The Springboks arrived in Auckland close to midnight local time on Wednesday in high spirits and excited about the challenge of facing their arch-rivals, the All Blacks, in back-to-back Test matches in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship in the next three weeks.
The Boks made the long journey from South Africa to Auckland on Tuesday via Sydney, and will have a gym session and recovery day on Thursday before taking the field for their first training session on Friday.
The Boks will battle it out with the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday 6 September, and at the Sky Stadium in Wellington a week later on 13 September.
They will then return to South Africa to face Argentina in Durban on Saturday 27 September, before wrapping up their campaign against the Pumas in London on 4 October.
“We travelled well, and although it’s a long trip to New Zealand, we are excited to be here and we are looking forward to the challenge ahead,” said Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.
“It’s always tough playing here, but the group is in good spirits, and we are fully aware of the magnitude of the task ahead.
“With all four teams in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship having won one match so far and the standings very tight at this stage, there’s no doubt that the next two games will be crucial in our campaign, so it’s good that we travelled early in the week.
“The time zone and conditions are obviously very different from back home, so it’s important that we acclimatise and settle in as quickly as possible to ensure that we are sharp at training and ready to be at our best by the time we face the All Blacks next weekend.”
With a week and a half to prepare for the first match, Erasmus said managing the players effectively in the next few days was essential to get the best out of them on the field.
“We’ve worked out our training schedule this week in a way that would allow the players to recover from the two physical matches against Australia, while at the same time steadily get into the swing of things for the next two matches,” said Erasmus.
“So, we will have only two training sessions this week and then go full throttle into normal Test match mode from Monday.”
Both matches will kick off at 09h05 (SA Time).
pockets
160 international Rugby caps and still going – Alun Wyn Jones of Wales is a behemoth in the sport. He has over 160 international caps to his name and he’s still going. He’s played at 4 world cups (2007-2019) which is a record, has played in 4 Lions Tours (2009-2021), which is also a record, and has clocked up over 225 appearances for the Ospreys too. Someone needs to check in his loft for a portrait of himself, because this guy just keeps going and going.
Doughboy
The Springboks participate in the annual Rugby Championship, formerly known as the Tri-Nations, alongside Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. They have won the championship four times (1998, 2004, 2009, and 2019).