De Villiers makes no changes for Springboks

South Africa coach Peter De Villiers today named an unchanged team for Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash with Australia in Cape Town – a decision he described as “easy”.

There had been reports De Villiers would drop Morne Steyn in favour of Ruan Pienaar at fly-half, despite Steyn scoring all the Springboks’ points in last weekend’s 31-19 win over New Zealand.

But Steyn was retained along with the other 14 players who starred against the All Blacks.

De Villiers told www.sarugby.net: “If the players conduct themselves in the manner that they are at the moment, it’s easy to pick the team.

“If you lose your spot in this team through injury or anything else, it’s going to be hard to get back into it.

“That’s the competition we have in the side. It’s the way we want it and I think it’s healthy.”

On Steyn’s selection he added: “Ruan Pienaar was always part of our plans but I think it would do injustice to the guys who did so well last Saturday to bring guys straight back.”

Springbok captain John Smit endorsed De Villiers’ policy of sticking with players in form.

“To have the same starting line-up from last week definitely helps when it comes to preparation for the next Test,” said Smit.

“We had a great training run this morning and everyone is looking forward to Saturday.”

The only change to the matchday squad comes on the bench, where Pienaar takes the place of Wynand Olivier.

Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha will play together as a lock pairing for the 50th time in a Test for South Africa while Jean de Villiers is set to surpass De Wet Barry’s record for the most capped Springbok centre of all time, when he runs out in the midfield for the 40th time.