New Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber is looking forward to his first-ever match as head coach since replacing Rugby World Cup-winning coach Rassie Erasmus in January last year. The Springboks will be back in action when they play their first international match against Georgia after being inactive for almost eighteen months.
South Africa will begin their international season with two test matches against Georgia in early July, before hosting the British and Irish Lions for three test matches between July and August this year.
The Boks recently had two closed alignment camps in Johannesburg, and Nienaber says the team needed both sessions ahead of their international season.
“The most important part in the first alignment camp was letting the players know about our selection policy, what must they do as players to get into the Springbok side and get selected for this historic tour so that was the first alignment camp. The second alignment camp was more strategic; firstly we gave feedback on how the players were doing in terms of the goals we set in the first one, we also gave feedback from our different departments as management and as leadership”
Former Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, who is South African Rugby’s Director of Rugby says very strict rules and regulations have been put in place for the upcoming British and Irish Lions series to comply with COVID-19 regulations.
“I think having the British and Irish Lions coming here into our country they are all being vaccinated and they are going to play against us and we are going into a hard bubble I think it’s the safest thing for them obviously. Firstly, obviously, we want to protect ourselves we want the series to go ahead and we don’t want an outbreak but we also want to protect them and ourselves you know. I’m not sure if a player has to be vaccinated to be able to play for us, but we certainly trying to vaccinate everybody before we get into that hard bubble”.
