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Springboks shuffle pack

31/05/2007

South African coach Jake White has shuffled his pack ahead of the second Test against England and warned Brian Ashton to expect another tough night.

Ashton's England side were swept aside in the first Test last weekend, with the Springboks cruising to a 58-10 win.

And after bringing in three new faces ahead of Saturday's clash at Loftus Versfeld, White has promised that the tourists are in store for another testing encounter.

Wing Akona Ndungane comes in in place of Ashwin Willemse, while CJ van der Linde and Guthro Steenkamp replace BJ Botha and Deon Carstens in the South African front row.

White has insisted that of those changes only Botha has been dropped because of injury, despite the fact that all three have been struggling with illness in recent days.

"The flu virus had nothing to do with selection," the South African coach said.

"BJ Botha is still carrying a bit of an injury so he wasn't considered. Obviously then CJ van der Linde comes off the bench into the starting lineup.

"Os du Randt is still not available so, therefore, Guthro Steenkamp gets a chance and Deon Carstens is on the bench because he can cover both tighthead and loosehead."

While South Africa have had the luxury of changing a winning side, England have been forced to call on reserves and understudies after a string of debilitating injuries.

Andy Farrell, James Simpson-Daniel and Mike Brown have all pulled out of this weekend's Test in Pretoria from the same stomach virus that has already denied coach Brian Ashton the services of David Strettle.

Andy Hazell has been ruled out due to a knee problem and skipper Jason Robinson is also rated as doubtful with fluid on the knee, forcing Ashton to delay naming his starting line-up until tomorrow lunchtime.

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