The 38-year-old lock will bring the curtain down on his illustrious global career when he captains South Africa against Argentina in Friday’s World Cup third place play-off at London’s Olympic Stadium. “The Rugby Championship? I don’t think so”. “I considered fielding a much-changed team and weighed the pros and cons but ultimately decided the team that has grown together over the past few weeks was the one with the best chance of delivering victory for our supporters”, Meyer said. Matfield dragged himself back to the field of play in 2014 to bolster this World Cup bid but, at 38, will not continue past the tournament.
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For Australian penguin lovers, if the staff at The National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham are to be believed.
Despite putting up strong performances all throughout the Rugby World Cup, the Pumas failed to overcome a strong Australian team to reach the RWC final round for the first time in Argentina’s history. Well, it’s a cute photo so where’s the harm… “Teams over the years have fought very hard to position themselves as the third best side”.
“Yes, we were bitterly disappointed that we lost against the All Blacks in the semi-final last weekend because our aim was to win the World Cup, but hopefully after tomorrow’s match we can look each other in the eyes, say we are proud South Africans and that we will never give up”.
A broad hint indeed from the 32-year-old who later added the following in response to a question as to his plans for 2016: “I will be back in Japan next week, then with the Stormers next year”.
However, the defensive efforts of Meyer’s men have been warrior-like. The Super Rugby victor is top of South Africa’s try-scoring charts, 26 tries ahead of Joost van der Wethuizen in second place.
“Everyone in the team has utmost respect for him”.
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Trevor Nyakane, 18-Jannie du Plessis, 19-Lood de Jager, 20-Willem Alberts, 21-Rudy Paige, 22-Pat Lambie, 23-Jan Serfontein.
Argentina: Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Santiago Cordero, Matias Moroni, Jeronimo De La Fuente, Horacio Agulla, Nicolas Sanchez (capt), Tomas Cubelli; Marcos Ayerza, Julian Montoya, Ramiro Herrera, Matias Alemanno, Tomas Lavanini, Javier Ortega Desio, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Juan Manuel Leguizamon.
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Replacements: 16-Lucas Noguera, 17-Juan Pablo Orlandi, 18-Juan Figallo, 19-Guido Petti, 20-Facundo Isa, 21-Martin Landajo, 22-Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23-Juan Pablo Socino.
