements in recent seasons and were fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.

“The more experience they gain, the better they are becoming and they are able to compete with any team on the day,” De Villiers said.

“They have a very good pack of forwards and they showed in their match against New Zealand that they will be very competitive at scrum time.”

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The Springboks had to make two changes due to injury to their match 22 to face the Wallabies in their Tri-Nations encounter at the Suncorpe Stadium in Brisbane this Saturday.

Coach Peter de Villiers announced today that Sharks wing Odwa Ndungane will take the place of his provincial team mate JP Pietersen in the starting line-up, whilst Vodacom Blue Bulls lock Danie Rossouw makes a return to the bench in the place of Vodacom Western Province’s Andries Bekker.

Both Pietersen (hamstring) and Bekker (shoulder) have returned to South Africa after sustaining injuries in the 32-25 win at the Subiaco Oval in Perth last week.

De Villiers also confirmed that concerns over minor ailments to Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana had eased and that both players would be ready to fill their places on Saturday. Botha was rested from practice on Tuesday but Habana took part in the session.

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