Boks gearing up for testing Rugby Championship campaign
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said on Tuesday the team were gearing up for a testing Rugby Championship campaign, which kicks off against the Wallabies on Saturday 16 August in Johannesburg.
The defending champions will begin their campaign with back-to-back Tests against the Wallabies in Johannesburg and Cape Town, before facing the All Blacks in successive matches in Auckland and Wellington. They will then return to Durban to face Argentina and travel to London, where they will wrap up their campaign against Los Pumas.
“We are always careful about the opposition in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship,” said Erasmus.
“Australia showed last weekend that they have what it takes to win a match against a team like the British & Irish Lions, and they have an opportunity to try to achieve that this weekend, so we are expecting tough battles against them, as well as New Zealand and Argentina.”
With the Boks on a four-match winning run so far this season following victories against the Barbarians and a clean-sweep against Italy and Georgia, to add to their two-week training camp, Erasmus said: “We would have eight weeks of proper preparation before we take the field in the Castle lager Rugby Championship, and we are pleased with the physicality that Italy and Georgia brought against us in the last few weeks.
“We have another three weeks to prepare for the matches against Australia, so we’ll be working hard on the training field in the next few weeks.”
The Bok coach added: “We always knew that our first few matches would not be as tough as the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, even though the opposition was competitive and physical, but we are now going up against teams with solid game plans and a different intensity.
“Australia would have also come off the British & Irish Lions Series by the time we face them, so it will be a challenging tournament.”
Erasmus admitted that this week’s training camp was not originally part of their schedule, but he said it would benefit the team on several fronts: “These two weeks of camp will give us time to align as coaches, as well as on the conditioning aspects for the players and to take stock from a medical perspective, so it’s important in assisting us to get to where we want to be against three good countries in the series.”
The Springboks will wrap up the first week of their training camp on Thursday afternoon and spend the weekend with their families. They will reassemble in Johannesburg on Sunday to continue their on-field preparations.
