Ken Borland

Wing Julian Savea, who scored two tries last weekend against Argentina, has been replaced by Hosea Gear in the New Zealand team to play South Africa in their Rugby Championship match at Soweto on Saturday, it was announced on Thursday.

Coach Steve Hansen has seemingly dropped Savea because of fears over his ability under the high ball and the likelihood that the Springboks will use plenty of kicking in the highveld Test.

The All Blacks are also expecting a fierce physical onslaught from the home team and Hansen has made one change to the starting pack, with Brodie Retallick replacing Luke Romano at lock.

Romano suffered facial cuts last weekend against Argentina and has been unable to train fully this week.

“Luke got beaten up a bit and has a lot of cuts, meaning he hasn’t played a full part in training, while we thought we’d give Julian a wee breather. We have a lot of confidence in Hosea Gear,” Hansen said at a news conference in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Romano will swap places with Retallick and start off the bench on Saturday and there are three other changes amongst the reserves with prop Ben Franks, flank Adam Thomson and utility back Tamati Ellison replacing Charlie Faumuina, Sam Cane and Ben Smith.

The absence of Cane robs the All Blacks of an out-and-out fetcher, but Hansen said the bigger Thomson would boost their lineout.

“Adam definitely gives us another lineout option. He’s been part of the set-up for a long time and we’ve just been waiting for his injury to clear up so we can give him a crack. He had a busy SuperRugby season, but the extra lineout option is the reason for the change,” Hansen said.

With Johan Goosen now playing at flyhalf, Hansen expects the Springboks to probe for gaps with ball in hand more than they did in their previous meeting in Dunedin three weeks ago when Morne Steyn was at 10 and the All Blacks won 21-11.

“Inside their own half they’ll kick, but in our half they’ll run more and play more of a continuity game. I expect we’ll see a lot more movement of the ball than in Dunedin, Goosen is a pretty classy player. He takes the ball to the line, he can break himself or put others in space. He’s quite special,” Hansen said.

The successor to World Cup-winning coach Sir Graham Henry said it was important for the All Blacks not to focus on the venue, the 94 700-capacity Soccer City, the same field on which the 2010 football world cup final was played.

“We have a lot of experience through the spine of the team and those guys have played all over the world and seen most places. So when they get on the field, it’s all the same for them, it’s a bit of grass with lines painted on. That’s the mindset you want.

“Sure, 90 000 people will make a lot of noise, but if you do things right on the field then you quieten them down and it becomes your place,” Hansen said.

Team – 15-Israel Dagg, 14-Cory Jane, 13-Conrad Smith, 12-Ma’a Nonu, 11-Hosea Gear, 10-Dan Carter, 9-Aaron Smith, 8-Kieran Read, 7-Richie McCaw, 6-Liam Messam, 5-Sam Whitelock, 4-Brodie Retallick, 3-Owen Franks, 2-Andrew Hore, 1-Tony Woodcock. Reserves: 16-Keven Mealamu, 17-Ben Franks, 18-Luke Romano, 19-Adam Thomson, 20-Piri Weepu, 21-Aaron Cruden, 22-Tamati Ellison.

South Africa will field an unchanged starting XV when they play New Zealand in their final Rugby Championship match in Soweto on Saturday.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer on Wednesday named the same team that beat Australia 31-8 in Pretoria last weekend and made just one change to the replacements bench with versatile prop Coenie Oosthuizen replacing Pat Cilliers. Oosthuizen injured his neck when he made his test debut against England in June and has played just 35 minutes of rugby since then, appearing for the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup.

The 23-year-old looked set to make his international return last weekend when Meyer named him on the bench, but he was withdrawn from the squad later in the week due to concerns that he had not yet fully recovered from his neck injury. Oosthuizen consulted a neurosurgeon on Tuesday and was given the all-clear to continue playing.

“Our players are our greatest assets and I’m happy to have Coenie available again this weekend,” Meyer said. “We will always consider the players’ welfare first which is why we decided to get several opinions on Coenie’s neck.”

Fullback Zane Kirchner (hip), flyhalf Johan Goosen (heel), prop Jannie du Plessis (stiffness) and flank Willem Alberts (hip) rested niggles during training this week but Meyer said he was confident the injury bogey would not disrupt the first unchanged starting XV he has been able to name all year.

“I’m positive everyone will be fit, most of them trained well this morning. We’ve been hit hard by injuries this year, but thanks to the great work done by our medical team, we’ve managed to sort out a few of the little niggles left over from the Wallaby match for our final Test on home soil this year,” Meyer said.

The 20-year-old Goosen once again starts at flyhalf and Meyer said it would be a tough challenge for the youngster to face the world champions in just his second start at pivot.

“The New Zealand back three are superb, especially the way they read the game, and they’re very good under the high ball. So it’s not going to be easy for Johan to kick tactically against them, it’s going to be a tough learning curve for him.

“He will improve though as he gains experience, as he plays more, and he’ll get better at seeing space,” Meyer said.

The Springbok coach warned that even though playing at Soccer City Stadium in front of 90 000 home fans, and at altitude, carried some weight for the South Africans, they would still need to be near-perfect in their execution in order to beat the All Blacks.

“It’s a great stadium and it’s great to be on the highveld, that helps. But the All Blacks are a quality side, they know how to win even when they don’t play well and they have the mindset that they can win away because they’ve done it so many times.

“If we’re going to beat them, we have to kick at an 80%-plus success rate, we have to convert our pressure into points, defend unbelievably and take every chance. The players have to pitch up, be mentally strong and physically tough,” Meyer said.

