Sebastian de Klerk has had to take a longer road to get into the Springbok set-up, but now he can’t wait to “just absorb everything and just to enjoy the moment”.
The Bulls right wing was one of the 56 players included in the Bok group named last week for the first alignment camp of the year in Cape Town in early March.
The 24-year-old De Klerk hails from Durbanville in Cape Town and attended Boland Agricultural School in Paarl. But instead of coming through the ranks at Western Province and the Stormers, De Klerk had to forge his way into provincial rugby at the Pumas in Mpumalanga.
He was so good for over three years, mainly as an outside centre, that Bulls boss Jake White signed him in 2023.
De Klerk has continued that upward trend in Pretoria, even though he has largely played in the No 14 jersey instead of No 13. Now that he has been rewarded for his good form, he intends to make the most of it at the Bok camp.
“Obviously, I’m very excited – over the moon, actually! So, it’s such an opportunity, just to be looked at. To hear your name in that squad and read your name in that squad is unbelievably humbling,” De Klerk said on Tuesday, ahead of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld (2pm kick-off).
“You have the opportunity to learn from coaches that have won two World Cups, and to be in an environment with players that has an extraordinary amount of experience.
“I’m really excited to go and learn, just absorb everything and just to enjoy the moment.
“Everyone works so hard for that, and to be able to be in that situation, you just don’t want to let yourself down, or the coaches that have picked you. It’s just to go and learn, keep your feet on the ground and keep working hard at your club as well.”
Asked by Independent Media whether he would try to remind Bok coach Rassie Erasmus that he is actually an outside centre, De Klerk giggled: “No! For the first camp, I will just be on my place and listen, and take it all in and enjoy it.
“I don’t think I would do something like that.”
De Klerk missed out on last week’s 29-19 defeat to the Sharks in Pretoria, but is hopeful of the Bulls shoring up their defence against the dangerous Lions attack.
“Against the Sharks, I think we lost the kicking game – they beat us with the contesting (in the air),” he said.
“We made a lot of mistakes against them, and that resulted in us being on the back foot all the time, and under pressure the whole time. We never really got in control of the game. But many of the things are easy things to sort out. It’s about making the rucks slower, doing our folding better, and to make your individual tackles.
“I don’t think we are in crisis mode, but we are definitely working on the things we got wrong. The big thing we are trying to pay attention to is to just control what we can control – (like) the penalties that we (avoid giving away).”