Youngest of Kriel brothers steps into key Mzansi League role
SPOTLIGHT: The surname Kriel is synonymous with the Springboks and World Cup victories.
Jesse Kriel, with 87 Test caps and two World Cup winners’ medals, also captained the Springboks last year.
His twin brother, Dan Kriel, plays as a centre for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby. Dan previously played for the Lions, Bulls, and Western Province.
There are also two other Kriel brothers, David (a stalwart for the Bulls) and Richard Kriel. They are not related to Jesse and Dan.
However, the lesser-known of the Kriels, Matthew Leon Kriel, is making waves off the field.
Matty, three years junior to the twins Jesse and Dan, has moved rapidly up the administrative ranks.
The Mzansi Rugby League (MRL) accelerated its emergence on the South African rugby landscape with the appointment of Matthew Kriel as its Head of Recruitment.
The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the privately owned league, following the recent announcement of respected referee and player-welfare advocate Rasta Rasivhenge as Head of Player Safety and Welfare, and the launch of MzansiGuard, Africa’s first fully integrated rugby player welfare and safety framework.
After his school days at Maritzburg College, he joined Northwood Crusaders in 2017 and became a stalwart for the Good Guys.
For Kriel, his new role with the MRL represents a chance to address a structural gap he experienced firsthand.
“South Africa has an extraordinary depth of rugby talent,” he says. “
“But the system simply can’t catch everyone. If you get injured at the wrong time or in the wrong place geographically, your window of opportunity can close very quickly.
“The MRL allows us to reopen those windows.”
Kriel represents a cohort of athletes who came close to professional rugby but never quite crossed the final threshold.
A reality shared by thousands of players across the country.
That reality, MRL leadership says, is precisely why he was appointed.
“Matthew understands the margins,” says MRL Chief Commercial Officer, Calvin Smith.
“He knows how small the difference can be between being seen and being missed, between an injury at the wrong time or simply not having the right exposure.
“That insight is invaluable when you’re trying to build a fair and credible recruitment system.”
As Head of Recruitment, Kriel will oversee talent identification across all 16 MRL regions ahead of the league’s inaugural season.
His mandate extends far beyond traditional elite pathways.
The recruitment strategy includes scouting at the high-school level, Varsity Cup and Varsity Shield competitions, amateur club rugby, union youth structures, and non-traditional environments often overlooked by established systems.
Crucially, the brief also includes South African players plying their trade abroad in less prominent rugby markets; countries such as Romania, Georgia, Russia, and other emerging rugby nations where many players have gone in search of opportunity after falling out of the domestic system.
Source @MRL media department
