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Durban - Jean de Villiers knows that he has to prove his worth to coach Heyneke Meyer when he leads the Springboks against Argentina at Kings Park on Saturday.
De Villiers will play at outside centre and start his first Test since November 2014 when a knee injury threatened to end his career.
But eight months of intense rehabilitation later, De Villiers is back in the Springbok starting line-up, though he is under no illusions that his place in this year's Rugby World Cup squad is guaranteed.
"I have to do well and perform to make the 31-man squad. I'm not injured anymore, the emotion is gone," De Villiers said in Durban on Friday.
"Each guy here is good enough to represent their country and you have to perform to show the coach that you are good enough to play, and it is no different for me. My job is to perform."
In his absence, De Villiers said he had been extremely impressed by the centre combination of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel.
"They've been unbelievable, individually and as a combination. Sometimes you put two great players together and they don't combine well... but as a combination these guys have done really well," the Bok captain said.
"The fact that the other guys played well I don't think puts more pressure on me. I need to prove to myself and the guys who select the team that I'm good enough, and that's the most important thing.
"Competition within a team is a good thing if approached the right way."
Saturday's clash kicks off at 17:05.
Teams:
South Africa:
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Jesse Kriel, 13 Jean de Villiers (captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Schalk Burger, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Heinrich Brussow, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Lwazi Mvovo
Argentina:
15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Jerónimo De la Fuente, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Juan Martín Hernández, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustín Creevy (captain), 1 Marcos Ayerza
Substitutes: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Lucas Noguera, 18 Matías Díaz, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Tomás Lezana, 21 Martín Landajo, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino
