Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and his team wrapped up their training camp in Pretoria on Friday gearing up for ‘Ireland mode’ in preparation for the opening Test of the Castle Lager Incoming Series against their arch-rivals from the northern hemisphere next Saturday.
Erasmus was pleased with the structures put in place as the squad prepared to move into full Test match mode next week in anticipation of the first of two Tests against Ireland, at Loftus Versfeld. The second test is a week later at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
“We had a good and productive training week despite our flight from London to South Africa being cancelled on Sunday night, and it was pleasing to see how the players who joined us this week stepped back into Test mode and got stuck in at training,” said Erasmus.
“Some of the players have been in our set-up for a while, which certainly assisted, and the new players also wasted no time familiarising themselves with the systems and we are pleased with how they slotted in.”
The Springboks returned to South Africa on Tuesday where they were joined by the rest of their team-mates named in Erasmus’ 39-man squad and they immediately got down to business with their first training session of the week. They had two further training sessions on Wednesday and closed off the week with their final field session on Friday morning.
They will return home for the weekend to spend time with their families and reassemble in the city’s capital on Sunday.
“I must give credit to our head of high performance and operations team for their hard work to ensure that the week functioned as smoothly as possible despite arriving in SA a day later than expected,” said Erasmus. “I believe we are in the right frame of mind for the challenge ahead against the world’s No 2 ranked team.
“We had a chance this week to analyse what we did well against Wales and the areas we need to put more emphasis on going into the Ireland Tests, and we were delighted with the professional manner in which the players made the mind-set switch to the Castle Lager Incoming Series.
“There is a huge excitement in the group for the challenge ahead and that was evident on and off the field this week.
“Everyone knows that a big step-up is required next week, but we are pleased with the momentum we built up by defeating Wales and getting international game time under the belt.
“Obviously with new members on our coaching staff, the overseas-based players and new recruits will have some work to do to ensure the entire group is fully aligned in terms of our new structures, but this week served as a good start in that process.”
Erasmus will name his matchday team to face Ireland on Tuesday.
Undergrad Split
Rugby is also a very popular sport in South Africa and their national team, the Springboks, has performed particularly well in the international stage taking the 1995, 2007 and 2019 Rugby World Cups. There is also a fair amount of world-class Rugby players from South Africa that includes Bryan Habana, Danie Craven, Francois Pienaar, Frik du Preez, Joost van der Westhuizen, and Naas Botha. South Africa has also hosted quite a few international sports meetings like the 1996 African Cup of Nations, 2003 Cricket World Cup, as well as the 2007 World Twenty20 Championship.
White Snare
Dan Carter, a former All Blacks fly-half, is regarded as one of the greatest players in rugby history. He is the highest point scorer in test rugby, with 1,598 points, and has won the World Rugby Player of the Year award twice (2005 and 2012).