The South Africa coach Peter de Villiers is confident his side's rhythm will not be affected by replacing the injured Ruan Pienaar with Morne Steyn in their Tri Nations game against New Zealand on Saturday. Pienaar is known as a running fly-half while Steyn is more of a kicking fly-half. "There will always be injuries so there is no use crying about it. Morne is a very good player, he is a match winner and he has shown that with his franchise side, the Bulls," De Villiers said.
Pienaar twisted his ankle during the Springboks' 28-19 win over All Blacks in Bloemfontein last weekend. South Africa's only other changes were the fit-again lock Andries Bekker replacing No 8 Ryan Kankowski and centre Adrian Jacobs taking Steyn's place on the bench. "As a precautionary measure the coach and the selectors have deemed it fit to give Ruan Pienaar a rest for the upcoming Test," the team manager Arthob Petersen said.
John Smit will become the most capped international captain when he leads his team for the 60th time in Durban but he was more concerned with the challenge ahead. "What they [the All Blacks] will bring to Saturday's match is that they will be far better prepared. Last week they only had a few days in the Republic before they had to play at altitude. "Now they have come to a venue that they are comfortable and familiar with and they have had a week to analyse the game that has passed," Smit said.
Inside centre Juan de Villiers and winger Bryan Habana will both reach 50 Test caps for South Africa on Saturday. Habana was cleared by South Africa Rugby after a newspaper reported that he had broken the team curfew and returned late on the night of the win. An official said Habana had returned two hours earlier than reported and the report was "devoid of any truth." * With agencies
