Kirchner added to Springboks squad

Zane Kirchner and Chiliboy Ralepelle have been added to the South Africa squad that will face Australia and New Zealand in the Rugby Championship.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has retained faith in the players who narrowly beat Argentina, with Kirchner and Ralepelle coming in as as reinforcements. Scrum-half Fourie du Preez is once again unavailable due to club commitments.

The Springboks will play two Tests on their tour, first against Australia in Brisbane on Saturday, September 7th before moving on to Auckland where they will face New Zealand a week later.

“This will be two tough weeks on the road against two of the best sides in the world and as we saw last weekend against Argentina, we still have a lot of hard work to do,” commented Meyer.

“The Springboks have never beaten Australia at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and our last victory at Eden Park was in 1937.

Springbok squad: Lourens Adriaanse, Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Juandré Kruger, Francois Louw, Tendai Mtawarira, Coenie Oosthuizen, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Gurthrö Steenkamp, Adriaan Strauss, Flip van der Merwe, Duane Vermeulen, Bjorn Basson, Jean de Villiers (capt), JJ Engelbrecht, Bryan Habana, Zane Kirchner, Patrick Lambie, Willie le Roux, Ruan Pienaar, Jan Serfontein, Morné Steyn, Piet van Zyl, Jano Vermaak.