Jesse Kriel to lead Springboks as Siya Kolisi withdraws from Barbarians clash

Coach Rassie Erasmus was forced to make a late change to his Bok team on Friday, following the withdrawal of Siya Kolisi due to an unspecified injury.

Marco van Staden has been drafted straight into the starting lineup as a replacement for Kolisi and will partner up with Vincent Tshituka and Jean-Luc du Preez in the loose trio.

The rest of the squad remains as announced by Erasmus on Tuesday.

This will be the first time Kriel - a veteran of 79 Tests - will lead the Springboks out in battle.

Erasmus recently discussed handing Kriel the vice-captaincy for Saturday's game, while also mentioning his desire to hand the captaincy to one of the younger players this season.

"In this game, Siya will be captain obviously and Jesse will be vice-captain.

"We're thinking that we might save Damian de Allende a little bit and get Andre Esterhuizen on, so hopefully, Jesse goes through and can fill in when Siya goes off.

"If you think about it Pieter-Steph has been captain, Bongi, Eben and Salmaan too, while De Allende has been vice-captain a lot of times.

"I guess when the time is right, we will definitely try. Siya definitely won't play all the matches this year.

"We might pick from one of those guys [the experienced players], but I also think it's time to give some of the young bloods, in certain Test matches, to the feeling of captain the squad," Erasmus added.

"But let's first see how the first game goes before we get to that."

Saturday's match kicks off at 17h10.

Springboks - 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel (c), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Jean-Luc du Preez, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche.

Replacements: 16 Marnus van der Merwe, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Andre Esterhuizen.

READ MORE: Jean-Luc du Preez and Aphelele Fassi relishing Barbarians' challenge