SOUTH AFRICA'S starting XV for the match against Wales on Sunday is the most experienced line-up named in the history of the sport.
The side boasts a combined 815 caps, breaking the record which the Springboks set against Australia a month ago when their starting XV had 810 caps between them.
Nine of the side that starts against Wales played in the World Cup final win in 2007. Captain John Smit, Danie Rossouw, Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger, Fourie Du Preez, Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie, JP Pietersen and Frans Steyn all played that day. Two others who started that final, CJ van der Linde and Butch James, will be on the bench against the Welsh.
At 34, Matfield will be the second-oldest player to appear in a World Cup match for South Africa. Only the prop Os Du Randt, a mainstay of the 2007 success, was older at 35 years and 42 days old.
Coach Pieter de Villiers has dropped five players from the starting XV from South Africa’s last match, the 18-5 win over the All Blacks three weeks ago. Tendai Mtawarira and Smit replace Gürthro Steenkamp and Bismarck Du Plessis in the front row, Rossouw comes in for the injured Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger returns at openside flanker in place of Willem Alberts and Frans Steyn replaces Patrick Lambie at full back.
Rhys Priestland, meanwhile, has been give the Wales fly-half role. The Scarlets player reclaims the No.10 shirt he last wore when Wales beat England in a warm-up game at the Millennium Stadium four weeks ago.
The versatile James Hook again features at full-back, forging a menacing back-three with wings George North and Shane Williams.
Elsewhere, the Wales coach Warren Gatland has sprung a surprise in the second-row, where the Newport Gwent Dragons lock Luke Charteris is preferred to Cardiff Blues’ Bradley Davies.
Calf muscle injuries sideline the fly-half Stephen Jones, prop Gethin Jenkins and No.8 Ryan Jones, while the 2009 Lions first Test full-back Lee Byrne does not feature in the matchday 22.
Leigh Halfpenny provides back-three cover off the bench, and Byrne, who had a poor game in Wales’ final warm-up fixture against Argentina, misses out completely.
There are three changes from the side that defeated England, with centre Jonathan Davies, hooker Huw Bennett and prop Adam Jones all claiming starting places.
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