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Cape Town - Frans Malherbe has taken his chances and has forced his way into Saturday's starting lineup for the Springboks' World Cup quarter-final against Wales at Twickenham.
It is a big call from coach Heyneke Meyer, who has backed Jannie du Plessis throughout the tournament and its build-up.
But last week Malherbe was given a start against the USA as Du Plessis nursed a knee injury, and the Stormers tighthead's performance in that match was enough for him to keep his place for what will be the biggest match of his career on Saturday.
"Frans has played well. I think the one big thing this year we've been struggling with is continuity," said Meyer.
"Slowly but surely our pack is playing the type of rugby that I wanted from them right from the start and we just feel that we wanted to keep the continuity."
Meyer added that having Du Plessis on the bench was a major plus.
"In the past we've lacked some experience from the bench where we had more experienced guys starting and then in the last 20 minutes, where I believe this game will be won or lost, we had a lot of youngsters," said the coach.
"If you look at our bench now most of the guys have 30/35 caps going forward. If you look at a guy like Jannie ... he's very experienced.
"He (Du Plessis) is a great guy to have on the bench there. I don't think the game is going to open up so we don't need an impact player, we need a guy who can scrum and can get some stability and experience there as well."
Kick-off on Saturday is at 17:00.
Teams:
South Africa
15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Fourie du Preez (captain), 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Jannie du Plessis, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein.
Wales
TBA
