Koen axed by Springboks

South Africa have axed their goalkicking fly-half Louis Koen for Saturday’s World Cup eliminator against Samoa at Suncorp Stadium.

Koen missed a handful of penalty chances when the Springboks were beaten 25-6 by England in Perth 11 days ago.

He also had a kick charged down by England flanker Lewis Moody that led directly to centre Will Greenwood’s decisive second-half try.

And Springboks coach Rudolf Straeuli has decided to call up the highly-rated Blue Bulls prospect Derick Hougaard, who went into the World Cup as an uncapped player.

Two other changes from the side that lost to England see hooker John Smit selected above Danie Coetzee and tighthead prop Faan Rautenbach preferred to Richard Bands.

The winner of Saturday’s clash will secure a probable quarter-final with New Zealand in Melbourne, while the losers face an early flight home.

Samoa though, go into the game after pushing England to the wire at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome last Sunday, and Springboks skipper Corne Krige expects an intense battle.

“We need a massive challenge at this stage of the competition. Samoa will come out firing, so I think they can produce such form for two games in a row,” Krige said.

“If Samoa play the first 60 minutes like they did against England on the weekend, then it will be a great game.

“I was always expecting this to be a massive match. In our preparations, we knew it might come down to beating Samoa if we didn’t beat England, so we always knew it was going to be big.”