Nienaber has a plan to get Springboks peaking

Jacques Nienaber will use the weeks and months leading up to the World Cup wisely as he plans the most unlikely Springboks title defence.

The Springboks aren’t favourites to win in France despite their ability to play “World Cup rugby”. Ireland are the best team in the world at the moment and France are strongly tipped at home.

That leaves the All Blacks and the Springboks as next best.

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The Springboks though have a plan. And it’s already in motion with a number of camps lined up.

Jacques Nienaber says: “We have a small group of players at this camp, but this affords us the luxury of giving them special attention. As we said at our first training camp in February, every minute with the players is crucial for us to get our structures and systems in place to ensure that we peak at the right time during the World Cup.

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“We’ll have a bigger group of players at the next camp and at our Castle Lager Rugby Championship training camp in June, but this week will assist us greatly in putting the groundwork in place.

“Having a few injured players here such as Siya (Kolisi) and Eben (Etzebeth) is also a bonus, as they’ll participate in all our team meetings, while our medical team have already started working with them.”

The Springboks will begin their official preparations for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship at a training camp in Pretoria from Monday 12 to Friday 30 June. They will kick off their 2023 international season against Australia at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, 8 July.

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The second Test of the condensed version of the Rugby Championship is against the All Blacks at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland (15 July), before the Boks will return to South Africa for the closing match of the competition against Argentina in Johannesburg (29 July).

The Springboks will play three Rugby World Cup warm-up matches: against Argentina in Buenos Aires (Saturday, 5 August), Wales in Cardiff (Saturday, 19 August) and New Zealand in London (Friday, 25 August) respectively.

They will then make their way to France for the international extravaganza where they face Scotland in Marseille (Sunday, 10 September), Romania in Bordeaux (Sunday, 17 September), Ireland in Paris (Saturday, 23 September) and Tonga in Marseille (Sunday, 1 October) during the pool stages.

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Players invited to Springbok camps (in alphabetical order):

Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks), Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls), Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), Thomas du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Jaden Hendrikse, Siya Kolisi (all Cell C Sharks), Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz), Makazole Mapimpi, Bongi Mbonambi (both Cell C Sharks), Canan Moodie (Vodacom Bulls), Ox Nche (Cell C Sharks), Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls), Grant Williams (Cell C Sharks).

Springbok 2023 fixtures:

Rugby Championship:

Saturday, 8 July – Springboks vs Australia (Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria)

Saturday, 15 July – Springboks vs New Zealand (Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland)

Saturday, 29 July – Springboks vs Argentina (Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg)

RWC warm-up fixtures:

Saturday, 5 August – Springboks v Argentina (Velez Sarsfield, Buenos Aires)

Saturday, 19 August – Springboks vs Wales (Principality Stadium, Cardiff)

Friday, 25 August – Springboks vs New Zealand (Twickenham, London)

RWC fixtures:=

Sunday, 10 September – Springboks v Scotland (Stade Marseille, Marseille)

Sunday, 17 September – Springboks v Romania (Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux)

Saturday, 23 September – Springboks v Ireland (Stade de France, Paris)

Sunday, 1 October – Springboks v Tonga (Stade Marseille, Marseille)

Weekend of 14/15 October – Quarter-finals

Weekend of 21/22 October – Semi-finals

Saturday, 28 October – Final

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