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De Villiers weighs up options after beating

SPRINGBOK coach Peter de Villiers has to weigh up his options ahead of Saturday's second Test against the All Blacks in Wellington.

SPRINGBOK coach Peter de Villiers has to weigh up his options ahead of Saturday's second Test against the All Blacks in Wellington.

With lock Bakkies Botha out of rugby for nine weeks following his head-butt against Jimmy Cowan, he will also have to do without the services of prop Jannie du Plessis, who picked up a calf muscle injury in Saturday's 12-32 loss.

While Andries Bekker will slot easily into Botha's place in the locking position, the replacement of Du Plessis is not so straightforward.

Brendan "BJ" Botha and Christoffel "CJ" van der Linde are the backup props, but both are short of Test match experience after playing in England in recent years.

Botha is recognised as a strong scrummager, but up against the All Blacks' Tony Woodcock he faces one of the best in the business.

Coach De Villiers will be hurt, not so much that his side lost to the All Blacks, but in the manner in which it occurred. Four tries to zero is a comprehensive beating and at no time during the 80 minutes did the Boks even look like threatening the opposition's tryline.

But the coach is putting on a brave face: "The way you lose is not as important as how you stand up from such a defeat. The guys know they didn't perform well, but they remain proud and realise they have hard work ahead of them."

Before boarding their flight last week, De Villiers raised the issue of the long flight and playing a Test match in the same week. Judging by the Boks' performance they were off their game and it appeared that they had not had time to acclimatise.

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