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South Africa's Ruan Pienaar during squad training in London this week. Matt Dunham/AP/Press Association Images
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Springboks unchanged for England clash

Eben Etzebeth is free to play after he was cleared of the eye gouging charge he was cited for against Scotland.

SOUTH AFRICA HAVE named an unchanged starting side for Saturday’s Test against England at Twickenham.

Coach Heyneke Meyer has opted to field the same XV that defeated Scotland 21-10 last week in Edinburgh.

There were doubts surrounding the fitness of winger JP Pietersen and prop Gurthro Steenkamp, but both have been passed fit to face England.

Eben Etzebeth is also free to play after he was cleared of the eye gouging charge he was cited for against Scotland.

While the starting line-up remains the same, Meyer has made two changes to his bench with Pat Cilliers and Elton Jantjies replacing CJ Van der Linde and Morne Steyn respectively.

“It’s great to be able to field an unchanged team,” Meyer said. ”We’ve been able to show some consistency in selection on this tour and that is a good thing.

“The players have worked extremely hard on the training field and it wasn’t easy to select the match 23 for each of the three Tests, but I’m happy that we managed to stick to combinations. The plan was always to give Elton a run on the tour. He’s shown earlier in the season that he can play Test rugby. It’s also good for his development as a player to experience the conditions here and to play in front of a big crowd like Twickenham.”

The match will be a special occasion for captain Jean de Villiers as he becomes the fifth-most capped Springbok of all time when he lines up for his 84th Test.

“I’m very chuffed for Jean,” said Meyer. ”He took over the captaincy in a challenging year and has been a rock in our team. The fact that Jean has played in every Test this season, and finished all of them, is testimony to his amazing resilience and work ethic.

“Jean has been the glue that has kept our team together and for that I salute him.”

South Africa side: Zane Kirchner, JP Pietersen, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers (captain), Francois Hougaard, Pat Lambie, Ruan Pienaar, Gurthro Steenkamp, Adriaan Strauss (vice-captain), Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Juandre Kruger, Francois Louw, Willem Alberts, Duane Vermeulen

Replacements: Schalk Brits, Heinke van der Merwe, Pat Cilliers, Flip van der Merwe, Marcell Coetzee, Elton Jantjies, Jaco Taute, Lwazi Mvovo

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