The Springboks are likely to be beneficiaries of a favourable programme, including playing the All Blacks on South African turf only, when a slashed Castle Rugby Championship is contested in 2015.
Given the global priority of the World Cup towards the end of the year, hosted by England, the Championship will be reduced by half to a single round of matches, making it more like the northern hemisphere’s Six Nations for once in character.
The Boks, currently second to World Cup holders New Zealand on the International Rugby Board rankings, play only four games next year ahead of RWC 2015, in stark contrast to this year’s much more cluttered programme of 14.
It gives coach Heyneke Meyer 18 games in total – starting with the World XV clash at Newlands this Saturday – to fine-tune his game-plan and resources for the global get-together: South Africa will kick off their World Cup campaign against Japan at Brighton’s Community Stadium on September 19 next year.
Sport24
Although the official Championship fixtures have not yet been released, it has been learnt that the Boks will play, in likely order, Argentina at home, Australia away, and then defending champions New Zealand at home in the 2015 Championship.
They will then play an extra Test against the Pumas in Argentina that won’t count toward the log, at the same time as the All Blacks and Wallabies also lock horns in a non-Championship game.
There is also no traditional June Test window period next year, so a full Super Rugby programme is played on an uninterrupted basis – after the final in that competition the SANZAR countries plus Argentina go straight into Championship battle.
So next year will see the smallest Championship (or even former Tri-Nations) yet, with three intense matches by each side deciding the fate of the silverware.
Before the last World Cup in 2011, the final Tri-Nations competition – before Argentina were introduced in 2012 to bring about the new tournament – was also cut, but just to four matches each from the previous six, as for several years the event had a little questionably ballooned to feature three meetings between each side.
It would be a reassuring advantage to play the All Blacks in South Africa only next year, given that the Boks tend to find it easier to get good results in Australia than they do in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
You could only imagine the uproar if it was scheduled the other way around, kissing cousins cheat Bokke, IRB conspiracy blah blah blah this being the case though can we please have the test at Loftus, the Bpkke are overdue for another thumping from the AB’s there.
@ NZINCHINA:
Fuck off noodles there’s a good boy.
😆
@ BrumbiesBoy:
@ gunther:
Fuuny guy you’ve probably been lucky enough to see it live yourself a couple of times 😛
Funny guy, this isn’t KEO you’ll get yellow carded for using that sort of colourful language.
NZINCHINA wrote:
With a citing to follow?
The last thing anybody wants is to se you here whining like a four year old who hasn’t had their strawberry milk.
Try looking for attention somewhere else.
😆
@ BrumbiesBoy:
He’ll get off, he’ll use the old conspiracy trick.
@ BrumbiesBoy:
Won’t happen,when it is Bok vs Kiwi, anything goes…
England playing well, Earl is a Lomu in the making!
@ NZINCHINA:
Top of the morning to you at that side of the Gobi!
Jnr Boks and Jnr Blacks, always a show piece, it is going to be a big one again today!
Jnr Blacks may just shave it though, as we have suffered some early injury losses, but let’s see if the stand-in Kriel brothers are up to it.
@ Pietman:
Hi mate, here’s hoping for a cracker! The tension has clearly already got to a few early
NZINCHINA wrote:
All in good spirit, I’m sure, nothing a cold one afterwards can’t rectify
Poms sticking it to the Ozzie mob at moment, 24-10, Earl doing most of the damage.
But the little ginger head speedster scores another for Ozzie,his 2nd and a good one!
24-17 Eng.
@ Pietman:
Especially the F/off part, he mean’t that in the nicest possible way…
Its these farking aussie scum at it again…
MOvE NORTH!
😀
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