By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Springboks concluded two days of training on Saturday where the objective was to get the entire squad aligned with an eye on the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series next Saturday against the All Blacks in Johannesburg.
The teams will play four back-to-back Tests against New Zealand, starting with Saturday’s encounter at 10bet Ellis Park (22 August), before moving to Cape Town for the second Test at the DHL Stadium (29 August), the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg (5 September), and concluding the series at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore (12 September).
Bok hooker Johan Grobbelaar and utility forward Elrigh Louw, who have been released to play for the Vodacom Bulls in their RGR match against the All Blacks on Friday evening, will rejoin the national squad on Sunday.
“It was important to manage the players who travelled to Argentina well and afford them sufficient time to recover from the match and switch back into the domestic time zone, which is why we only started training as a full group late in the week,” said Boks coach Rassie Erasmus.
“But we are pleased that the players are well recovered and ready to give everything for the forthcoming Tests against the All Blacks.”
“It will undoubtedly be a very challenging tournament, but we are looking forward to it as a collective. This series is almost like playing the knock-out stages of a Rugby World Cup because we are facing one of the world’s best week in and week out, and we all understand the magnitude of the RGR series, said Erasmus.”
Erasmus added, “It’s a new and exciting challenge, and we have been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes, especially the group of coaches and players who remained behind in South Africa in the last two weeks, so we will finetune the areas of our game, which we would like to improve next week as we get ready to take the field.”
The opening match kicks off at 17h10 next Saturday, and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.
50 years since the last meeting of the two teams resulted in a famous win for the hosts, known then as Northern Transvaal, a repeat was never on the cards.