Tri Nations PreJudgement: South Africa v New Zealand (Port Elizabeth)

'Judge me on the World Cup' is the song that coach Peter de Villiers is singing to the South African public. What is a slight worry is that you don't just pitch up and all falls into place. You need to practice a few combo's and strategies leading into the IRB RWC. So, now that the Kiwi's are here on our home ground (and shamefully for us, it seems like a home game to them), what are we going to give them?

The All Blacks have come to SA with a 'so called' B team. I don't think so, they have so much depth that they are able to field an extremely strong second string side. There are some exciting players in the side and it will be interesting to see some of these guys play after some time off. Israel Dagg and Isaia Toeava both return after lengthy injury and to me, Israel Dagg has been one of the best full backs in SupeRugby for the last 2 year. Their forwards have a great mix of youth and experience and they are captained by veteran Kevin Mealamu.

The Boks have opted for Pat Lambie at 15 and Willem Alberts at 7 which should be nice to watch, Bismark du Plessis starts at hooker with John Smit moving to the bench and lock Victor Matfield captains the home team. I feel we will have issues at Eighth man and Flyhalf as both Spies and Steyn haven't been playing their greatest rugby of late.

The Springboks should dominate the New Zealanders upfront, but for how long is the question... Both backlines are exciting with the experience of the Boks taking on the relatively inexperienced Kiwi's. Home ground advantage will count for a few points but for who is the question as both Cape Town and P.E. are All Black supporter strongholds. The Boks haven't been able to kill off opposition for some time now, as we saw against the Wallabies last week, and we all know the Kiwi's are very capable of capitalising on opportunities.

PreJudgement: New Zealand by 6


Teamsheets:
Springboks: 15 Pat Lambie, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Ashley Johnson, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Butch James.


All Blacks: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Isaia Toeava, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Liam Messam, 7 Adam Thomson, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 3 John Afoa, 2 Keven Mealamu (captain), 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Jarrad Hoeata, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Piri Weepu, 22 Cory Jane.