Matthew Kriel, the younger brother of twins Jesse and Dan, has been appointed head of recruitment for the Mzansi Rugby League.

Springbok veteran and two-time World Cup winner Jesse is the most famous of the Kriel brothers, earning 87 Test caps and captaining the Springboks on occasion last year. His twin Dan plays as a centre for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby. Dan had previously played for the Lions, Bulls, and Western Province.

Matthew, three years junior of to his twin brothers, has moved rapidly up the administrative ranks.

His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the privately-owned MRL, following the recent announcement of respected referee and player-welfare advocate Rasta Rasivhenge as head of player safety and welfare, and the launch of MzansiGuard, Africa’s first fully integrated rugby player welfare and safety framework.

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For Kriel, his new role with the MRL, represents a chance to address a structural gap he experienced firsthand.

“South Africa has an extraordinary depth of rugby talent,” he says. “But the system simply can’t catch everyone. If you get injured at the wrong time or in the wrong place geographically, your window of opportunity can close very quickly. The MRL gives us the opportunity to reopen those windows.”

The Mzansi Rugby League has ARRIVED.

16 city-based teams. 9 provinces. One professional, unaffiliated independent league.

• Earn R15,000 – R30,000 per month
• Premium medical aid fully covered

Link to trial registration form: https://t.co/2jkKxi3oQB#mzansirugbyleague #mrl pic.twitter.com/QH4FbFFEQC

— Mzansi Rugby League (@mzansirugby) September 12, 2025

After his school days at Maritzburg College, he joined Northwood Crusaders in 2017 and became a stalwart for the Good Guys. Kriel represents a cohort of athletes who came close to professional rugby but never quite crossed that threshold – a reality shared by thousands of players across the country.

That reality, MRL leadership says, is precisely why he was appointed.

“Matthew understands the margins,” says MRL chief commercial officer Calvin Smith. “He knows how small the difference can be between being seen and being missed, between an injury at the wrong time or simply not having the right exposure.

“That insight is invaluable when you’re trying to build a fair and credible recruitment system.”

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As head of recruitment, Kriel will oversee talent identification across all 16 MRL regions ahead of the league’s inaugural season.

His mandate extends far beyond traditional elite pathways. The recruitment strategy includes scouting at high-school level, Varsity Cup and Varsity Shield competitions, amateur club rugby, union youth structures, and non-traditional environments often overlooked by established systems.

Crucially, the brief also includes South African players plying their trade abroad in less prominent rugby markets, in countries such as Romania, Georgia, Russia and other emerging rugby nations where many players have gone in search of opportunity after falling out of the domestic system.

Photo: MRL