Pienaar braced for the hits
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reports from Pretoria
The Springboks, still peeved at the loss of their hooker James Dalton, one of the players suspended after the punch-up against Canada, are bracing themselves for another physical encounter against Western Samoa at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, today.
"Their biggest asset is their hard tackling," Kitch Christie, the coach of South Africa, said. "I've heard that the King of Samoa gives them $50 every time they make a big hit." That's peanuts compared to the money being made out of the World Cup in advertising promotions by Francois Pienaar, the Springboks captain.
Pienaar and Christie believe that Dalton, whose appeal against a 30-day suspension was thrown out, was harshly treated. There was no appeal against the 90-day ban on the wing Pieter Hendriks, who scored the first try against the Wallabies, but Christie said yesterday: "They are two lovely chaps. The whole thing left us feeling down but now we've got to focus on the quarter-finals. We're not just playing for two guys alone. The Samoans play a hard game but they're not dirty." Pienaar said: "I don't think we'll be provoked in the way that Canada provoked us. We'll turn the other cheek."
The Springboks, who beat Western Samoa 60-8 in a "friendly" at Ellis Park in April, have chosen 10 of the side who defeated Australia in the World Cup opener. Chester Williams comes in on the left wing for Hendriks and Chris Rossouw for Dalton. Joel Stransky, who suffered an eye injury against Canada, is replaced at stand-off by Hennie le Roux and the threequarter line is further amended with the inclusion of Christiaan Scholtz and Gavin Johnson. Johnson, who scored three tries against Samoa two months ago, will take over the goalkicking. Hannes Strydom, who also suffered an eye injury against the Canadians, is replaced in the second row by Kobus Wiese.
Western Samoa, who, after their drubbing by South Africa, beat Auckland in Auckland 25-22, are also feeling the effects of injuries. Both stand- offs, Darren Kellett and Esera Puleitu, are out and Fata Sini, who scored two tries against England, takes over. The absence of Kellett, who plays his rugby in New Zealand, leaves the South Sea Islanders without a recognised goalkicker.
Mika Umaga, the Wellington full-back, is expected to take the kicks. The Samoans are also without their veteran prop Pita Fatialofa, at 36 one of the oldest players in the tournament, and his place at tight-head goes to George Latu.
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