Johannesburg — The Springboks management sprung a bit of a surprise on Monday when they called upon Bulls wing Canan Moodie as back-up for their outside backs in their Rugby Championship squad.
The move was necessitated by the four-week ban of Kurt-Lee Arendse and the continued injury of Cheslin Kolbe. On Tuesday, at the Bok team announcement for the second Rugby Championship match against New Zealand this weekend, head coach Jacques Nienaber clarified why the decision was made when it could be argued that in such an instance, Aphelele Fassi should have been picked instead of the teenager.
“We, as a coaching group, have scanned and written performance analysis on probably 60 to 70 players and he has been on our radar for quite some time, like Kurt-Lee and all the younger guys that we have in our mix now,” Nienaber said.
“In terms of Aphelele, we know now what we have and he has been exposed to this environment before. He spent the whole year with us (in 2021) in all the various bubbles. He has a good idea of how we operate.
“This will be the first time that Canan is with us in our environment. For him, it is just to learn, to enjoy the experience and to impress us as much as he can (by getting to know the players and getting to know and understand the coaches).
“The thinking behind bringing (Moodie) into the squad is because we really like what we see in him and what he produced with the Bulls (in the United Rugby Championship this past season). He has played some good rugby,” Nienaber added.
Moodie, 19, will play no role in the upcoming match against the All Blacks this weekend. Instead, Nienaber selected utility-back Jesse Kriel to slot into the No 14 jersey for the second clash in as many weekends between the two nations.
Kriel was one of five changes to the starting XV, which will also see the return of Duane Vermeulen at the back of the scrum.
“The main thing with Jesse is he brings a lot of experience – over 50 Test caps,” Nienaber explained of that particular selection. “He understands our system, he understands how we do things and that is the main thing.”
The Boks dominated the All Blacks in the first clash this past weekend, winning 26-10 at Mbombela Stadium. They will hope to continue that trend and make it a treble of consecutive victories over their old foe on Saturday at Ellis Park (5pm kickoff).
The All Blacks, meanwhile, will name their matchday 23 for the clash on Thursday.
IOL Sport