Fullback, inside centre and flank. Those are the three vacancies in the South African team for Test matches against France, Italy and Ireland this month.

The vacancies are left by Frans Steyn's departure to Racing Metro in France (fullback), Jean de Villiers having joined Munster in Ireland (inside centre) and the injury-enforced absence of flank Juan Smith.

And the rest of the starting XV selects itself.

Bok coach Peter de Villiers, who said that he has already decided on the starting XV for the Test against France in Toulouse on November 13, confirmed that he will stick to his proven formula as closely as possible.

"The guys have proved their worth over the last few years and have not let me down," De Villiers told a media gathering in Pretoria.

"There is an opportunity for some players to force their way into the Test team," he said of the dirt-trackers that will play Leicester Tigers and Saracens.

"However, the starting XV [of the Test team] to face France have already been decided."

Blue Bulls fullback Zane Kirchner, who made his debut in the third Test against the British and Irish Lions, will make his second international appearance in Toulouse.

The wings will be JP Pietersen, who will replace Odwa Ndungane after the latter stood in when Pietersen was injured against Australia in Perth, and Bryan Habana.

Jaque Fourie will start at outside centre, while the Bok coach has been grooming Adi Jacobs to take over from De Villiers at inside centre. Jacobs has come on as a replacement at inside centre in the last five Tests, with his previous 13 Test appearances having been at outside centre.

However, Jacobs did start at inside centre for the Boks in three Tests - against the United States in 2001, against France in Marseilles in 2002 and Scotland in Edinburgh in 2002.

Morné Steyn (No.10) and Fourie du Preez (No.9) have wrapped up the halfback positions.

Equally, Pierre Spies (No.8), Heinrich Brüssow (flank), Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha (at lock), John Smit (tighthead), Bismark du Plessis (hooker) and Tendai Mtawarira (loosehead prop) select themselves.

Schalk Burger appears to be the frontrunner to partner Brüssow and Spies in the loose forwards, following his impressive performance in the last Tri-Nations Test. His two previous appearances were off the bench, before Smith got injured. And before that he served an eight-week ban for his facial massage on B&I Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald.

Another noteworthy development with the Test team is that the 15 players in the starting XV will only fly into Toulouse two days before the Test.

The other 22 players, who will be involved in the Leicester clash next Friday, will leave for England on Tuesday, November 3.

The Test team members will train in South Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday, then take a deserved break and regather next Sunday.

They will train on South African soil on the Monday and Tuesday and only fly out to France on the Wednesday.

That Wednesday afternoon they will have light "flush-out" in Toulouse, have the captain's run on the Thursday and play the Friday night.

This is a similar pattern to that followed for the away leg of the Tri-Nations, where the Boks arrived in Perth just two days before beating the Wallabies.

The advantages are manifold - the actual tour gets shortened by about 10 days, the players get to spend some much needed R&R with their families and the players get to prepare in familiar surroundings.

"The guys have been playing constant rugby for some time now and some time off at home will be a lot more valuable that a week on tour when they are not even playing," the Bok coach said.

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