By Ken Borland
JOHANNESBURG Oct 3 (Reuters) – South Africa will field an unchanged starting side when they play New Zealand in their final Rugby Championship match in Soweto on Saturday.
Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer on Wednesday named the same XV that beat Australia 31-8 in Pretoria last weekend and made just one change to the replacements bench, with versatile prop Coenie Oosthuizen replacing Pat Cilliers.
New Zealand sealed the inaugural championship title with their 54-15 victory over Argentina on Saturday. South Africa are second in the table, nine points behind.
Fullback Zane Kirchner (hip), flyhalf Johan Goosen (heel), prop Jannie du Plessis (stiffness) and flank Willem Alberts (hip) rested injuries during training this week but Meyer said he was confident the problems would not disrupt the first unchanged starting XV he has been able to name all year.
“I’m positive everyone will be fit, most of them trained well this morning,” he said.
“We’ve been hit hard by injuries this year, but thanks to the great work done by our medical team we’ve managed to sort out a few of the niggles left over from the Wallaby match.”
Oosthuizen injured his neck when he made his test debut against England in June and has played just 35 minutes of rugby since then, appearing for the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup.
The 23-year-old looked set to make his international return last weekend when Meyer named him on the bench, but he was withdrawn from the squad later in the week due to concerns he had not fully recovered.
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