SOUTH Africa have been forced to change their lineout calls before Saturday’s Rugby World Cup match in Newcastle - because two members of the Scotland squad used to train with them and know their old playbook. The Springboks will still use Afrikaans for the calls, all of which will now be new.

WP Nel and Johan Strauss, both of whom qualify to play for Scotland on residency grounds, were once members of the wider South African squad before moving to the UK. Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer, believing they might remember everything they learned back then, decided he had no option but to go for new calls in an area of the game where his team are particularly strong.

“We had Josh and WP in our training camp three and a half, four years back,” Meyer said after announcing his team for the Pool B match at St James’ Park. “We’ve had to change our calling system just to make sure they don’t remember something. It’s a totally new calling system and totally new lineouts.”

Meyer has chosen scrum-half Fourie du Preez to captain the team in succession to Jean de Villiers, who was ruled out of the tournament and subsequently announced his retiral from international rugby after breaking his jaw in last week’s 46-6 win over Samoa. There are three changes to the starting line-up, with Jesse Kriel replacing De Villiers at outside centre, Bismarck du Plessis replacing Adriaan Strauss at hooker, and Lood de Jager taking over from the injured Victor Matfield at lock.

Jan Serfontein, who came into the 31-man squad in place of De Villiers, is among the backs replacements. Willem Alberts is also on the bench, but his ability to play for longer than around half an hour is still in doubt because of a calf strain that forced him to pull out of the Japan game at the last minute.

Scotland name their team today, and look set to be without playmaker Finn Russell. The stand-off turned an ankle against the United States and has been unable to train properly since. The Scotland camp has also yet to announce whether John Hardie has been passed fit to play after being ruled out of the US game because he failed a head-injury test.

South Africa (v Scotland on Saturday at St James’ Park): W Le Roux; JP Pietersen, J Kriel, D de Allende, B Habana; H Pollard, F du Preez; T Mtawarira, B du Plessis, J du Plessis, E Etzebeth, L de Jager, F Louw, S Burger, D Vermeulen. Substitutes: A Strauss, T Nyakane, F Malherbe, P-S du Toit, W Alberts, R Pienaar, P Lambie, J Serfontein.