Boks forced into late change

Sydney -   Sharks lock Alistair Hargreaves was on Thursday drafted into the Springboks' starting line-up for Saturday's Tri-Nations opener against Australia in Sydney, the team said.

Hargreaves replaced Johann Muller, who failed to pass a fitness assessment on a strained hamstring.

Hargreaves' place on the reserves bench has been taken by his Sharks team-mate Ryan Kankowski.

Teams

Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale; 14 James O'Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane; 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia; 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (capt); 5 James Horwill, 4 Rob Simmons; 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Sekope Kepu

Substitutes: 16 Saia Faingaa, 17 Pekahou Cowan, 18 Nathan Sharpe, 19 Matt Hodgson, 20 Scott Higginbotham, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Anthony Faingaa

South Africa: 15 Gio Aplon; 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Juan De Jongh, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Lwazi Mvovo; 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar; 8 Ashley Johnson ,7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Deon Stegmann; 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 4 Flip van der Merwe; 3 Werner Kruger, 2 John Smit (capt), 1 Dean Greyling

Substitutes: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Ryan Kankowski, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Adrian Jacobs, 22 Patrick Lambie