Cape Town - Jesse Kriel will make his Springbok debut in a young, attack-minded backline preparing to launch into action against the World XV at Newlands on Saturday (kick-off 5pm).
“Jesse is an unbelievably exciting player, I’ve always rated him,” said Bok coach Heyneke Meyer after naming Kriel to start at outside centre in South Africa’s season-opener.
There are nine changes to the side that lost 12-6 to Wales at the end of last year and three of those are in the No10, 12 and 13 jerseys.
“It’s great to see Handré Pollard, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel (as a combination) – there’s a lot of excitement there, and I can’t wait to see them get going.”
Meyer was also happy to welcome back Jean de Villiers to the matchday squad for the first time since the 106-Test midfielder suffered a serious knee injury in Cardiff last year.
It was feared the Bok skipper would not recover in time for the World Cup, and Meyer hailed the commitment shown by the player and medical team to a rigorous rehabilitation program that has restored De Villiers in time to make an anticipated 20-minute contribution off the bench this week.
South Africa’s most-capped player, Victor Matfield, will lead the team until De Villiers reclaims his place in the starting line-up.
Uncapped tighthead prop Vincent Koch will be itching to make his Bok debut from among the replacements, though his excitement may have been tempered by the news that Stormers teammate and fellow Bok hopeful, Steven Kitshoff has been booked off for at least four weeks with a knee injury suffered in training this week.
Injuries have also accounted for bruisers Duane Vermeulen and Willem Alberts, and Meyer has deployed a back row made up of Lions No8 Warren Whiteley, Bath fetcher Francois Louw and Sharks openside flanker Marcell Coetzee on the blindside.
The wide corps does have the experience of scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar (80 Tests) and wingers JP Pietersen (59) and Bryan Habana (106), but there are a total of 12 caps between 23-year-old De Allende and Pollard and Kriel, both 21.
“Whatever they lack in experience, they make up for in excitement,” Meyer said of the new-look 10-12-13 axis. “Obviously they’re going to make mistakes because they’ve never played together ... but Jesse is probably one of the most talented players I’ve ever coached and this is a great opportunity for him. I think he could go on to be one of the best outside centres South Africa has ever produced.
“I was involved in signing him to the Bulls where I worked with him when the senior team used to run lines against the Under-19s in training. He’s got an acceleration that I haven’t seen in a lot of players, and I like my outside centre to be able to take the outside gap, which not a lot of guys can do.”
Kriel’s ability to take the outside gap was under-utilised by the Bulls during the Super Rugby competition where he spent the season returning kicks from fullback. Part of the reason for his surprise selection at outside centre is because Jaque Fourie and Lionel Mapoe were not available.
Fourie is not expected to feature for the Boks in the coming weeks as he has returned to Japanese club Kobe Steelers to continue with a conditioning program. And Mapoe, the Lions strike-runner, is at least one week away from reaching ‘the safe zone’, having recently recovered from a knee injury.
The World XV line-up is set to be announced on Thursday.
The Star