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Montgomery to make Springbok history

Pool A/South Africa v Tonga Fullback Percy Montgomery will become the most-capped South African Test player when he wins his…

Thu Sept 20 2007 - 01:00

Pool A/South Africa v TongaFullback Percy Montgomery will become the most-capped South African Test player when he wins his 90th cap from the bench in Saturday's Pool A World Cup match against Tonga in Lens.

Springbok coach Jake White said Montgomery would definitely make a replacement appearance when he named a team with 11 changes to the one that beat England 36-0 on Friday.

"I have told him he will go on," said White yesterday. "People might say: "Why are you giving him his 90th cap from the bench?' But Monty is not going to be remembered as a guy who came off the bench to play many Test matches - he has been a hell of a good servant."

The only players retained from the team that thrashed England are wing JP Pietersen, loose forwards Danie Rossouw and Wickus van Heerden and lock Bakkies Botha. Botha starts because of a calf injury suffered in training by reserve lock Johann Muller.

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Seven players make their first starts of the tournament. They are stand-in captain and number eight Bob Skinstad, wing Ashwin Willemse, centres Wynand Olivier and Wayne Julies, lock Albert van den Berg, hooker Gary Botha and prop Gurthro Steenkamp.

Skinstad said of Tonga: "They are very physical, very protective of their own go-forward ball and big hard tacklers. They have got loose forward-sized guys at inside centre in Epi Taione - who was a loose forward - and they have even bigger guys on the wing. It's up to us to prove that we have the physicality to take them on."

White included leading players on the bench. John Smit, Victor Matfield, Montgomery and Bryan Habana are among those in reserve. "Tonga have eight points and they will be backing themselves to make the quarter-finals," said White. "It's good for this group to know we are taking this game seriously and that we have guys like John and Victor and Monty in reserve - even if I'm not necessarily going to use them."

The team is similar to the one that struggled to beat Connacht 18-3 in a warm-up match in August.White said: " . . . I'm confident this group will get a lot more out of it than they did against Connacht."

SOUTH AFRICA:R Pienaar; A Willemse, W Olivier, Wayne Julies, JP Pietersen; A Pretorius, E Januarie; G Steenkamp, G Botha, CJ van der Linde; B Botha, A van den Berg; W van Heerden, D Rossouw, B Skinstad (c). Replacements: J Smit, BJ Botha, V Matfield, J Smith, B Habana, F Steyn, P Montgomery.