Cape Town - The Springboks’ preparations for the Rugby Championship will ramp up a level on Monday when a second alignment camp in Durban gets underway and concludes on Wednesday.
Coach Jacques Nienaber conducted a small camp in Durban a fortnight ago with just 15 players but this time the numbers will be swelled by eight players who have finished their commitments in Japan plus, of course, a host of Stormers from the weekend’s United Rugby Championship final.
“This first camp was invaluable in getting the coaches and players on the same page in terms of our structures and systems, and this camp will give us another opportunity to get the players into the swing of things before our Pretoria training camp in June,” Nienaber said.
The Boks are about five weeks away from kicking off a massive year for them. Their first match is the Rugby Championship opener on July 8 against the Wallabies and the season concludes in France at the World Cup in September and October. Nienaber says the Boks will sharpen their focus at a training camp in Pretoria from June 12 to 30, with the team slotting into match mode the following week for the kick-off against Eddie Jones’ Australians at Loftus.
This week’s Durban camp will also give the Bok medical team the opportunity to assess injured players such Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, and Jaden Hendrikse. “We’ll monitor their progress and rehabilitation closely in the next few months,” Nienaber said.
After playing Australia, the Boks depart for New Zealand for their second Test of the shortened version of the competition against the All Blacks at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland (July 15), before returning to South Africa for their closing match against Argentina in Johannesburg (July 29).
The Boks will play three World Cup warm-up matches: against Argentina in Buenos Aires (August 5), Wales in Cardiff (August 19) and New Zealand in London (August 25), respectively.
@MikeGreenaway
IOL Sport