Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha will be reunited in the Springbok engine room © Getty Images

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Matches: South Africa 29 - 13 Italy

Players/Officials: Peter De Villiers | Jean de Villiers | Nick Mallett | Victor Matfield | Sergio Parisse | Morne Steyn

Tournaments/Tours: Italy tour

Teams: Italy | South Africa

Veteran lock Victor Matfield will lead a new-look South Africa side against Italy in Witbank on Saturday that includes Butch James for the first time in almost two years.

The 33-year-old, who has captained the Springboks on 10 previous occasions, takes the armband from John Smit, who suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up ahead of the 42-17 win over France last weekend. Bakkies Botha, who has recovered from minor knee surgery and also served a four-week suspension, will reunite with Matfield at lock, while Dewald Potgieter joins Francois Louw on the flank after Schalk Burger was forced to withdraw.

Matfield has plenty of experience as a captain having skippered the Bulls to three Super 14 titles and he notably led his country to an historic victory over New Zealand in Dunedin during the 2008 Tri Nations.

Italy have received a massive boost prior to the game with the return of inspirational skipper Sergio Parisse from a long injury lay-off. He starts at No.8 while the Azzurri will as always play to their strengths up front.

Salvatore Perugini, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Martin Castrogiovanni are named in the front-row and will have hopes of taking the game to the Springboks at the set-piece.

South Africa: Z Kirchner (Bulls); G Aplon (Stormers), J de Villiers (Western Province), B James (Bath), B Habana (Stormers); M Steyn (Bulls), R Januarie (Stormers); G Steenkamp (Bulls), C Ralepelle (Bulls), J du Plessis (Sharks), B Botha (Bulls), V Matfield (Bulls, capt), F Louw (Stormers), D Potgieter (Bulls), P Spies (Bulls)

Replacements: B Maku (Bulls), CJ van der Linde (Free State Cheetahs), A Hargreaves (Sharks), R Kankowski (Sharks), R Pienaar (Sharks), J de Jongh (Stormers), B Basson (Cheetahs)

Italy: L McLean (Benetton Treviso), K Robertson (Viadana), A Masi (Racing Metro), M Pratichetti (Viadana), M Bergamasco (Racing Metro), C Gower (Bayonne), T Tebaldi (Banca Monte Parma), S Perugini (Bayonne), L Ghiraldini (Benetton Treviso), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), V Bernabo (Roma), Q Geldenhuys (Viadana), S Favaro (Banca Monte Parma), A Zanni (Benetton Treviso), S Parisse (Stade Francais, capt),

Replacements: F Ongaro (Saracens), L Cittadini (Benetton Treviso), M Bortolami (Gloucester), P Derbyshire (Padova), S Picone (Benetton Treviso), R Bocchino (Rovigo), G Canale (Clermont Auvergne)

Referee: Keith Brown (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Small (Eng), David Changleng (Sco)
TMO: Graham Hughes (Eng)