Jordan Hendrikse’s chance to join queue for Bok No 10 jersey

The Springbok flyhalf bonanza continues this weekend when Jordan Hendrikse becomes the third different starting flyhalf of the world champions’ end-of-year-tour when they take on Wales in Cardiff on Saturday night.

Jordan will link up with his brother, scrumhalf Jaden, as the team’s halfback pairing, as they become the 36^th set of brothers to represent the Springboks.

They will be the first brother pairing since Dan and Robert du Preez played together, also against Wales in Washington DC in 2018, and the first starting brothers since Jannie and Bismarck du Plessis against Scotland in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Fantastic opportunity

For Jordan it is a fantastic opportunity to establish himself as a real option for the Boks at pivot going forward, after he initially was not picked for the tour to the UK.

He made his Bok debut in the one-off Test against Wales at Twickenham in June, but did not feature again throughout the season, and did not make the initial squad.

But with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu ruled out of the tour, and a late injury to Damian Willemse seeing him withdraw, the Boks’ flyhalf options were reduced, so when Frans Malherbe became the final Bok player withdrawn from the squad with injury, Jordan was finally brought in.

Handre Pollard is still the Boks’ first choice No 10, and it seemed like Feinberg-Mngomezulu had jumped ahead of Manie Libbok in the pecking order before he was injured against the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship.

Hendrikse will thus have Libbok in his sights as he attempts to impress the Bok management with another outing against the Welsh.

In all, the Boks have made seven changes to their starting XV from the one that faced England at Twickenham last weekend, with hooker Johan Grobbelaar and lock Jean Kleyn, who also have yet to feature on tour, coming into the starting side.

Loose forward Cameron Hanekom will also become the Boks 12^th debutant of the season when he makes his appearance off the bench during the match.

Anything can happen

Coach Rassie Erasmus explained that they had named a strong team for the match as anything can happen, despite the poor form Wales have been in over the year, with them losing all 10 games so far this season.

“Wales are a proud nation with a world-renowned coach in Warren Gatland, and they’ll do everything to finish their campaign on a high note,” said Erasmus.

“We’ve experienced first-hand how a run of defeats can galvanise a team, and the fact that they’ll be playing at home with a passionate crowd behind them will inspire them even more.”

“Obviously we’d love to finish the tour unbeaten, but we are well aware of the fact that we’ve have a few close results against them over the years at the Principality Stadium.”

 Erasmus explained that many sides have turned their fortunes around, using the Wallabies as an example, after they were thumped 40-6 by Wales in last year’s World Cup while not making the quarterfinals.

This year they have beaten Wales three times, twice at home and by a record 52-20 margin in Cardiff over this past weekend, while they also upset England at Twickenham 42-37 a week before that.

“A lot can change in rugby with a change in confidence and mindset, and Australia is a perfect example of how things can change in the sport if one considers how well they are playing now compared to last year,” said Erasmus.

“So, we’ll show Wales the same respect we showed England and Scotland, and we know we know we have to be at our best to come out with the result we want.”