South Africa lock Flip van der Merwe will start on the bench in Bloemfontein © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

Teams: Battle lines drawn for Bloemfontein

News: De Villiers courts controversy - again

News: Boks waiting on injured trio

Matches: South Africa 39 - 41 Australia

Tournaments/Tours: Tri Nations

Teams: Australia | South Africa

Grounds: Free State Stadium

South Africa coach Peter de Villiers has made one change to his team for Saturday's Tri-Nations clash with Australia in Bloemfontein.

Bulls lock Danie Rossouw is drafted in at the expense of Flip van der Merwe in the only change to the side that out-gunned the Wallabies 44-31 in Pretoria last weekend. In the only other change to the squad, Gio Aplon joins the replacements as a replacement for the injured Butch James.

There had been speculation that Aplon might go straight back into the starting line-up at the expense of Bryan Habana, after an error-strewn performance from the Stormers winger at Loftus Versfeld, but the former IRB World Player of the Year has retained the No.11 jersey.

Addressing his team selection, De Villiers commented, "I wasn't tempted to make more changes; all our focus is on this one game and we can only take our future planning from there afterwards

"There is still the Mandela Cup to play for and whilst we do not play only to win trophies we do see them as just reward for hard work. So hopefully our hard work will pay off and we can celebrate a win at the weekend."

South Africa: F Steyn (Racing Metro); JP Pietersen (Sharks), J Fourie (Stormers), J de Villiers (Stormers), B Habana (Stormers); M Steyn (Bulls), Francois Hougaard (Bulls); G Steenkamp (Bulls), J Smit (Sharks), J du Plessis (Sharks); D Rossouw (Bulls), V Matfield (Bulls); S Burger (Stormers), J Smith (Cheetahs), P Spies (Bulls).

Replacements: C Ralepelle (Bulls), CJ van der Linde (Cheetahs), F van der Merwe (Bulls), R Kankowski (Sharks), R Januarie (Stormers), J de Jongh (Stormers), G Aplon (Stormers).