Team depth is always an asset in any sport and Peter de Villiers knows this well, so he must be pretty happy to be able to replace winger JP Pietersen with a player of Bryan Habana’s quality. Other changes to the Fijian-demolishing 15 include Francois Hougaard starting at scrum-half, who played a blinder as sub last weekend, winger Gio Aplon, Willem Alberts and prop CJ Van der Linde. De Villiers injury list includes Victor Matfield, Johann Muller, Jean de Villiers and Butch James.
via BBC Sport
What a great weekend it was to open up the 2011 Rugby World Cup with. Who could have predicted that the so-called minnows of the tournament would have pushed the larger teams so hard? But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look back to Friday night and the opening game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup between New Zealand, our hosts, and their local Pacific Island rivals in Tonga.
After the smoke from the amazing opening ceremony fireworks had cleared we were treated to the unusual sight of double haka, with the Tongans performing their own version of the New Zealand haka. And then the games began!