Jean-Luc du Preez is parched. Starved of what he wants, which is to play for the Springboks. So it goes without saying then that he is one player in particular for whom Saturday’s return Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash with Australia is more than just another rugby match.
Although he has accumulated 16 test caps for his country, and played No 8 in the opening Bok match of the current international season, which was a non-test game against the Barbarians at the same DHL Stadium venue as Saturday’s match, 30-year-old Du Preez hasn’t started a test for the Boks since Siya Kolisi’s debut game as captain against England in Johannesburg in 2018.
So it has been a long barren seven years of famine for the product of Kearsney College in KZN, and that has added to the significance for him of what has become a crucial game for South African rugby.
“It is a big game for the team but it is also my first test starting in seven years, so that speaks for itself,” said Du Preez. “I would like to do the best for the team, to get us on the front foot.”
𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Rassie Erasmus has made a host of changes to his Springbok team that will face the Wallabies in the second match of #TheRugbyChampionship on Saturday 🇿🇦🚨#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/sx6523c0Pb
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 19, 2025
He did that very effectively at DHL Stadium against the Barbarians, with his carries helping to create the platform for a big win. But unfortunately for Du Preez he was injured just before halftime, otherwise he could well have ended that game as man of the match.
“It does help that I played for the Boks there in my last game and it went quite well, it gives me confidence, but at the same time that was two-and-a-half months ago now and there has been a lot of prep and a lot of changes since then,” he said.
The passing of time in a career that promised so much more from an international viewpoint when he was excelling for the Sharks together with twin brother Dan as a youngster a decade ago seems to be something that Du Preez has been very aware of.
“I’ve been thinking quite a bit this week because of the result last week and there is a lot of pressure on us. For me to come in not having started for seven years is big. I have tried not to think of the outside noise too much and have just tried to get my prep right during the week so I can make the most of this opportunity I have been given.
“You do think it might not come again. Your mind is a powerful thing. There were times that I was thinking should I just give up on the springboks but then I realised I would never be able to do that. It has taken quite a while for me to start again, seven years, but then you can never take this for granted and when you get your shot you must take it.”
Du Preez watched from the stands at Emirates Airlines Park as the Wallabies stormed back from a big early deficit to win the opening game of the Championship 38-22 and he is under no illusions about the extent of the challenge he and his teammates will face on Saturday.
“We will be expecting much of he same (when it comes to what the Wallabies will bring). To be honest we need to give the Aussie a lot of credit. There turnover attack cut us up a little bit in Johannesburg so we have been working hard on defence. We’ve also been working on the breakdown, but then we were before last week because we know Fraser McReight is an excellent fetcher.
“So we need to have some urgency getting into the breakdown. We are focusing on getting in before the breakdown has formed.”
Du Preez says he hasn’t yet discussed the game with his father Robert, who was a Springbok scrumhalf in the 1990s and also a Sharks coach early in his playing career, or for that matter his siblings, the Sales Sharks duo of Dan and Robert (junior), but is expecting to have a chat with them later in he week as the game gets nearer.
Although he hasn’t started for the Boks since that first game of Kolisi’s captaincy, he did play off the bench in the remaining two games of that series against England in Bloemfontein and Cape Town, and was also part of the South Africa A team that played the Bulls at the DHL Stadium during the 2021 British and Irish Lions series. Du Preez was an initial member of the Bok squad for that series but was one of the players released when it started.
His debut for the Boks at test level was when he came off the bench against Wales in Cardiff at the end of the 2016 end of year tour under the coaching of Allister Coetzee. He should have good memories of Cape Town that extend beyond his performance here against the Barbarians as he scored a try when the Boks narrowly lost to the All Blacks (25-24) at Newlands in 2017.