Wales and Dragons hooker Elliot Dee has been called up to represent the Barbarians for their upcoming game against world champions South Africa. The Dragons confirmed the news on Tuesday, with Dee having flown to South Africa to join up with his team-mates ahead of the match on Saturday. The two teams will face off at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth (2pm BST).
Dee will join the likes of Kyle Sinckler, Duhan van der Merwe, TJ Perenara and Andrew Kellaway in the Baa-baas squad, which will be led by Scott Robertson. They will face Wales at Twickenham after their clash with the Springboks. Newbridge-born Dee has previously faced the Barbarians for Wales at Principality Stadium and when he played for the World XV at Twickenham in May 2023.
For the Springboks, Faf de Klerk has been named in Rassie Erasmus' matchday 23 to face the famous invitational side. Erasmus said: “We said from the outset that we wanted to give a few players returning from injury and others who have been playing overseas game time in this match, while at the same time exposing some of the younger players on our radar to top-class international rugby, and we believe this squad reflects those objectives.
“We have been very impressed with the way the new players have jumped straight into action and grasped our systems and structures, and we are excited to see what they can do alongside some of our regular Springbok players, as we build for what will be a challenging season with the Nations Championship and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series approaching.”
Of the Barbarians, Erasmus added: “They have a group of exciting and experienced players in their squad, and they’ll come out guns blazing and try to produce an entertaining style of rugby, which will serve as a good test for us. They will challenge us, but this will be a good hit-out for our players to get back into top-level international rugby, with the England match a little over two weeks ago. That said, they are always a tough side to analyse because they have players from all around the world, and a quality coaching team, who will set high standards for them, so it will be important for us to focus on our game and what we would like to achieve.”
Springboks team
Starting XV: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Quan Horn, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Riley Norton, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Paul de Villiers, 21 Evan Roos, 22 Faf de Klerk, 23 Vusi Moyo
