Despite rejecting regulation eight, the Boks are taking full advantage of it

Jean Kleyn has been a wanted man for a couple of years now, since World Rugby changed its regulation eight rule which now allows players who have represented a national team to switch nationalities if they meet certain criteria.

Although SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was at pains to explain that the Springboks had been against the law change when asked by World Rugby, he was quick to admit that as soon as it changed they immediately looked at how they could take advantage of it.

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And the first player that is set to benefit from that change in respect to the Springboks is Kleyn, who is set to be a part of their Rugby Championship squad once World Rugby clears the request.

“Our selection committee has been monitoring players for a long time. When Regulation eight was changed, we had a chance to give input and we actually voted against that. And then World Rugby decided that you can change the national team that you play for,” explained Erasmus.

“So immediately, when we saw that, we put a guy like Jean Kleyn on our radar and we started monitoring him as well. Since he was now a player who was available.

“He is a monster of a guy and has played with RG (Snyman). We (Erasmus and Nienaber) coached him at Munster and he came right through the South African structures but he wasn’t available. And now he is available.”

Incredible depth

While the Boks have incredible depth at lock, even leaving talented players like Ruan Nortje and Jason Jenkins, who were both part of the national setup last season, out, Kleyn now gives them another option especially with the Boks having been unlucky on the injury front in big tournaments.

“He has won the United Rugby Championship, he knows most of the players here and as I say, we’ve always got all these locks but every time we’ve gone to finals we have suffered injuries,” said Erasmus.

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“We lost Lood (De Jager) in the final of the previous World Cup in the 20th minute and Sous (Franco Mostert) immediately went on. Our locks are really physical in the way we play the game. We felt we never had enough guys there,” he added.

“And with RG getting the role there at Munster, calling the line-outs at five, which he didn’t do before when he was with us, he got that experience of playing four and five lock.

“We felt that’s a great cover for him, Marvin (Orie), Franco (Mostert) and Lood. And now obviously they have the luxury of RG, Eben and Jean, who have been able to play front lock. That just really bolsters our squad.”

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