Melbourne, Nov 08: The southern hemisphere heavyweights meet in a mouth-watering encounter in the first of the World Cup's quarter-finals. New Zealand have been heavily backed to win the tournament throughout their campaign. However, a patchy performance in their final pool match against Wales will give their opponents hope.

Despite that far from convincing 53-37 win, coach John Mitchell has made just one change.

Lock Chris Jack returns, in place of Brad Thorn, after recovering from an ankle injury.

Number eight Jerry Collins is still under treatment for sore ribs, but has been named in the side and is expected to play.
South Africa go into the knock-out stages on the back of a convincing 60-10 victory over Samoa.

With that result in the bank, the Springboks looked to have settled on a winning combination, making just one change.

That was forced on coach Rudolf Straeuli after Joe van Niekerk was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury. The flanker has been replaced by impressive open-side Danie Rossouw.

Rossouw forms part of a strong back-row, with Juan Smith at number eight and skipper Corne Krige on the blind-side.

Outside the scrum, Straueli has kept faith with promising young fly-half Derick Hougaard, who will partner veteran scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen.


Bureau Report