Jake White picked his strongest available squad to face Scotland in a World Cup warm up match on Saturday.

SA fans will be happy to see Bryan Habana return to the starting XV, but there are still injury concerns for White. John Smit, Jean de Villiers and Wynand Olivier are all still struggling with injuries. Victor Matfield will again captain the Bokke in Smit’s absence and Francois Steyn will start at inside centre. A solid performance by the younster could see him start at number 12 in the World Cup whilst de Villiers and Olivier are injured.

SA squad to face Scotland: 15. Percy Montgomery, 14. JP Pietersen, 13. Jaque Fourie, 12. Francois Steyn, 11. Bryan Habana, 10. Butch James, 9. Fourie du Preez, 8. Danie Rossouw, 7. Juan Smith, 6. Schalk Burger, 5. Victor Matfield(captain), 4. Bakkies Botha, 3. CJ van der Linde, 2. Gary Botha, 1. Os du Randt

Reserves: 16. Bismarck du Plessis, 17. BJ Botha, 18. Albert van den Berg, 19. Wikus van Heerden, 20. Ruan Pienaar, 21. Andre Pretorius, 22. Ashwin Willemse.

Jake White will hope that this squad can get things back on track after the poor performance in Galway on Tuesday.

The Natal Sharks came away with the maximum 5 points after taking on Griquas in Kimberley.

Griquas opened the scoring with a converted try after they had to defend for most of the opening 30 minutes. The Sharks struck back just before half time with an Adrian Jacobs try, and when Jacobs scored again just after half time Griquas had to play catch up for the rest of the game. Their willingness to throw the ball around eventually contributed to their downfall as handling errors gifted the Sharks ball possession that they converted into two more tries to secure the bonus point. A late consolation try for Griquas made the scoreboard look a bit better but the Sharks controlled the ball possession and capitalized better on the scoring opportunities created. Final score: Sharks 24- Griquas 14.

WP gained valuable points with their victory against Griquas in Kimberley on saturday afternoon.

Both teams needed a victory to stay in touch with the log leaders but it was WP that made most of their chances. Attractive running rugby was played by both sided at stages but to many mistakes let promising moves come to nothing. Province was probably just a bit luckier than Griquas and made less mistakes in the last 10 minutes. WP gained the bonus point for 4 tries and came away with the full 5 points from the game to get them back in contention for a semi final berth.

Breyton Paulse made hid first appearance in a province jersey this season and can feel very satisfied with his efforts.

The Sharks travelled to Brakpan on Friday evening to take on the Valke in an ABSA Currie Cup encounter.

The Sharks started like a house on fire and secured the bonus point for 4 tries inside the first 15 minutes and it looked like the Valke was heading for another big defeat. Some great individual skill from Charl McLeod, Valke scrumhalf, saw them staging a bit of a comeback, and with 5 minutes remaining in the game the Sharks were only leading by 31-22 and the Brakpan faithful were in high spirits. Two tries in the last 5 minutes by the Sharks saw them victorius by 45-22 but coach, John Plumtree, will not be to happy with their performance.

The weekend saw fierce battles in the Currie Cup competition and with all the teams having played 5 games the Cheetahs and the Sharks are the early front runners.

Friday evening saw the Lions travel to Brakpan to take on the Falcons ina hope to get their season back on track and that they did. A brilliant performance by Jacques Cronje and a fantastic display of running rugby saw the Lions victorious by 62-5. The referee, Brett Bowden from Australia, also helped to make this game very entertaining.

Saturday afternoon saw three games. Boland, the surprise package of the Currie Cup so far, travelled to Kimberley to take on Griquas. This was a very entyertaining game with both teams keen to run the ball. The Griquas pack eventually was the deciding factor and the men from Kimberley ran out victors by 43-32.

WP travelled to Bloemfontein to take on the Cheetahs and after 4 losses in a row they were regarded as underdogs. The first half saw WP only trailing by 16-13 after a much improved effort by the men from the Cape. After half time Province fought gainly for the first 25 minutes of the second half but the greater skill of the Cheetah backs took it’s toll and they ran in 4 tries for a convincing 43-13 victory. The team that wants to win the Currie Cup this season will have to beat the Cheetahs.

The final game of the afternoon was a repeat of the Super 14 final with the Bulls taking on the Sharks in Durban. In a typically hard fought battle the Sharks ran out victors by 29-10. The Sharks controlled possesion and scored 4 tries to 1 and at the moment looks like the only team that can take on the Cheetahs and maybe beat them.

Jake White named his 30 man squad to represent SA at the World Cup in September on Saturday and there were no real surprises.

There are injury worries but White said all players will be fit to fly to France on the 3rd of September.The biggest advantage White has with this squad is that they are experienced in test rugby with 809 test matches between them and 12 of the players have previous World Cup experience.

SA squad: Fullbacks: Percy Montgomery, Francois Steyn. Wings: Bryan Habana, Ashwin Willemse, Akona Ndungane, JP Pietersen. Centres: Jean de Villiers, Jaque Fourie, Wynand Olivier. Flyhalves: Butch James, Andre Pretorius. Scrumhalves: Fourie du Preez, Enrico Januarie, Ruan Pienaar. Loose Forwards: Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Bob Skinstad, Danie Rossouw, Schalk Burger, Wikus van Heerden. Locks: Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Albert van den Berg, Johann Muller. Props: CJ van der Linde, Os du Randt, BJ Botha, Gurthro Steenkamp. Hookers: Gary Botha, John Smit(captain).