Springboks to reveal ‘All Blacks group’ after Wallabies team announcement

The Springboks will only be naming the group that will head to New Zealand early, ahead of the second match of the Rugby Championship against the All Blacks, at next week’s team announcement for the Australia game.

Head coach Jacques Nienaber and SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus confirmed some time ago they would be sending a group of between 13 and 15 players to New Zealand early to get over jetlag to prepare for the All Blacks match, which comes a week after the Wallabies game.

At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Nienaber explained that they were trying to balance the needs of the team that is set to face Australia (at Loftus Versfeld next Saturday, July 8), with the needs of the group heading to New Zealand to have sufficient recovery time.

All Blacks group

“Definitely in our heads we have a pretty good idea and the players know (who will be going),” said Nienaber this week.

“But there are still changes (that could be made). This time last week we didn’t know if Damian (Willemse) would be ready or not and now he is. So that changes in terms of strategy,” explained Nienaber.

“But we will only announce that (the group heading to New Zealand) at the team announcement next week (probably Tuesday), because we don’t want people to know who’s going where (before then).

“It’s nice to have this big squad because we are able to go 15 v 15 (in training). So we will probably send the balance as late as possible so the team to play against Australia will have a proper Test preparation week, but also early enough so they can get the benefit of time to get over jet lag.”

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Erasmus added that the group would probably leave on either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the readiness of the match 23 for the first game.

“We have made sure that we have booked enough spaces (on the plane) on Tuesday and Wednesday to make sure that the team to face Australia isn’t underdone in terms of opposition. So if we are happy by Tuesday they will fly as soon as possible,” said Erasmus.