Proteas Management Join Springboks

The Springboks kicked off their second alignment camp in Cape Town on Thursday, with Rassie Erasmus and his assistant coaches outlining their core plans for the season while they entertained a few special guests in Proteas head coach Shukri Conrad and Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) High Performance management team.

The national cricket team’s management joined the morning sessions in a shadowing capacity as they prepare for the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia in London.

Also in attendance were the entire SA Rugby Elite Referees Panel for the full day’s proceedings in an observation capacity.

Erasmus and his right-hand men started the day reiterating the team values, while also zoning in on the areas of the game they intend to focus on this season during a series of boardroom sessions with the locally-based players at the team hotel, and a host of overseas-based players virtually. The camp will conclude on Friday afternoon.

The Springboks will launch their 2025 season on Saturday, 28 June against the Barbarians in Cape Town, before embarking on the Castle Lager Incoming Series and Castle Lager Rugby Championship, and will wrap up the season with the traditional end-of-the-year tour.

“One could sense the excitement and enthusiasm among the players and coaches to be back together, and to align on our objectives and plans for the season,” said Erasmus.

“It was also great to have the new additions to the squad, Vincent Tshituka and Ntokozo Makhaza, at the camp, as well as Juarno Augustus, who was one of the players invited to join online, where they were exposed to our structures for the first time.

“They gelled in quickly, and it was encouraging to see how they soaked up the information presented to them.”

The Bok coach was also delighted to welcome Conrad and his key personnel to the camp, and said their presence served as a fine example of how South Africa’s national teams could learn from one another as they all strive for success on the international stage.

“Shukri and his team have a massive assignment coming up in the ICC World Test Championship against Australia at Lords in a little under three weeks, and we hope that inviting him and his management team to our alignment camp will assist them as they put the final touches in place for the extravaganza against Australia next month,” said Erasmus.

“I firmly believe in having our national coaches working together and sharing ideas, as we all have the same goal in mind – to make the country proud – so we are thrilled that they took time out of their busy schedules to spend the day with us.

“Hopefully, we can see a lot more collaboration between all our national coaches in the future.”

Conrad was equally excited about the opportunity to join the Springboks for the day and said: “It was very inspiring for us all, especially if you look at the history of the Springboks and what they achieved in the last two Rugby World Cups, which they won back-to-back. They are obviously doing a lot right, so we wanted to see what that is and also learn from one other.

“It’s great learning from the different sporting codes, so it was not just about learning from them, it was also a case of us sharing ideas, and that was always the intention when Rassie and I first started chatting.”

Conrad added: “It’s a week before we leave for what is our biggest final ever, I’d like to think, and sitting in, listening, and chatting to some of the players and the coaches, and going through the presentations they did and noticing the common threads that go across both platforms was fantastic.

“The language is pretty much the same, and also the implementation of certain things, such as the fact that playing for the Springboks and Proteas has to be the biggest thing.”

All the Springbok assistant coaches will have the opportunity to present the key areas within their fields of expertise before the camp concludes on Friday afternoon.

The Springbok training squad for the training camp to be hosted in Johannesburg in June will be announced in the coming weeks.