South Africa received a timely injury reprieve at their training base in Wellington on Thursday, when veteran lock Danie Rossouw was cleared for the second Tri-Nations Test against New Zealand on Saturday.

Rossouw, who is set to start his 50th Test alongside Blue Bulls partner Victor Matfield, injured his calf in a training session at Porirua Park earlier this week.

However, he passed a fitness Test on Thursday and was cleared to take his place alongside Matfield in Saturday's crunch match.

The Springbok team, named Tuesday, showed two changes - with prop CJ van der Linde in for the injured Jannie de Plessis at tighthead and Rossouw coming in for the suspended Bakkies Botha.

Stormers giant Andries Bekker would have been promoted to start if Rossouw was ruled out, while young Bulls lock Flip van der Merwe, who joined the tourists from South Africa, would have been on the bench.

Van der Merwe, who has two test caps under his belt, will now remain with the squad. Van der Merwe made his debut against France last month and went on to score a try against Italy in East London.

Du Plessis heard on Wednesday that his calf strain, suffered in the 12-32 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland last week, is serious enough to rule him out for the Boks' two remaining matches on tour - against New Zealand this week and Australia (in Brisbane) a week later.