Kleyn to debut against the Wallabies

Coach Nienaber has split his squad for the Rugby Championship with 14 players leaving for New Zealand this week and the remainder staying behind for the test against the Wallabies at Loftus.

Jean Kleyn will make his debut for the Boks partnering with Marvin Orie with RG Snyman on the bench.

Manie Libbok is partnered with Cobus Reinach and Andre Esterhuizen will join his old Sharks partner Lukhanyo Am in the midfield. Duane Vermeulen (also captain of the side) will get another opportunity to show he can still contribute at this level.

Bok teams (like the Sharks) usually take time to work as a cohesive unit on attack, but the pack and forward reserves will want to smash their Wallaby counterparts and deny their runners opportunity to use the ball.

Hopefully we do not see Reinach just box kicking the entire game, but have the Boks use their runners as well. It should be interesting to see how the two mavericks in Libbok and Le Roux combine in the back line.

15 Willie le Roux, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Duane Vermeulen (c), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Subs: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Evan Roos, 21 Deon Fourie, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Damian Willemse.