Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said the Boks intend to repeat the plan that saw them clinch the Castle Lager Rugby Championship title in 2019 by splitting the squad for the opening two Tests of the competition as they zoom in on the southern hemisphere showpiece.
This will see a group of players and management members travel to Auckland the week of the opening Test against Australia at Loftus Versfeld (on Saturday 8 July) to acclimatise and get their preparations underway for the second Test, a week later against New Zealand at Mount Smart Stadium (Saturday 15 July).
This will be followed by the third and final Test of the shortened version of the tournament two weeks later against Argentina at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg ( Saturday 29 July).
“We have a pretty good idea about how we want to split the squad for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, but a lot needs to happen before we make a call on selection,” said Nienaber.
“We’ll probably make a decision the week before the Australia Test. As we mentioned last week, we are not selecting A and B sides. We are doing something similar to what we did in 2019 by selecting a team that is good enough to beat Australia at Loftus Versfeld.”
Nienaber also revealed that leading South African referee Jaco Peyper – who is on the match official panel for the Rugby World Cup – is currently with the team to assist them in their interpretation of the laws of the game.
“One of the additions to our camp this week is that we brought in Jaco Peyper to assist us to keep up to date with the laws of the game, so know we are on the right track,” said Nienaber.
