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Decision time for Div

Gavin Rich - SuperSport

Edinburgh - The ankle strain that has forced Bjorn Basson out of the rest of the Springbok tour of the United Kingdom will guarantee at least one change for Saturday’s Test against Scotland at Murrayfield.

Whether or not though it will mean that Lwazi Mvovo gets what many would view as a deserved call-up to the starting team will have to wait until the team announcement on Tuesday. The Springboks have called off their scheduled Monday training session so there will be no way of assessing what Peter de Villiers’s thinking will be ahead of the announcement.

He does have other options other than Mvovo, the Sharks wing who was so impressive in that province's drive to the Currie Cup title in the last months of the season. Zane Kirchner could easily be brought in at fullback, with Gio Aplon moving to the wing. De Villiers could also switch Frans Steyn to fullback and move Aplon to the wing, with Adrian Jacobs then coming in at outside centre.

There is also a chance that another change might be made at the back for Jean de Villiers appeared to be struggling towards the end of the 29-25 win over Wales in Cardiff at the weekend. If he is ruled out, Steyn would probably have to move to inside centre, which of course is where he played at the World Cup in 2007.

Either way, De Villiers and the team leadership group do face an interesting decision as they begin the build-up to the third match of the tour - do they use this match as an opportunity to give a proper run to the young players who have come on tour who have not been subjected to a full test as yet, or do they stick with the stated objective of making winning the priority above all other considerations.

While Scotland were well beaten by New Zealand at the weekend, going down 49-3 in what was a one-side game, that result could play into the Scotland hands if it means the Boks underestimate their opponents.

And the Boks ought to have felt they had been warned when they arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday, with Scotland coach Andy Robinson, formerly assistant coach to Clive Woodward before becoming head coach at England, making a public promise through the media that his team would atone for their capitulation to the All Blacks.

While the world No 1 ranked team won easily, the words of All Black coach Graham Henry should also be heeded. Henry did not feel that the game turned out like it did because Scotland played badly, he just felt that his team hit a purple patch.

“I am not being patronising in saying this, I really did think that in our third match of the tour we just hit a point where it all came together and I think any team would have suffered against us the way we played,” said Henry.

The Boks are now within two wins of pulling off a Grand Slam, and after their annihilation of Australia at the weekend, England do loom as the biggest threat to their chances of pulling off four out of four. But as skipper Victor Matfield said last week, it could be suicide to think too far ahead, and Scotland do need to be taken seriously.

The Scots have been on a dramatic improvement curve on their performance graph under Robinson, at least until the All Black defeat, and the Boks will recall that they were fortunate to escape with a win when they were last here in 2008.

That said, however, the Boks do need to give the likes of Patrick Lambie a chance to start at some stage if they are to properly achieve the secondary objective to their primary objective of getting back a winning habit -- and that is to grow the squad ahead of next year’s World Cup.

There were some eyebrows raised when Lambie came on for Morne Steyn with a quarter of the match remaining and the scores close at the Millennium Stadium, but in neither of his two appearances so far as a replacement has Lambie looked out of his depth. On the contrary, he brings something different to a Bok backline which was not well served by Steyn as flyhalf in Cardiff.

There has been little or no emphasis from the Boks on this tour towards style innovation, with the basic tenets of their tried and trusted approach being retained, but Lambie could give some indication of what is possible if he is given a place in the run on team. For a start, he appears to take the ball a lot flatter than Steyn, who has at times looked too predictable.


Bjorn Basson suffered an ankle injury in the Test against Wales. (Gallo Images)
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