Flip hits out at Heyneke’s selection

Cape Town - Lock Flip van der Merwe has criticised Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer’s selection for the Rugby World Cup Bronze final against Argentina in London on Friday.

READ: Springboks' Test record against Argentina

READ: 15 stats and facts - Boks v Argentina

READ: Bok record holders at the Olympic Stadium

Meyer opted against selecting some of his fringe squad members for the third-place playoff match.

Meyer made only two changes to the starting team from the one which lost 20-18 in the semi-finals against New Zealand last weekend - one of which was injury-enforced.

Victor Matfield replaces Lood de Jager at lock and takes over the over the captaincy from the injured Fourie du Preez (cheek), whose place in the No 9 jersey is taken by Ruan Pienaar, with Rudy Paige coming in on the bench.

Van der Merwe, whose last Test was against Argentina in Buenos Aires earlier this year, feels it was the ideal opportunity to give players a run who did not feature much in the tournament.

He tweeted his disappointment after Meyer named his team on Wednesday:

Ungrateful team selection towards the rest of the 31-man squad who worked just as hard the last 4 years

— flip van der merwe (@flipvandermerwe) October 28, 2015

Van der Merwe, who has played 37 Tests for the Springboks, had earlier made himself unavailable for national selection due to a contractual dispute, but answered Mayer’s call for the Test against Argentina back in August.

He was however not included in Meyer’s 31-man World Cup squad.

Friday’s clash at London’s Olympic Park is scheduled for 22:00 (SA time).

Teams:

South Africa

15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Beast Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Jannie du Plessis, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein

Argentina

15 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Nicolas Sanchez (captain), 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Javier Ortega Desio, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matas Alemanno, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Marcos Ayerza

Substitutes: 16 Lucas Noguera, 17 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 18 Juan Figallo, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Facundo Isa, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Juan Pablo Socino