Junior Springbok prop Sazi Sandi led a new-look Junior Springbok squad, featuring Blitzbok Muller du Plessis, in their second warm-up match against Georgia at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch yesterday.
SA Under-20 coach Chean Roux made several changes to his match-day squad in line with his objective to give as many players as possible a chance to show if they have what it takes to secure a place in his 28-man World Rugby U-20 championship squad.
Sandi, who takes over the captaincy from Salmaan Moerat who trained with the DHL Stormers this week, is one of five players who retained their places in the starting line-up. The other players are No8 Muller Uys, winger Sihle Njezula, lock Ruan Nortje and Gianni Lombard, who moves from fullback to flyhalf.
The match-day squad includes 16 players who have progressed through the SA Schools structures, which includes fullback Muller du Plessis, who made his Springbok Sevens debut this season.
“This is our second game so we would like to give everyone a fair chance to play a full game, so they have the best chance to secure a place in the final squad,” said Roux.
He added that he is expecting Georgia to pose a strong challenge, despite going down 55-14 in their first outing at Paul Roos Gymnasium last week. “We are expecting a similar challenge against Georgia. They are a very good scrummaging team and they like to use their forwards to gain ascendancy, and we are ready for that,” said Roux.
“With regards to our game, we would like to play at a high tempo, but improve on our handling as the handling errors crept in during the latter stages of the game last week.
“Defensively there were one or two slip-ups we were also under pressure in the scrums. Hopefully we can rectify that in the second Test.”
The match starts at 4pm and entry is R10. The SA Rugby Academy takes on the WP Rugby Academy in the curtain-raiser at 1.30pm.