Shukri Conrad thrilled with Proteas and Springboks sharing of ideas

Proteas coach Shukri Conrad was thrilled to be taking part in a unique experience with the Proteas and Cricket South Africa’s High Performance management team having joined the Springboks for the first day of the second Bok alignment camp in Cape Town on Thursday.

With the national side gearing up for the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s in mid-June, the Proteas management group shadowed the Springbok management in their duties on day one of the camp.

Conrad was extremely excited about the opportunity to join the Springboks at the alignment camp, and admitted that it was very beneficial, not just for the Proteas but for the Boks as well as they are able to share various ideas.

“It was very inspiring for us all, especially if you look at the history of the Springboks and what they achieved in the last two Rugby World Cups, which they won back-to-back. They are obviously doing a lot right, so we wanted to see what that is and also learn from one other,” explained Conrad.

Great learning

“It’s great learning from the different sporting codes, so it was not just about learning from them, it was also a case of us sharing ideas, and that was always the intention when Rassie and I first started chatting.

“It’s a week before we leave for what is our biggest final ever, I’d like to think, and sitting in, listening, and chatting to some of the players and the coaches, and going through the presentations they did and noticing the common threads that go across both platforms was fantastic.

“The language is pretty much the same, and also the implementation of certain things, such as the fact that playing for the Springboks and Proteas has to be the biggest thing.”

All the Springbok assistant coaches will have the opportunity to present the key areas within their fields of expertise before the camp concludes on Friday afternoon.

The Proteas have already named their squad for the Test champs finale, and they will all be linking up next week, with a number of players flying in from India at the culmination of the Indian Premier League pool stage.

The Springbok training squad for the training camp to be hosted in Johannesburg in June will be announced in the coming weeks.