Bok squad start their build-up for Wales series with preparation camp

A group of players will be invited to join the first week of the planned three-week Springbok preparation camp in Pretoria from Sunday, SA Rugby has confirmed, as the team gear up for their three-match series against Wales in July.

With three South African franchises in the United Rugby Championship quarterfinals this weekend, and only a handful of players being free from their club commitments, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has opted to only announce his squad for the international series next month.

Selected local players will also be invited to join the preparation camps as their respective franchises’ URC campaigns come to an end, and the available players will participate in a series of training sessions over the next three weeks.

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The training squad will be based in Pretoria until 23 June, before switching bases to Johannesburg where they will prepare for their opening Test against Wales, which will be held at Loftus Versfeld on 2 July.

Their remaining two Tests against Wales will be hosted in Bloemfontein and Cape Town on 9 and 16 July.

This will be followed by a one-week break before the team gathers in Sabie, Mpumalanga, to kick off their preparations for the back-to-back Rugby Championship Tests against the All Blacks in Nelspruit and Johannesburg on 6 and 13 August.

The Boks will then travel to Australia for two Tests, and Argentina for another, before they wrap up their Rugby Championship campaign in Durban on 24 September.

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“After months of preparation by the coaches off the field, we are excited to finally return to the field and to put our learnings into practice,” said Nienaber.

“We will start our preparations with a group of invited available players, to ensure that we can deliver quality training sessions, and as more players become available following theirURC campaigns, they will join the squad.

“We also have to be cognisant of the fact that we are building to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and that every training session and match we participate in needs to be in the back of our minds.”

Nienaber was excited about the prospect of facing Wales.

“They will be inspired to show what they can do in this series,” he said.

“One only has to look at the history books to see how close matches between these nations have been over the years, so we have to hit the ground running in July if we want to win the series and get the season off to the desired start.”