Boks could be sidelined completely from 2020 season

South African rugby fans should prepare for the very real possibility that the Springboks won’t be in action at all in 2020.

This after news emerged on Tuesday that the Boks would not feature in a new Eight Nations competition in Europe later this year, while travel restrictions in the southern hemisphere may prevent a Rugby Championship from taking place in New Zealand or Australia.

The World Cup winners from Japan almost a year ago may now spend the entire season on the sidelines because of the travel restrictions and fears around the spread and threat of Covid-19.

New head coach Jacques Nienaber, who was director of rugby Rassie Erasmus’ defence guru at last year’s tournament in Japan, may have to wait until next year before the Boks are in action again.

While there has been talk about the Boks playing in a shortened version of the Rugby Championship in New Zealand in November and December, that country is still, seemingly, undecided about hosting the Boks, Australia and Argentina.

Just this week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was exploring the likelihood of hosting a tournament, but a final decision had not yet been made.

“We have tight arrangements at the border that we must uphold, and the health ministry must be happy. We are doing enough to make it a possibility,” Ardern told media in New Zealand.

One of the biggest obstacles was the two-week quarantine period that would be imposed on the visitors. It was understood authorities in New Zealand were struggling to find secure and safe locations for the visiting teams to stay and train.

The other possible option for the Boks was to go north, to Europe, and play in a new Eight Nations competition which was set to be staged in November, following the conclusion of the delayed Six Nations.

The competition, however, was expected to include England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy and France, Fiji, and now, according to the Telegraph, also Georgia – rather than the Springboks, who were at one staged mooted as the team to replace Japan, who withdrew from the competition some time ago.

South African rugby bosses will now seemingly honour their standing Sanzaar partnership agreement and play in the Rugby Championship, if the competition takes place at all.

But, also working against the Boks playing this year, is the fact the majority of the players who are based in South Africa haven’t been in action at all since mid-March, when Super Rugby and Pro14 were suspended, because of the coronavirus.

There is also still no clarity around a seven-team domestic competition, which was slated to start in September and then pushed out to October.

No starting date for the Currie Cup-like competition, or details around how it will work, has been provided by SA Rugby.

Nienaber recently said the national players would need at least six weeks of action to be ready for Test rugby, but local players only recently started contact training, leaving the Boks with little time to get up to speed for matches against Australia, Argentina and New Zealand.

Even New Zealand rugby coach Ian Foster, who named a training squad at the weekend, was unsure about whether a Rugby Championship would take place this year.

At the recent naming of his first squad as All Blacks boss he said he was hopeful of playing Tests against Australia, but that after that “we’re not too sure”.

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