South Africa vs Scotland preview

The second round of the Castle Incoming Series will see the Springboks and Scotland meet in Nelspruit on Saturday, 15 June 2013.

South Africa will be full of confidence coming off of a convincing win against Italy in Durban last week, however, the Scots will be offering a different challenge, hurting from their loss against Samoa.

The Scottish will be eager to make an impression over South Africa, who they defeated 21-17 in 2010 at Murrayfield.

The new-look South African side are definitely not in the same place as they were back then though, and shouldn’t face such stern opposition.

Heyneke Meyer has made five changes from last week to the team, with Ruan Pienaar starting at scrumhalf, while Marcell Coetzee also joins the starting XV in place of Francois Louw.

The bench sees the return of Bismarck du Plessis, who has been in recovery for the last 10 months following a knee ligament injury.

Siya Kolisi and Piet van Zyl are also on the bench, and could potentially get their first caps.

The Scots have made a number of changes since last week’s fixture against Samoa, with Ruaridh Jackson coming into the flyhalf position, and some big changes in the forwards – Scott Lawson at hooker, Ryan Wilson at openside, and a new combination of Swinson and Hamilton locking together.

A further three changes are made on the bench involving Jon Welsh, Alastair Kellock and David Denton.

Rugby Informer’s take: the Scottish performance against Samoa was very uncharacteristic, and should put on a better display this week. However, if the Springboks are to show the enthusiasm they did against Italy, it should provide an easy win for the home side. South Africa by 15.

South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Arno Botha, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein.

Scotland: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain), 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 Ryan Wilson, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Stevie Lawrie, 17 Jon Welsh, 18 Moray Low, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 David Denton, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Duncan Taylor.

The match kicks off at 17:15 at Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit.