5 Changes to African Squad Named to take on All Blacks

White has responded to 8 changes to the All Blacks with a few changes of his own, surprise surprise. All told there are five changes to the team. The first five decision has not yet been made, White bracketing James and Meyer Bosman in that position. Apparently the decision as to which of those two will take the field is to be made on Saturday. Fourie du Preez replaces Januarie at halfback, rounding out the only other change to the back line.

The remaining three changes are in the forwards. Albert van den Bergh replaces Rossouw, and flanker Solly Tyibilika and No 8 Jacques Cronje come into the loose forward mix. I think that this team is missing the outstanding play of Burger in the loose. The loss of Burger has had a massive impact on the team and its competitiveness, especially at the breakdown. This was an area that the Africans were shown to be way behind Australia, largely by the efforts of Smith. With McCaw to play this weekend, it looks like they will be in the firing line again.

Apparently Os du Randt has been unable to train with the team this week ahead of the match, although he is still named in the starting side. They will need him at his sausage guzzling best this weekend as he is their main man on the mission to restrain the rampant (and formerly bearded) Carl Hayman (such a shame it went too). The forward exchange could be more interesting than it was last week, especially with a wet track predicted.

Meanwhile Graham Henry is doing his level best to make a game of it this weekend, talking up the Africans. Make no mistake, I think it is unlikely that they will play that badly again, however the possibility that they might win is pretty remote. With wet weather predicted I think that will help the Africans and level the game up a bit as it will take the back line advantage away from the All Blacks. For Henry's comments, click here.

Elsewhere it seems that Brumbie and former Wallaby prop Bill Young may have to hang up his boots, permanently. The retirement has come after three (yep, not enough to get a second opinion, Bill needed a third and you can't blame him for being cautious with this kind of injury) opinions on the extent of the injury and the prognosis if he continues playing. Given the symptoms of pain and numbness in his arm, it seems his injury will rule Young out of a return to the pack for the Wallabies should their scrummaging woes continue. If indeed he is not going to play again, that is a shame as he was a formidable scrumager in his day, and it is a loss to Australian and World rugby if he is not able to remain in the game, at least for the Brumbies. For more on Young's retirement, click here.

Can't wait for the game this weekend, shame it is still so far away really...