Springbok coach Peter de Villiers looks set to pull a sneaky move on the All Blacks ahead of Saturday's Tri-Nations Test.

According to media reports emanating from the Bok team's training base in Wellington Patrick Lambie will start at flyhalf and the seasoned Morné Steyn at fullback.

In the original team announcement on Thursday Lambie was named to make his first Test start in the No.15 jersey.

However, repots suggest Lambie was running at No.10 in the team's final training session and Steyn at No.15 - a position in which he has made just a couple appearances for the Bulls.

The latest move seems to suggest that earlier reports, which indicated that Steyn's World Cup dream is about to be shattered, may not be so far-fetched.

The record-breaking Bok pivot, Steyn, won the 2009 series against the B&I Lions, as well as the Tri-Nations championships which his intuitive play and booming boot.

However, his form this year has been well below par and last week against the Wallabies both he and scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar - the latter a 2007 World Cup winner - looked well short of the expected standards.

The prospect of Steyn missing the World Cup mix first emerged when Bok coach Peter de Villiers opted to leave World Cup-winning flyhalf Butch James at home to 'rehabilitate' with 20-odd other Boks at a training camp in Rustenburg.

That suggested James was the coach's first-choice at flyhalf and has placed Steyn under pressure.

De Villiers made no secret of that on Thursday, when he addressed a media gathering in Wellington.

"Some tough decisions will have to be made before the World Cup and for him [Steyn], as for any of the players on the park on Saturday, it might be a last chance or the only chance, so we hope he can rediscover the form that made him so invincible in 2009," the Bok coach said

Steyn has limited experience at fullback but would be up for the challenge, desperate to do anything he can to keep his World Cup dreams alive.

Steyn will still have goalkicking responsibilities and that could ultimately be his lifeline.

He is a class act kicking points and the Boks will surely be reluctant to throw that away for the World Cup where they have a successful history of succeeding through the boot.

De Villiers acknowledged that, but also gave Steyn tentative backing for this major challenge on Saturday.

"Morné has a lot of good attributes, but one that stands out, is his organisational ability," De Villiers said.

"He's a very level-headed youngster who took to Test rugby very quickly. He is also very knowledgeable about the game so he is a great player to have.

"But all of us go through patches in our lives, especially our players, and then they need people to back them."