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Fresh legs — and fresh attitudes

Even when attempting to fool some of the people some of the time, Peter de Villiers couldn’t quite pull off the “fatigue” trick this week, especially not when his captain assured anyone who was listening that the Springboks would be up for the challenge on Saturday.

The Bok coach may have been trying to get his excuses in early, claiming his players were tired, but beating England seldom requires great motivation.

“You could say it’s one of the better scalps,” quipped skipper John Smit, who will be looking to extend SA’s winning run against England to six matches.

England manager Martin Johnson wasn’t fooled: “They’ll come right at us. It will be as hard and as physical as ever.”

De Villiers announces his team at noon today, an announcement delayed by two days because of the walking wounded. The coach and his medical staff have given the injured every chance to come through.

The two key positions are tighthead and scrumhalf. The experiment of playing Smit at tighthead was suspended last week (after injury to Bismarck du Plessis early in the Scotland game), so the likelihood is that Jannie du Plessis will win the dubious honour of packing down against Andrew Sheridan. Smit will then continue in the role he’s more accustomed to.

Conspiracy theorists may claim that Brian Mujati is being done in, but he’s nursing a bruised shoulder and late replacement Du Plessis fits the billing with the “fresh legs” and “fresh attitude” the coach said the team requires. Besides, Sheridan will be looking to reclaim his manhood after Australia’s powderpuff pack dominated him last weekend. Mujati has his fans, but Du Plessis is demonstrably stronger.

Scrumhalf Fourie du Preez’s quad injury has responded well to treatment and he ran comfortably enough on Tuesday, even though he refrained from contact training. Given how he carved up England in the World Cup — he was the architect of the 36-0 belting — the Boks will give him every opportunity to stake his claim. Moreover, Du Preez’s refined kicking will take the pressure off Ruan Pienaar, who on Saturday faces the biggest test of his life in the No10 jersey. If he emerges unscathed, he could well keep his place for the Lions series.

There have been hints that Bryan Habana’s place is under threat, but assistant coach Dick Muir said that the wing will start the match. The plan at the start of the tour was to stick with the same 22 as much as possible and, although injuries have put paid to that ideal, canning Habana is out of the question. The hope, though, is that he finally comes to the party after a fraught season in which he’s been a pale shadow of his former self.

Saturday would be the right day to reaffirm his class.

This means that Jaque Fourie must satisfy himself with a spot on the bench. It’s not his favourite place, but he’s knocking hard at the door and will hope to bang it down once he gets a crack, probably in the second half.

Clinton Van Der Berg In London