Porthen was still playing for the SA U20s last year, and only made his senior Stormers debut earlier this year.
Rookie prop Zachary Porthen is being thrown straight into the deep end, after his first call-up to the Springbok squad was followed by a first selection to the starting XV for their end-of-year-tour clash against Japan at Wembley in London on Saturday.
The 21-year-old former SA U20 captain, Porthen has only played in five senior matches for the Stormers, four off the bench and one starting, and will now have a baptism of fire with his first international outing, thanks to the Boks being light at tighthead due to injuries, unavailability, and players like Vincent Koch and Asenathi Ntlabakanye being left out of the tour party.
Bok coach Rassie Erasmus was on Tuesday asked about the reasoning behind the surprise selection, and said that their hand had been slightly forced, but that they also had full faith in Porthen to step up.
Zach in
“Thomas du Toit isn’t available due to (English) Premiership rules, so we decided to bring Zach in. We wanted to give him a chance next to some really experienced guys like Malcolm (Marx) and Ox (Nche).
“Sometimes getting a young guy in (to the starting lineup) … they come in fearless and just enjoy the moment, but if you put them on the bench the nerves sometimes build up.
“So we will see on Saturday if it’s the right or wrong call. It’s a Japanese team that scrummed well against Australia, so it won’t be an easy game for him.”
Erasmus continued: “He is also one of the few guys that we have had in the group this year that hasn’t had time to adapt to our plays and the way we play, and you don’t want to find that out in the last 20 minutes when you’re trying to win the game.
“So we felt starting him with that lock pairing behind him and great security on the bench was best (for him).”
Lood de Jager and RG Snyman will lock the Bok scrum, while Johan Grobelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp and Wilco Louw are the front row bench sitters on Saturday.
Cheslin at fullback
The other big selection for the Boks is that of veteran wing Cheslin Kolbe at fullback.
This is because Damian Willemse picked up a hamstring niggle last weekend and Aphelele Fassi is injured. Willie le Roux was left out of the tour group.
“I think it was against Ireland in 2022 that he (last) started at fullback for us, and I think he’s started there twice for us,” said Erasmus about the Kolbe selection at 15. “He has also moved to fullback in games for us and has played there in the French Top 14.
“We could have moved Manie (Libbok) or Handre (Pollard) to 10, and Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) to 15. But we just felt we wanted to give some continuity to Sacha at Test match level against different oppositions.
“And with Kurt-Lee (Arendse) back and with Ethan (Hooker) and Canan (Moodie) playing well we had the luxury of giving Cheslin a go at the back.”
