Munster lock Jean Kleyn will officially see his allegiance switched from Ireland to South Africa when the Springboks tackle the Wallabies in the first Castle Lager Rugby Championship test in Pretoria on Saturday.
Kleyn, who started his first-class rugby career with DHL Western Province and the Stormers before following Rassie Erasmus, who was the man who contracted him from WP to Munster, has five Irish caps, the last of which was during the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Erasmus exploited a loophole brought about by a change of a World Rugby regulation by selecting Kleyn into the Rugby Championship training squad, but it will be once he has pulled on the Bok No4 jersey on Saturday and run out onto Loftus that the die will have been cast.
As anticipated, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber has gone with a mix-and-match selection for the opening Championship game, much like Erasmus did in the previous World Cup year, 2019. Back then, at the start of the buildup to the event where South Africa annexed her third World Cup title, there were six players who played in the global final four months later who were part of the team that beat the Wallabies 35-17 at Emirates Airline Park.
Only time will tell how many of Saturday’s players will feature in a World Cup final starting team should the Boks get that far in France, but it can be assumed that the side that plays at Loftus is some way short of being a first-choice team. Several of the frontliners have been rested ahead of the following week’s clash with the All Blacks in Auckland.
As anticipated, Manie Libbok, the Stormers flyhalf, will get his first feel of the Springbok No10 jersey against the Wallabies. He has three caps for his country, but all of them were playing off the bench. The man who wore the No10 on the last end-of-year tour, during which Libbok made his debut, Damian Willemse, will play off the bench at Loftus, probably in preparation for him to play flyhalf against the All Blacks seven days later.
FLYHALF FOCUS
With Handre Pollard not playing in the Championship because of an ankle injury, the pivot position will be a big focus not only at Loftus but also in the two games that follow thereafter. Libbok will be hoping to emulate his Stormers teammate Herschel Jantjies, who scored two tries and made a full fist of his first starting opportunity - it was in fact his debut test - at scrumhalf in the corresponding game in 2019.
While it is not a first-choice team, the Bok side for Loftus is still a strong one, with the likes of Willie le Roux, Lukhanyo Am, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche and Pieter-Steph du Toit all playing. Duane Vermeulen, who missed the end-of-year tour, is also back at No8 and will captain the side in the continued absence of regular captain Siya Kolisi, as he did when the Boks won the 2019 Rugby Championship. Vermeulen will be eager to show that the jersey is still rightfully his in the face of a strong challenge from Jasper Wiese.
Talking of No 8, reserve forward Evan Roos of the Stormers is one of several players who may not be automatic first choices but who starred in the South African win over England at Twickenham last time out. Another is Vodacom Bulls wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, while Stormers lock Marvin Orie wore the No 5 at Twickenham and acquitted himself well. No doubt Lood de Jager or Franco Mostert will be in the frame to wear that jersey in New Zealand.
BENCH SURPRISE
An interesting feature of the Bok bench is not so much the fact that Nienaber has gone with the six/two Bomb Squad split between forwards and backs, because that was expected, but the appearance of both Thomas du Toit and Vincent Koch among the reserves. That is an indication that Du Toit, who is marked down as the No 17, will probably be trading in the build-up to the World Cup in both the tighthead position he converted to a few years ago and in his former position of loosehead prop.
Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, the fit again Eben Etzebeth, De Jager, Mostert, Faf de Klerk, Damian de Allende and Makazole Mapimpi are among a clutch of players who don’t appear in the squad at all and have probably been sent as an advance guard to New Zealand in preparation for the All Black game.
Outside of Kleyn, who does have those five games for Ireland to his name, the next most inexperienced player in international terms in the Bok match-day 23 selected for the Loftus clash is Sharks scrumhalf Grant Williams. Next after that is the Stormers duo of Libbok and Roos, both with three international caps. In the 2019 game there were two debutants in the form of Jantjies and looseforward Rynhardt Elstadt.
RG Snyman will return to the Bok match day squad for the first time since the World Cup final against England in Yokohama in 2019 and will fulfil the same replacement role that he did both then and for Munster in the recent Vodacom United Rugby Championship final against the Stormers in Cape Town.
DON'T MISS A SECOND....
All the action is on SuperSport from this Saturday, 8 July. Get SuperSport on DStv for your front-row seat.
Saturday, 8 July
South Africa v Australia, 5:05pm: CSN, Grandstand and SS Rugby
Argentina v New Zealand, 9:10pm: CSN, Grandstand and SS Rugby