The South Africa A team for the first unofficial Test match against the England Saxons has been announced and surprisingly it will not be featuring the exciting Toyota Cheetahs winger, Sergeal Petersen.
Coach Johan Ackermann has instead opted to play Travis Ismail of the Bulls and Courtnall Skoshan on the wings, while the Stormers flyer, Leolin Zas will starts at fullback.
The side will also see all four of the players involved with the Springbok camp in Stellenbosch and Cape Town starting against the English visitors.
Scrumhalf Nic Groom, flyhalf Garth April, flank Sikhumbuzo Notshe and hooker, Scarra Ntubeni, all arrived from Cape Town on Tuesday to bolster the sides ranks.
Upfront, Ackermann, has opted for power in the front-row with Thomas du Toit and Vincent Koch, while the second-row will see JD Schickerling and Stephan Lewies.
The backrow sees captain Oupa Mohoje and Notshe start at the side of the scrum, with Nizaam Carr stabilising the scrum at eighthman.
The exciting, yet inexperienced April will marshal the backline, while Groom completes the halfback pairing.
The Cheetahs skipper, Francois Venter, will start at outside centre, alongside a former Cheetah, Howard Mnisi, who now plies his trade at the Lions.
While it is a bit of a let-down not seeing Petersen in the match 23, Courant has been reliably inform that the player will be playing in George next weekend.
Mohoje told Courant that there is a lot to play for against the strong Saxons outfit and they will also be looking to impress the Springbok mentor, Allister Coetzee.
“The coach (Johan Ackermann) said in the beginning that all of us are here for different reasons, some of us are here for family and some of us are here to achieve great-great things.
“At the end of the day if we gel together as a team it will make it easier for the coaches to select the players who are here.”
Mohoje added that while they and their counterparts are the second stringers of South Africa and England respectively, he expects nothing less than a tough encounter come Friday evening.
“It probably is going to be a proper test, it’s obviously an international game and that is never easy.
“We really haven’t gone through any of their things so we don’t really know what they are capable of.
“We ourselves just need to clinical in what we do and everything will hopefully go well for us.”
Friday evening’s match at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein kicks off at 19:10.
South Africa A – 15 Leolin Zas, 14 Travis Ismail, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Courtnall Skoshan, 10 Garth April, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Oupa Mohoje (captain), 6 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 5 Stefan Lewies, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Replacements – 16 Malcom Marx, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Jean-Luc du Preez, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Francois Brummer, 23 Lukhanyo Am. – MORGAN PIEK
