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Cape Town - Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is excited by the prospect of seeing flank Kwagga Smith facing the All Blacks.
Smith will play only his second Test, having made his debut in the 22-20 loss to Wales in Washington DC last year.
But an impressive Super Rugby season with the Lions has catapulted the former Blitzbok into the starting XV for Saturday's encounter in Wellington.
After naming his team on Wednesday, Erasmus told reporters that - unlike against Wales - he's had a proper chance to prepare Smith for the Test.
"It (the Wales Test) was a tough one with only two or three days of preparation. So I haven't really had a chance to coach Kwagga into a proper Test match, because we also had to split our resources before that specific match as we played England the following week... so it was tough. Now we have had two weeks of proper coaching before he will play for us," the coach said.
Erasmus described Smith as "energetic, optimistic and a ball-player".
"He has a big engine on him. Obviously he is not one of the biggest guys but if you take people like Sam Cane and those kinds of players, he matches them size-wise. He has a big heart and is a great team man and I think what he does on attack and defence matches any other player in Super Rugby.
"It is going to be very interesting to see what he does at a Test-match level, having had a proper build-up which he didn't have last year for that Wales Test."
Saturday’s Test is scheduled for 09:35 (SA time).
Teams:
New Zealand
TBA
South Africa
15
Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende,
11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Duane
Vermeulen (captain), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Kwagga Smith, 5 Franco
Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven
Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Francois Louw, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Frans Steyn, 23 Jesse Kriel
