Bok newbies to be unleashed against Wales, ‘oldies’ back for Irish

The Springboks will look to unleash a young and inexperienced team for their first international of the season against Wales at Twickenham, before their World Cup stalwarts return for the two Test home series against Ireland.

The Welsh Test falls outside of the international Test window in late June, which means most of the Boks’ overseas contingent will be unavailable for the game.

It also falls on the day of the URC final, so if any South African teams make the final, or if one of the UK sides that has Bok players in it reaches the finale, they will also be unavailable for the season opening clash.

England, France based players

“We can’t really say the Wales Test is preparation for the Irish Test. The Wales Test is outside the Test-match window, so the team will probably be selected out of the 43 men that were here (in Cape Town) for the alignment camp, plus a few Japan-based players,” explained Bok coach Rassie Erasmus on Tuesday.

“There will be no England- or France-based players (available) and we are not sure where we are currently with players in Ireland like (Steven) Kitshoff at Ulster and RG (Snyman) at Munster. Also, there is a URC game that specific weekend, so there might be other guys playing in that match.”

Following the Welsh Test the Boks will return to South Africa for their incoming series where they will play Ireland in two Tests and one against Portugal.

Ireland, Portugal Tests

The two Irish Tests will likely see a very similar side picked to that which played in last year’s World Cup final, with maybe one or two changes, so the ‘old guard’ will be backed for that extremely important series.

“We are playing against Ireland who are (currently) number two in the world and who we haven’t beaten since 2016,” said Erasmus.

“So we first have to rectify that and we will probably still use some of those old guys who know them (Ireland) well and have played against them before.

“It (the Wales Test) is almost a standalone Test match because some of the guys that will play there will not play in the Ireland Test match. I wouldn’t say that it is a warm-up match for the Ireland Tests.

“I would say that it is a big Test match against Wales who are trying to get a spark and they definitely have some young guns in there that are close to producing some magic. It will be tough Test matches against all those countries.”

After the Irish and Portugal Tests the Boks will have a couple of weeks off before kicking off their Rugby Championship campaign with two Tests against Australia Down Under, before returning to SA to face New Zealand in two Tests at the end of August and start of September.