Jaco Kriel: I’m fully fit and ready to hit top gear again for the Lions

For Springbok and Lions tearaway flanker Jaco Kriel it was all about ticking a few boxes and getting over some hurdles following his high-profile return from England.

With 11 Bok caps and 69 Super Rugby caps behind him, the 31-year-old Kriel joined Gloucester in 2018 after featuring in the three Super Rugby finals for the Lions, but he found his stay in England full of challenges and featured in just 20 games for Gloucester due to injury setbacks.

At the end of last year the former Lions skipper decided to return to his former union, but was faced with the agony of having to undergo ankle surgery which resulted in him putting his return on hold and missing out on the Lions’ Super Rugby campaign before lockdown happened.

But now with the first Super Rugby Unlocked game against the Sharks behind him, Kriel feels ready to take his game to the next level again – starting with this weekend’s match against the powerful Stormers lineup in Cape Town on Saturday.

“There’s a lot more running and physical work involved nowadays than before and it was important that my ankle recovered fully so I could take the knocks and handle the physical aspects of training, but so far everything’s gone well,” said Kriel.

“With the games behind me it doesn’t feel as if I’m too far off my peak. What is challenging though is having to get used to rugby again, like it was before (lockdown), and there’s no doubt the quality of players is getting better all the time.”

Kriel added it was now important for him to forget about the past and ensure he was always at his best for his team.

“There’s new coaches and systems to drive the new culture here at the Lions and I want to embrace it. It’s nice to take on these new challenges with a great group of players, so the ‘gel’ will happen automatically,” he said. “Returning to here wasn’t too difficult, at least, because I didn’t return to a new union where I knew nothing.”

The next challenge for the Lions, after going down to the Sharks in round one of the Super Rugby Unlocked competition in Durban last week, are the Stormers, who’ll be running out for the first time in the competition on Saturday after enjoying a bye in round one.

“We’ve spoken about last weekend, which wasn’t a nice way to kick off the competition. The Sharks are a great team, but we felt their focus was all on the first 25 minutes where they did well to put us on the backfoot,” said Kriel.

“You can’t play catch-up rugby at this level of the game, and while we did well to get back into it, it’ wasn’t enough. But we have a plan for this week; we just need to be sharp in everything we do, and execute properly.”

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