28 August 2013
Zane Kirchner and Chiliboy Ralepelle have been added to the Springbok rugby
squad for their away tests against Australia and New Zealand in the Castle Lager
Rugby Championship in early September, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) announced on Wednesday.
The squad of 26 players, which was recently in action in Argentina and returned
to South Africa on Monday, was retained.
Ralepelle, who is third behind Andries Strauss and Bismarck du Plessis in the
battle for the number two jersey, is the third hooker in the squad. He missed the
recent 22-17 win over the Pumas in Argentina because of a back injury and will have to pass a fitness test before he can board the plane to Australia. A final call on his availability will be made by Friday.
Tests
The Springbok squad departs for Brisbane via Sydney on Saturday afternoon for
tests against Australia in the Queensland capital on 7 September and New Zealand
in
Auckland on 14 September.
"This will be two tough weeks on the road against two of the best sides in the
world and as we saw last weekend against Argentina, we still have a lot of hard work
to do," Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said in a statement.
"The Springboks have never beaten Australia at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and
our last victory at Eden Park was in 1937.
'A marked improvement
"Australia may have lost their first two matches of The Castle Lager Rugby
Championship, but they showed a marked improvement last weekend in Wellington.
"They are always a tough opponent at home. The Springboks' last victory over
there was in 2009 and we've only won three out of 18 matches in this competition in
Australia," he said, reflecting on the challenge that lies ahead for his charges.
"We get together on Thursday and will have to put in a lot of hard work in the
next 10 days. We let ourselves down in certain
areas of the game in Mendoza and
will have to fix those if we are going to be competitive against Australia."
Standings
The Springboks are currently top of The Castle Lager Rugby Championship
standings, with nine points and a points' difference of 65 after wins of 73-13 and 22-17 over Argentina.
The All Blacks also have nine points, but are in second place on points
difference, having outscored the Wallabies by 29 points in two tests, with victories
by 47-29 and 27-16.
Argentina, with a point from their clash with South Africa in Mendoza is in third
place, while Australia has not yet scored a point.
SPRINGBOK SQUAD
Forwards: Lourens Adriaanse, Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Bismarck
du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Juandr Kruger, Francois
Louw, Tendai Mtawarira, Coenie Oosthuizen, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Gurthr Steenkamp,
Adriaan Strauss, Flip van der Merwe, Duane
Vermeulen
Backs: Bjorn Basson, Jean de Villiers (captain), JJ Engelbrecht, Bryan
Habana, Zane Kirchner, Patrick Lambie, Willie le Roux, Ruan Pienaar, Jan Serfontein,
Morn Steyn, Piet van Zyl, Jano Vermaak
SAinfo reporter and SA
Rugby
