De Villiers putting emotions aside
The experienced midfielder suffered a crippling knee injury against Wales in Cardiff at the end of last year and will return to the Test arena on Saturday when he leads the Springboks out to face Argentina at Kings Park.
It will be his last Test in South Africa at the same venue where he first captained the side back in 2012, but he will be putting all of that out of his mind when the game kicks off as he seeks to show that he still has what it takes at the highest level.
In his absence the rookie centre pairing of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel have been highly impressive, and he will be in between them on Saturday at outside centre with De Allende reatianing the No.12 jersey and Kriel shifting out to the wing.
De Villiers said that while it is very special to be back in the mix, he still has everything to prove with just two matches to go until the World Cup.
"The emotion is out of it now, I have made my comeback and I am not injured anymore.
"I think enough time has been wasted on that, each guy that gets selected now is good enough to play for his country and you take that responsibility and you need to perform and show that the coach actually made a good decision in selecting you.
"It is no different for me or any of the other players and you have to do that week-in and week-out so my task is now to perform," he said.
De Villiers has been impressed with the way that De Allende and Kriel have clicked as a combination so quickly, which he says reminds him of when he and Jaque Fourie first played together as a centre combination for the Springboks.
However, he dismissed the idea that their performances against Australia and New Zealand have put more pressure on him, explaining that he is more concerned with proving to himself that he is still good enough.
"I think they [De Allende and Kriel] have been unbelievable, they really have been fantastic individually and as a combination.
"I was in the same position when Jaque Fourie and I played together for the very first time as a centre combination for South Africa and we just clicked from the start.
"Sometimes you put two great players together and they don't combine well, whereas these guys are individually fantastic and when they were put together they are even better.
"It is great to see and I think as a combination they have really functioned well.
"Every single time you play for South Africa and you represent your country you have to prove that the decision to select you was the right one. That is not just me, that is every single guy that gets selected.
"The fact that the other guys played really well, I don't think that it puts more pressure on me, but for me it is about proving to myself that I am good enough.
"That is more imprtant to be honest, than maybe you guys sitting in this room. I need to prove to myself and the guys that make the decisions and the guys who select the team that I am good enough," he said.
Although he prefers playing at inside centre, he has played at outside centre enough to be confident of performing well, and pointed out that he, De Allende and Kriel are all able to play multiple positions which gives the team valuable versatility.
"I have always said I prefer playing 12 but I don't mind playing 13. I think I am at the stage now where we have got such an exciting backline and we can interchange so much guys can fill in different positions and I think that is quite exciting," he said.
The Bok skipper said that the competition for places throughout the squad is really encouraging, adding that picking a 31-man World Cup squad will be incredibly tough.
"Competition within a team is the best thing you can have if it is approached in the right way and if the attitude of the guys involved is good, and in that regard it has been fantastic within this team.
"The depth in the squad is improving and I think we are going to get to a stage where it is about who to leave out of the 31-man squad for the World Cup rather than who to select and that is a good position to be in," he said.
Looking at what the Springboks are hoping to get out of these next two games against Argentina, De Villiers said that it is vital they gain confidence as a unit ahead of the World Cup.
"It is key for us to get good performances and get some confidence going into these two games that will carry us through into the World Cup, but also try some things and experiment a bit and hopefully those things will come off for us.
"There are still areas that we need to improve and and probably defensively we have had some lapses in concentration over the last few weeks that we need to improve on, but nothing major and we have worked on it in the training sessions and I am confident going into this game.
"For us it is about getting confidence in our game and our approach to the game to get that snowball effect going into the World Cup. There is a lot going on , there are a lot of injuries and uncertainties around players.
"But I think for us it is about focusing on what we want to do and taking the positive from the last few games and rectifying what went wrong in those two games," he added.
By Michael de Vries, in Durban
