Mike Brown ready to wing it but South Africa decide to stick

 
Mike Brown of Harlequins
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Chris Jones21 November 2012

England are set to name Harlequins full-back Mike Brown on the left wing against South Africa at Twickenham but the visitors have announced an unchanged team for Saturday.

Stuart Lancaster will reveal his line-up tomorrow with Brown expected to come in for Charlie Sharples. He is likely to be one of four changes to the side beaten by Australia with Alex Corbisiero at prop for the injured Joe Marler, Tom Wood replacing Tom Johnson and Ben Morgan taking over from Thomas Waldrom at No8.

Injury worries mean Saracens’ Mouritz Botha is covering second row although Geoff Parling and Tom Palmer are scheduled to remain in tandem. James Haskell will be on the bench offering another option as a back-row replacement.

With Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth cleared to play after being found not guilty of gouging against Scotland, the tourists have gone for the same XV who won 21‑10 at Murrayfield.

Coach Heyneke Meyer said: “It’s great to field an unchanged team. We’ve been able to show some consistency in selection on this tour. The players have worked extremely hard and it wasn’t easy to select the match 23 for each of the three Tests but I’m happy we’ve managed to stick to combinations.”

The only changes are on the bench, where Pat Cilliers comes in for the injured CJ van der Linde and Elton Jantjies replaces Morne Steyn.

“The plan was always to give Elton a run on the tour,” said Meyer. “He’s shown this season that he can play Test rugby. It’s also good for his development to experience the conditions here and to play in front of a big crowd.”

SOUTH AFRICA — Z Kircher; JP Pietersen, J de Jongh, J De Villiers (capt), F Hougaard; P Lambie, R Pienaar; G Steenkamp, A Strauss, J du Plessis, E Etzebeth, J Kruger, F Louw, W Alberts, D Vermeulen. Reps: S Brits, H van der Merwe, P Cilliers, F van der Merwe, M Coetzee, E Jantjies, L Mvovo, J Taute

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