Soccer City was the venue for the 2010 football World Cup final and was where fullback Israel Dagg scored a long-range try to snatch a last-gasp 29-22 victory for New Zealand over South Africa later that year.

“I am sure the All Blacks will come out blazing because maybe they underestimated us a bit in Dunedin after we had struggled in the first half of the year. They won’t do that again and they looked back at their best against Argentina. I am sure their confidence will be high,” Meyer warned.

Team – 15-Zane Kirchner, 14-Bryan Habana, 13-Jaco Taute, 12-Jean de Villiers, 11-Francois Hougaard, 10-Johan Goosen, 9-Ruan Pienaar, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Willem Alberts, 6-Francois Louw, 5-Andries Bekker, 4-Eben Etzebeth, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Adriaan Strauss, 1-Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: 16-Tiaan Liebenberg, 17-Coenie Oosthuizen, 18-Flip van der Merwe, 19-Marcell Coetzee, 20-Elton Jantjies, 21-Juan de Jongh, 22-Pat Lambie.

New Zealand are expecting South Africa to play with more width than in their previous meeting when they clash in a Rugby Championship Test in Soweto on Saturday, assistant coach Ian Foster said on Tuesday.

The All Blacks scraped past the Springboks 21-11 in Dunedin on September 15 with the visitors missing 20 points at goal.

But the South Africans bounced back to form with a morale-boosting 31-8 win over Australia in Pretoria last weekend, scoring five tries.

“They seem to have the intent to play with more width than they did against us in Dunedin and they may chuck a few different things at us on Saturday. We’ll need to assess where the threats are and make the adjustments.

“If you want to play expansive rugby, then there is the risk of errors and we’ve been through that process. It’s not something that comes naturally,” Foster told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

But the All Blacks are also expecting the Springboks to still bombard them with high kicks on the highveld.

“We still expect high balls and a tough physical battle through the forwards. Some things don’t change,” Foster said.

“We pride ourselves under the high ball, but the Springboks have put us under pressure with it in the past and they punish you if you drop it. Plus it goes a lot higher at altitude! We’ll have to work together as a unit at the back,” fullback Israel Dagg added.

The All Blacks also won in fine style at the weekend, beating Argentina 54-15 in La Plata to clinch the Rugby Championship title, and the world champions said the small details that had been lacking in the campaign thus far seemed to have clicked against the Pumas.

“We were pretty satisfied but the margins are still very small.

The pack definitely stepped up in Argentina and it was great to see the plans finally come together,” hooker Keven Mealamu said.

Dropped flyhalf Morne Steyn will still be a key figure for the Springboks going forward, the South Africa team’s kicking coach, Louis Koen, said on Tuesday.

The out-of-form Steyn was dropped for last weekend’s Rugby Championship match against Australia and with the 20-year-old Johan Goosen starring in a 31-8 win that ended a record five-match losing streak against the Wallabies, many critics have begun writing the obituaries for Steyn’s international career.

But Koen said he believes the 28-year-old Steyn will make a rapid return to favour, despite the early succcess Goosen has enjoyed and the claims of another youngster, Currie Cup-winning flyhalf Elton Jantjies.

“Morne has played a lot of rugby recently, for three years consecutively at a very high level, and the pressure was starting to build. Fatigue does definitely have an effect on kicking, but he has a sensational technique and he will be back, I believe that with my whole heart.

“He will come back calmer, when there’s a little less pressure, and when we go on our overseas tour at the end of the year, conditions will be wetter and we’ll have to play a more tactical game. I believe Morne will still be an integral player for the Springboks in the future,” Koen told a news conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has been accused of having misplaced faith in Steyn after the hero of the Springboks’ 2009 and

2010 seasons lost his goalkicking touch and struggled to spark the team on attack.

Koen said he had logged every practice kick the Springboks have taken this year and Steyn was the most consistent kicker, succeeding with 88% of 620 attempts.

The former Springbok flyhalf said this pointed to the disappointing results on the field being a mental problem, although Koen admitted that “I’m no expert on the mental side of things”.

The kicking coach also strenuously denied that he had changed any of the goalkickers’ techniques.

“I haven’t changed one thing. Like my work with [Stormers flyhalf] Peter Grant in SuperRugby since 2005, it takes time to establish a relationship of trust and get behind their techniques. If they struggle, I’d like to get to where I can give them positive input, but at the moment I can’t do that out on the field. I’m not convinced it’s the way to go to change things right before a test,” Koen said.

Goosen is currently suffering from a bruised heel that made goalkicking painful for him and Koen said he is having to deal with his young protege’s frustration.

“Johan is very frustrated at the moment, he hasn’t been able to kick in training for two weeks. He’s worried and we just need to calm him down and tell him to focus on his natural game, which he did exceptionally well last weekend.

“But according to him, his general play is married to his goalkicking, he really feeds off it and it gives him confidence.

“The injury is to the flat pad of his heel, it’s a bone bruise. But it doesn’t affect his general play, he runs on the ball of his foot so he can definitely play even if he doesn’t kick,” Koen said.

Meanwhile, Springbok scrum coach Pieter de Villiers praised the All Blacks set-piece for being a formidable unit.

“Against Australia the scrums are more of a technical battle, but it’s more physical against New Zealand, they see scrums like we do. They have a very strong scrummaging unit as a whole, a well-balanced front row that gives them a solid base, and a powerful back five.

“They work together really well as a unit, their timing is good so they generate speed, which is what you need because the distance is shorter these days on the hit.

“The All Blacks have one of the best scrums in the world and we’ll need to be switched on,” De Villiers said.