South Africa will treat warm-up fixture against Wales as a World Cup game - Jean Kleyn
Jean Kleyn has played five Tests for Ireland before making his Springboks debut in 2022
©Steve Haag
South Africa lock Jean Kleyn said they will be treating the warm-up fixture against Wales on Saturday as the start of the Rugby World Cup.
The Boks started the Rugby Championship competition with a 43-12 win over Australia but endured a 25-30 defeat to the All Blacks in the second round. Since then, they had two narrow victories over Argentina with a one and 11-point margin at Ellis Park and Estadio José Amalfitani respectively.
Kleyn, who won five Ireland caps in 2019 before making his Springboks debut in 2022 emphasised on the importance of building the momentum as they head to France next month for the title defence.
"Everything is at stake, we can’t look at any game over the next 10 or 11 weeks as just another match," Kleyn told reporters.
"Every weekend is the next biggest match of your life, that is how it is regarded by the players.
"We don’t have a lackadaisical outlook to say, 'this is just another warm-up game before the real competition starts’. This is the start of our World Cup."
Wales had a struggling Six Nations tournament where they finished last and have been rocked by retirements to Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb.
Nevertheless, they redeemed themselves in the two warm-up games against England which they went on to register a 20-9 win in Cardiff followed by a narrow 17-19 defeat at Twickenham Stadium and Kleyn is wary of Warren Gatland's team.
"We won’t change our game plan for them, we will look to impose ourselves as a pack and let’s see how they handle that," he added.
