Connacht boss Bradley to give debuts to trio in clash with Springboks

CONNACHT coach Michael Bradley has handed debuts to three players for Tuesday’s pre-season clash with South Africa at the Sportsground.

Ofisa Treviranus will start on the right-wing, Tim Donnelly is named at out-half while Robbie Morris is at tighthead prop for the sell-out clash with the former World Cup champions.

Mel Deane will play his first match for Connacht since moving to Sale Sharks in 2000 while two others who have returned to Connacht, Johnny O’Connor and Mike McCarthy, will start on the bench.

Former University of Cape Town prop Brett Wilkinson has been named in the front row for the clash against his native South Africa.

Wilkinson joined Connacht from UCT in 2006, after turning down an offer to play Currie Cup rugby in South Africa.

“Just before I came over [to Connacht] I was offered the chance to join the Western Province Currie Cup team, but I chose to come to Connacht instead,” Wilkinson said.

Meanwhile, Springbok centre Jean de Villiers admitted that the “emotional agony” was more hurtful than the physical pain when a late hit from behind in South Africa’s warm-up match against Namibia brought back fears of another pre-World Cup injury that could destroy his dreams.

De Villiers spoke about the hit, in the Boks’ 105-13 triumph over Namibia at Newlands this week, when an opponent smashed into his back.

De Villiers will miss out on the tour to Ireland and Scotland, but would rejoin his teammates once they return home to finalise their preparations.

In 2003, in the Boks’ final warm-up match against the Falcons, the Bok centre suffered a shoulder injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.

“I got a huge shock, but it could have been worse,” De Villiers said.

“Taking the law of averages into account one would not have thought that I’d find myself in that situation again.

“It was not so much about the pain, but the emotion,” De Villiers added.

“The whole thing in 2003 played out in my mind, I thought ‘here we go again. I’m going to miss another World Cup’. Luckily it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and I am going to the World Cup. This is a big relief,” he said.

CONNACHT: D Riordan; O Treviranus, M Deane, A Wynne, J Hearty; T Donnelly, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; D Gannon, A Farley; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, C Rigney.

Replacements: J Merrigan, B McGovern, M Swift, M McCarthy, J O’Connor, T Tierney, P Durcan.