Springbok scrum will provide a true test

To the rugby-loving South African – and there are few people on this earth who love their rugby more – the front row of the Springbok scrum adds up to significantly more than the sum of its cauliflower-faced parts: it is a symbol of sporting nationhood comparable to the greatest West Indian pace attacks or the unfathomably brilliant Brazilian forward line of the early 1970s. Since heavy burdens of expectation require broad shoulders, it is probably as well that the Boks have taken the "big is beautiful" option for this weekend's one-off Test with England at Twickenham.

To the rugby-loving South African – and there are few people on this earth who love their rugby more – the front row of the Springbok scrum adds up to significantly more than the sum of its cauliflower-faced parts: it is a symbol of sporting nationhood comparable to the greatest West Indian pace attacks or the unfathomably brilliant Brazilian forward line of the early 1970s. Since heavy burdens of expectation require broad shoulders, it is probably as well that the Boks have taken the "big is beautiful" option for this weekend's one-off Test with England at Twickenham.

Willie Meyer, a rough handful from the Eastern Cape who weighs in at a cool 19st, will anchor the set-piece at tight head, while John Smit of Natal will perform the hooking duties. Smit is a hooker constructed on the grand scale: at 18st 4lb he is significantly heavier than his provincial colleague and Springbok rival, Lukas van Biljon.

These boys are lost in the mix when it comes to the loose-head prop, however. Ollie le Roux, another Durban-based ox of a forward, is a super-heavyweight amongst mere heavyweights – 20st precisely before match-day-breakfast, at which he is rumoured to consume a small herd of wildebeest. Needless to say, the England trio of Graham Rowntree, Dorian West and Phil Vickery will be comprehensively outweighed. Vickery stacks up against Meyer, but the others will concede a total of at least 5st to their opposite numbers.

There is nothing revolutionary about this, for the Springboks have always put their faith in major meat – think of the recently-retired Os du Randt, who was the size of his native Free State. But Harry Viljoen's selection for this game is significant in the sense that the Boks clearly intend to scrummage the living daylights out of the red rose pack as a means of cramping their opponents' free-running, free-footballing style.

Viljoen, whose brief coaching career at Test level has been marked by radical switches of personnel, has omitted Van Biljon, Robbie Kempson and Cobus Visagie, the combination that completed last summer's Tri-Nations series with a narrow defeat in New Zealand. He believes England are less of a scrummaging force than France, who beat the Boks in Paris almost a fortnight ago, and has decided to go for broke in this most confrontational of departments. "We know the French scrummage well, which is why I went into that game with five forward replacements," he explained yesterday. "England are different; they play another game. For this match, I will have only four forwards on the bench."

Having remodelled his starting line-up for last weekend's match with Italy, Viljoen is happy to give his current unit a second go in the light of their 50-point victory in Genoa. Only Mark Andrews, the most decorated forward in Springbok history, has gatecrashed the party. He will lock the scrum with the highly-rated Victor Matfield, who toured Britain, Ireland and Argentina last year without winning a cap.

Elsewhere, A J Venter (not to be confused with the more familiar Andre Venter) moves from engine room to back row, where he replaces Joe van Niekerk. Louis Koen, the Gauteng Lions stand-off, gets a run at 10, with Braam van Straaten at inside centre.

Viljoen has been a model of diplomacy all week, praising Clive Woodward for his widening of red rose horizons and describing England as "the form side in world rugby". For all that, the coach is promising a typically aggressive and combative Bokke performance on Saturday. "When England beat Australia a couple of weekends ago, the Wallabies barely competed for the ball in the first half," he pointed out. "Instead, they relied on their defensive organisation to keep them in the game. When they did compete at the breakdown after half-time, we saw a different match." The sub-text was as clear as day: these Springboks will be competitive in the extreme.

Once the Boks have completed their Twickenham business, they will fly to the United States for a Test against the Eagles in Houston on 1 December. During the interval, the two sides will honour two American players, Mark Bingham and Jeremy Glick, who are believed to have fought with hijackers on Flight 93 before the plane crashed in western Pennsylvania during the 11 September attacks. Bingham, a founder member of the San Francisco Fog club, and Glick, who turned out for the Rochester University team, were both lock forwards, and both were aged 31 when they died.

On the English Premiership front, the red rose tourist Ben Johnston returns to the Saracens midfield for tonight's match with London Irish at Vicarage Road. Luke Harbut replaces David Flatman at loose head, while Stuart Hooper takes over from Kieran Roche at lock.

INTERNATIONAL TEAMS

NEW ZEALAND

(v Scotland, Murrayfield, Saturday): L MacDonald; D Howlett, T Umaga, A Mauger, J Lomu; A Mehrtens, B Kelleher; S Robertson, R McCaw, R Thorne, N Maxwell, C Jack, G Somerville, A Oliver (capt), G Feek. Replacements: T Willis, D Hewett, D Waller, M Holah, M Robinson, B Blair, C Ralph.

SOUTH AFRICA

(v England, Twickenham, Saturday): C Jantjes; B Paulse, T Halstead, B van Straaten, D Hall; L Koen, J van der Westhuizen; B Skinstad (capt), AJ Venter, A Vos, M Andrews, V Matfield, W Meyer, J Smit, O Le Roux. Replacements: P Montgomery, A Snyman, D de Kock, A Venter, C Krige, C Visagie, L van Biljon.

FRANCE

(v Fiji, Saint-Etienne, Saturday): C Poitrenaud (Stade Toulousain), D Bory (Montferrand), T Marsh (Montferrand), D Traille (Pau), C Dominici (Stade Français), G Merceron (Montferrand), F Galthié (Stade Français, capt), O Magne (Montferrand), P Tabacco (Stade Français), S Betsen (Biarritz), T Privat (Beziers), D Auradou (Stade Français), P De Villiers (Stade Français), R Ibanez (Castres), J-J Crenca (Agen). Replacements: Y Bru (Stade Toulousain), J-B Poux (Narbonne), L Nallet (Bourgoin), S Chabal (Bourgoin), F Michalak (Stade Toulousain), N Jeanjean (Stade Toulousain), A Rougerie (Montferrand).