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Veteran centre Jesse Kriel says he appreciates his place in the Springbok squad even more these days.The 32-year-old, who is set to win his 88th Test cap against England in their opening Nations Championship contest at Ellis Park on Saturday, told journalists his drive for the green and gold has grown stronger over the years. “I think the motivation just gets more and more as you go on because you realise that what you have here when you’re young, you don’t think will ever come to an end — when you get older, you realise you can play only until a certain age. “So each day gets more and more special,” said the outside centre. “I think we’ve also got a really special group of guys that have come a long way together and continue to try to build something special. It’s just so lekker every day, just spending time with some of your best friends and guys whom you really enjoy. I suppose going to work with.”Kriel and inside centre Damian de Allende already own the national record for most starts at midfield together, but they will stretch that to 42 on Saturday. Kriel praised his partner, who has competed in 97 Tests to date. “I said to him when we got back to the room after training, I just said, because sometimes you obviously are centres or split on the field, and one guy’s on one side of the field, and I just said, it’s such a privilege to be able to watch him do what he does on the field. “I always say that the best players look like they’ve got so much time on the ball. A guy like Damian — he’s got so much time on the ball, and he’s so good, and he just makes things look easy. “First, he’s very selfless; he always puts the team first and he really loves this team. So I think if he can continue to do that, I still think he’s got the potential to play a lot of Test matches. That’s obviously in the back of your head. With every Test match you go into, you’ve got a certain game plan; you go into the game with it, and you want to execute that— Jesse Kriel“He’s a very special player.”Kriel was part of the Bok team that was thumped 22-38 by Australia at Ellis Park last year, a score they don’t want to repeat this weekend. “We knew we got that Test wrong in certain ways, and we didn’t drive the game as well as we wanted to,” said Kriel, who played outside André Esterhuizen in that outing. “That’s obviously in the back of your head. With every Test match you go into, you’ve got a certain game plan; you go into the game with it, and you want to execute that. “So we definitely are aware of playing the game we want to and doing things on our terms. I don’t think it’ll be any different this week. I think every Test match you go into with a plan and you want to execute that as well as you can. “That’ll definitely be a big focus for us going into this weekend.”
