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Weather thwarts Boks

London - The snow that was forecast earlier in the week and the rain that Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was anticipating when he named an almost unchanged team is unlikely to materialise during Saturday’s big match at Twickenham.

While most forecasts are predicting extremely low temperatures – some as low as -5 degrees Celsius during the daylight hours – the sky above the stadium is expected to be relatively free of cloud, with bright spells predicted. And more to the point, there will be no snow, with the snow to have fallen on England over the past day all limited to areas away from London.

And with rain not anticipated, this means it will be a dry day, which on this occasion means the conditions will conspire in favour of England in that it will enable them to play the free-flowing running game that they employed to hammer Australia two weeks ago.

Although it will be cold, the Rugby Football Union have confirmed that they keep the playing surface under covers at Twickenham, which means the surface should be in mint condition for a running game.

Earlier in the week Bok coach De Villiers said there had been a temptation to choose young Sharks flyhalf Patrick Lambie in what would have been a clear intent to play a more possession orientated, attacking game than when Morne Steyn is at flyhalf, but that it had been decided against because of the expected severe weather.

It has been cold in London over the past few days, but not as cold or as uncomfortable as anticipated, and Friday dawned clear and bright over the England capital city.

Teams:

England: Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Mike Tindall, Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto, Toby Flood, Ben Youngs; Andrew Sheridan, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole, Courtney Lawes, Tom Palmer, Tom Croft, Lewis Moody (captain), Nick Easter. Replacements: Steve Thompson, David Wilson, Simon Shaw, Hendre Fourie, Danny Care, Charlie Hodgson, Matt Banahan.

South Africa: Zane Kirchner, Gio Aplon, Francois Steyn, Jean de Villiers, Lwazi Mvovo, Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar; Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield (captain), Deon Stegmann, Juan Smith, Pierre Spies. Replacements: Andries Strauss, CJ van der Linde, Flip van der Merwe, Willem Alberts, Francois Hougaard, Patrick Lambie, Adi Jacobs.

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