One giant leap for Kleyn
Young Stormers lock Jean Kleyn will be straight in at the deep end on his Super Rugby debut when he faces Victor Matfield's Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
A plague of lock injuries in Cape Town means that the 20-year-old will front up alongside his WP Under-21 lock partner from last year's champion side Ruan Botha.
Kleyn matriculated at Linden High School in Johannesburg in 2011 and enrolled for Mechanical Engineering in Stellenbosch the following year, coming off the bench for Maties U20s in the first-ever Varsity Young Guns Final before going on to play for WP U19 and WP U21 later that year.
With seven locks currently sidelined through injury, the Stormers have had to turn to Kleyn and Botha who as the U21 combination from last year are effectively their fourth-choice pairing.
With the likes of Eben Etzebeth, De Kock Steenkamp, Manuel Carizza, Rynhardt Elstadt, Michael Rhodes, Gerbrandt Grobler and Jurie van Vuuren all out of action Kleyn finds himself on debut against a legend of the game in Matfield which skipper Schalk Burger says could not have been scripted better.
"I don't think you need too much motivation going up to Loftus, if you look at a guy like Jean Kleyn you can't scrip it any better, he is playing against Victor Matfield, it is a boyhood dream come true.
"It is a great starting point playing against probably the best modern lock forward and you as a youngster making your debut for the Stormers, it gives you a pretty good idea of where you can go," he said.
Burger recalled a similar experience on his Super Rugby debut, and added that the key is to embrace the challenge of measuring yourself against the best.
"I remember I was in that position when I played against Owen Finnegan in my first game at Newlands.
"If you want to be a professional player, and obviously all of us have got aspirations to play for the Springboks and be the best you can be.
"You want to measure yourself against the best and I think it brings the best out of individuals," he said.
At 2.02 metres tall and 110kg Kleyn will certainly not lack for physicality, and coach Allister Coetzee said that although it is a massive challenge going up against Matfield in the line-outs he just needs to stick to his strengths.
"He is an out-and-out four lock who hits the rucks well. His line-out jumping ability obviously will be tested, but he is a good jumper in front and he does the donkey work hard.
"We don't expect him to play the full 80 minutes, but he is a confrontational player.
"We have got good targets in the line-outs, they are big boys and they played together at Under-21 level when they won the tournament last year so hopefully that partnership can continue," he said.
Although it seems the most daunting debut possible for a young lock Kleyn is only likely to play for the first hour so he can give it a full go without expectation being too high, and possibly make a case for being higher than eighth-choice.
By Michael de Vries
