The Springboks will be aiming to start the international season well with a tough clash against England at Ellis Park.
A “special” opening Test of the season is on the cards for the Springboks when they welcome England to Ellis Park for their first match of the newly launched Nations Championship, which kicks off in July.
The competition will be held every two years, with World Rugby hoping it will spice up the international calendar as it pits the North against the South, to try and determine a pecking order of sorts between the two rugby hemispheres.
But it will also come down to how serious each country is about the tournament, as France have already confirmed that they will be sending a weakened team to New Zealand for the second straight year to face the All Blacks.
England will, however, likely send a close to full strength team to take on the Boks, who will also likely back a very strong side for the match, with Erasmus explaining that they have to balance their want to win, with their need to continue developing the squad ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“This year, the Greatest Rivalry (series against the All Blacks) is massive for us, but the Nations Championship will be interesting,” said Erasmus.
“Our mindset will be to win every game we play, like any other team in the world. However, it will be difficult to say, ‘let’s go balls to the wall and try to win every competition this year.’ Then next year, you sit with more questions for which you don’t have answers.
“England are certainly hitting their straps now and their win record of 11 games is good. You can see there’s something special brewing there. For us, it’s great to be playing England in the first match of the Nations Championship, and to beat them will be tough.”
Warm-up match
Erasmus added that the Boks were looking at setting up a warm-up match outside the international window again, like they have over the past two years, taking on the Barbarians in Cape Town last year, and Wales at Twickenham the year before, to prepare them for the international season.
This is because the Boks will have not been in action since November, so they would be going into the Nations Championship cold, which would make things even more difficult.
“If you look at the calendar, after November, we don’t play rugby for about seven months. A lot of things happen during that time,” explained Erasmus.
“There are law changes and variations. They (England) have the Six Nations. We are lucky that some of our players are in the United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup. So, we see them playing against European opposition.
“It gives us a bit of an edge in terms of analysis when they are playing in the Six Nations, and they don’t see what we are doing or planning. We have guys in Japan that are maybe overplayed or underdone, and that warm-up match is to ensure that players are ready for England.”
Adding to the excitement is that this is England’s first time playing in South Africa since they toured the country back in 2018, with them losing that series 2-1, but won the last match at Newlands in Cape Town.
