Springbok lock RG Snyman celebrating with teammates Cheslin Kolbe, Franco Mostert and Handre Pollard after beating England in the 2019 World Cup final. Picture: Dan Mullan/Getty Images
The Springboks will be excited and ready to get their international season firmly underway when they gather in Pretoria on Monday for their pre-season training camp ahead of the Rugby Championship which kicks off in July.
It is a massive international season for the Boks, starting with a three-game Rugby Championship, which sees them host Australia at Loftus, head to Auckland to take on the All Blacks and then welcome Argentina to Ellis Park.
They will then have three warm-up games, against Argentina in Buenos Aires, Wales in Cardiff and the big one against the All Blacks at Twickenham to get them ready for the World Cup in France which gets under way in September.
Monday’s training camp will be the first official one of the season featuring all of the Bok players back together, with the management having held a few alignment camps with various players over the year so far.
The Boks will be naming their squad for the Rugby Championship this weekend and it should feature most of the names that were involved during the 2022 international season, with one or two new faces in the mix.
Two of those will likely be hulking lock RG Snyman who has made a fairytail return from injury, winning the United Rugby Championship with Munster and now on the verge of a Bok recall, and loose forward Marco van Staden.
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Both players aren’t entirely new to the Bok setup, having already represented the national side, but they have not been in the mix over the past few years.
Van Staden has played nine times for the Boks, with his last appearance coming off the bench in their 19-17 loss to New Zealand in Townsville in September 2021.
Snyman has been out even longer thanks to two massive injuries, with his last Bok appearance being off the bench in the World Cup final against England back in 2019.
Both players are now set to get a shot at forcing their way into the 2023 World Cup squad.
Some players from last season’s squad will likely be missing out, with Aphelele Fassi and Elton Jantjies in doubt, while Frans Steyn has been ruled out through injury and it looks like his world cup hopes are fading fast.
Fassi was dropped from the Bok squad last year to work on his defence and it doesn’t look like he has impressed enough to be included, while Jantjies outside transgressions in 2022 could have ended his chances of making the national side again.
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A few players who have enjoyed strong franchise seasons may also miss out on selection due to it being a World Cup year, where they may have been included if it wasn’t.
Stormers centre Dan du Plessis deserves a Bok call-up, but will probably miss out due to management focusing on the current players they have, while Lions scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba has also been fantastic, but with an already stacked department will not be in the mix.
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