Carr the man to solve Springboks’ problems at breakdowns
Nizaam Carr was chosen as the man to address the Springboks' problems at the breakdown in Saturday's test against Italy.
Record try-scorer Bryan Habana is back at left wing for the Springboks when they face Italy in Florence on Saturday, while Nizaam Carr will get his first start for South Africa against the same opponents he made his Test debut against two years ago.
In a third change to the starting team, Pieter-Steph du Toit, the 2016 SA Rugby Player of the Year, will move back to lock in the place of Eben Etzebeth, who was not considered for selection because of the concussion he suffered against England. This brings to an unfortunate end an impressive run of 31 consecutive Test matches for the Springboks by Etzebeth.
Du Toit’s move to lock, where he will partner Lood de Jager, opened up a position in the back row, where Carr will start following his stint off the bench last week at Twickenham.
The rest of the team that played England in London was kept unchanged, but Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has made three changes to the bench, with Trevor Nyakane (prop), Oupa Mohoje (loose forward) and Elton Jantjies (flyhalf) all returning to the match 23.
Coetzee said his team had a good training week in Florence and is looking forward to an improved performance from his side.
“The players are working extremely hard during training, and there is no lack of effort on their part. We’ve had a good, hard look at the areas we must improve on and we realise Italy will be a tough side playing at home,” said Coetzee.
He also said Habana is fully fit after it was decided not to select him against England.
“Pieter-Steph has an impressive workrate and I am expecting him to deliver the same at No 4 against a lively Italian pack of forwards. With him moving to lock, we felt Nizaam was the right person to start in the No 6 jersey as he did well when he came off the bench against England. Apart from his speed, he also makes the right decisions at the breakdown.
“Our set-piece is operating very nicely at the moment and we were outstanding in the scums and line-outs last week. However, we must improve in other areas because we had several soft moments at Twickenham, which we got punished for.
“Although they played together for the first time as a combination, I thought that our midfield pairing of Damien de Allende and Francois Venter performed well last week. They will improve as a combination by playing together. Apart from the few changes, we have gone for continuity, taking into account that this current squad have only been together for one week before the match against England. I would also like us to build longer periods of sustained pressure, to execute better and to convert our scoring opportunities into points,” explained Coetzee.
Springbok team: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Patrick Lambie, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Nizaam Carr, 6 Willem Alberts, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Francois de Klerk, 22 Johan Goosen, 23 Lionel Mapoe.
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