Alberts out of Japan clash

Cape Town - Springbok loose forward Willem Alberts has been withdrawn from Saturday’s Rugby World Cup opening game against Japan after injuring his calf during the captain’s run.

LIVE: Boks v Japan

Pieter-Steph du Toit will start in the No 7 jersey with his place on the bench going to Eben Etzebeth.

“Willem felt some discomfort during the captain’s run and we took him out of the session as a precautionary measure,” said Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts.

“We reassessed him again this morning and decided it would be better to withdraw him from the team.”

As a result of Alberts’ withdrawal, the starting team now only has a combined total of 851 Test caps. It is still more than the previous most experienced Springbok side (836 caps), which played in South Africa’s last Rugby World Cup match against Australia in Wellington, New Zealand in 2011.

The match against Japan kicks off at 17:45. 

Teams:

South Africa:

15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Schalk Burger, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Lood de Jager, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Fourie du Preez, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 JP Pietersen

Japan:

15 Ayumu Goromaru, 14 Akihito Yamada, 13 Male Sau, 12 Craig Wing, 11 Kotaro Matsushima, 10 Kosei Ono, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Hendrik Tui, 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Michael Leitch, 5 Hitoshi Ono, 4 Luke Thompson, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Masataka Mikami

Substitutes: 16 Takeshi Kazu, 17 Keita Inagaki, 18 Hiroshi Yamashita, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20. Amanaki Mafi, 21 Atsushi Hiwasa, 22 Harumichi Tatekawa, 23 Karne Hesketh