Coetzee hands Bok debut to Faf de Klerk

Springbok coach Allister Coetzee has named Faf de Klerk as the only uncapped player in the starting team to face Ireland on Saturday at DHL Newlands in Cape Town, while Elton Jantjies has passed a fitness test and will start the first of three Castle Lager Incoming Series Tests between the two countries on the bench.

Coetzee has included six players in the match-23 who did not feature at the Rugby World Cup last year, ushering in a new era for Bok rugby. They are the Emirates Lions quintet of De Klerk, Jantjies, Warren Whiteley, Julian Redelinghuys and Lionel Mapoe, who will earn his first start for the Boks, as well as DHL Stormers hooker Bongi Mbonambi, the only other uncapped player in the match-day squad.