Young blood invigorates Bok captain

He may have lost the services of fellow World Cup-winner Frans Steyn, but veteran Springbok captain Jean de Villiers feels 'invigorated' by the presence of two rookies on either side of him.

Steyn was on Friday ruled out of South Africa's Rugby Championship clash against Australia at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Lions utility back Jaco Taute has been promoted to the starting XV, where he will slot in at outside centre - with De Villiers moving to the inside.

This means both Taute, on De Villiers' outside, and flyhalf Johan Goosen, on his inside, will start their first Tests.

Goosen is the more 'senior' of the two with 31 minutes of Test action in his two appearances off the bench in Australasia.

De Villiers said on Friday he relished the prospect of playing next to two of SA's rising stars.

"It so happens that I'm stuck in the middle of those two, hopefully they can bring the best out of me," De Villiers said.

"It is a great prospect to be able to play with those two youthful players and one I am looking forward to.

"Hopefully we can get the best out of each other and hopefully I can rub off on them and give them some calmness."

Bok coach Heyneke Meyer this week surprised with his selection of the 20-year-old Goosen at the expense of regular starter Morné Steyn.

Francois Steyn was unable to train with the team throughout the week after he injured his ankle in training on Monday.

De Villiers said while Goosen brought the exuberance of youth to the team, the youngster's inclusion would not see the team veer off their game plan.

"Johan brings a lot of youth, he brings a lot of enthusiasm to the game, but for us as a team nothing changes from a game plan point of view and the way we approach the game," he said.

"If there is an opportunity to take the ball wide and take the ball into space, and if there is opportunity to run the ball we will do that.

"That has always been the case with this team since the start of the year.

"I am really excited about Johan playing and he is very excited about it."

The Springboks will be hoping to break the recent stranglehold the Australians have over them, with five consecutive victories.

The South Africans, however, have an ally in Loftus Versfeld against the tourists.

The two teams have met at Loftus in five test matches since 1933 with the Boks winning all five encounters.

While the odds favoured the Boks, De Villiers said the Australians would hope to break their losing record at the stadium.

"When you play abroad, you are sort of driven by the fact that you want to break those records and get victories where you didn't get victories in the past, and they'll be out to do the same," De Villiers said.

He said the Springbok backline owed the forwards a good performance on Saturday after the last two matches against New Zealand and Australia.

"We believe that the forwards selected in the previous two games really stood up and probably from a backline point of view we need to catch up with them," he said.

The Springbok starting XV boasts a combined total of 415 test caps, with 261 of those belonging to the backs and 154 to the forwards.

"Where they are the less experienced, we've got more caps in the backs," De Villiers said.

"The forwards probably got us close to a result in those two games.

"So we can make a step-up, and hopefully it can be a 22-man effort on Saturday, and doing it for 80 minutes."

SAPA