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Kriel an injury concern for Boks

Kriel picked up "niggles" to his knee and ankle and had to be replaced by Ruan Combrinck halfway through the Boks' 31-all draw with the Barbarians at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday.

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The 22-year-old will go for scans to determine the extent of the injury ahead of the meeting with Eddie Jones' England side.

Meanwhile, head coach Allister Coetzee praised his young side for their fighting spirit in front of an enthusiastic 46 000 strong crowd at Wembley. 

"Obviously not happy with the draw, but there were a lot of pleasing aspects to our game tonight [Saturday]," he said at the post-match media conference.

 

"The first of that is the way we came back in the last 10 to 15 minutes. When you are 11 points behind and you've got a young and inexperienced team, it easily could've gone the other way. But the players showed great fighting spirit to come back.

 

Kriel an injury concern for Boks"I think the other pleasing aspect was the fact that we scored five tries, spotting the space and then we got the ball into that space. And we also left a couple of tries out there," added Coetzee.

 

The Bok coach was also pleased with the set piece, which functioned well. 

"I think our mindset in the first half was probably not as accurate as the way we wanted to play, not like the Barbarians, but to keep putting pressure on their set piece, and getting territory and to play from there.

 

"The most disappointing thing was the amount of possession we turned over, and it's very detrimental against a Barbarians side who are fearless, who have nothing to lose and want to play with the ball.

 

"That is something that we'll have to work hard on this week [for the clash against England]. But having said that, it's been a great game of rugby, and I think the spectators really got value for their money today," according to Coetzee.

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