Who is the 'wrecking machine' tipped for England breakthrough against Springboks?

Bristol’s 41-26 defeat to Saracens dealt them a blow as they chase the Gallagher PREM play-offs, handing fourth-placed Exeter Chiefs the opportunity to open up a six-point gap if they beat Bath on Sunday, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max, while allowing Saracens to close to just three points behind the Bears with a vastly better points difference.

Yet in the midst of a performance that frustrated Bears director of rugby Pat Lam, who watched his side ship four tries in 12 minutes in an ultimately fatal spell, the Bristol set piece once again stood out as a bright spot.

Bristol have now only lost one scrum on their own feed in four matches with Kloska starting and recorded a perfect record against 2024 European champions Toulouse, winning three against the head in the same spell.

And following another rampaging performance away from the set-piece for Kloska, Flatman backed Kloska to potentially make an impact in South Africa.

"Kloska for me gets better and better and better at tighthead,” the TNT Sports expert said.

”For me, he is the sort of guy that just might quietly sneak onto the plane for Johannesburg in July with England. I think the scrum is a big thing, he’s a big man but he is not a giant tighthead especially when you are playing against South Africa.

”But you are seeing him struggle less and less, he is starting to dominate here and there at scrum time, around the field he’s a wrecking machine, big engine, big fan of watching him develop at the moment. I bet he is too because massive strong tightheads do not grow on trees. Unless you are in South Africa."

Kloska was called into Borthwick’s 2026 Six Nations squad and used as a travelling reserve after taking on Ireland XV for England A in 2025 but he is yet to win a full Test cap.

However Fin Baxter and Will Stuart, the only tighthead props under contract in England’s enhanced Elite Player Squad, remain sidelined by injury with Stuart set to miss the South Africa tour.

Trevor Davison is also sidelined meaning Joe Heyes, Billy Sela and Asher Opoku-Fordjour - who have just 28 caps between them - are the only other contenders for the South Africa tour from the Six Nations squad.

The versatile Kloska - who has worn nine different shirt numbers in his career so far - could also be in the right place at the right time as Borthwick looks to remodel his bench in the Springboks’ image.

”We had that discussion,” Borthwick said after England’s 2025 summer tour. ”It is something that I have spoken about previously, with Asher [Opoku-Fordjour] playing both sides of the scrum. We are exploring the possibility, as we develop some of these younger props, of them being able to play hooker, too.

”We have seen that done. The one that jumps out straight away would be [loosehead] Cian Healy for Ireland against Scotland and [South African back-rower] Deon Fourie. Although we are not at that stage yet, these kinds of things [help] at World Cups.”

South Africa won the 2023 Rugby World Cup final with Fourie - who has only played a fraction of his career in the front row - playing 76 minutes at hooker and only one back on the bench, instantly causing a shift in the rugby world.

And Borthwick will have the chance to test his changes against the originals in the most hostile of environments this summer, as England kick off their inaugural Nations Championship campaign with arguably the toughest possible assignment in South Africa.

Their 2018 win over the Springboks was their first in the Rainbow Nation since Jonny Wilkinson led England to victory in 2000, but they will look to emulate that at Ellis Park in July before taking on Fiji and Argentina - and Kloska could be their secret weapon in that quest.

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