Nienaber gets the ball rolling: Boks step up preparations for Rugby Championship, World Cup

With the 2023 international season fast approaching, the Springboks are stepping up their preparations for both the Rugby Championship and this year's showpiece event, the Rugby World Cup in France.

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With that in mind, Jacques Nienaber's charges will meet for two preparation camps in May.

The first will run from 17 to 19 May and the second from 29 to 31 May, with 15 players invited to attend.

The squad for the camps is made up of local URC teams excluding the Stormers and some players currently based in Japan. Several locally selected players might join the camps after completing their United Rugby Championship commitments.

"With the Vodacom United Rugby Championship nearing an end and the Castle Lager Rugby Championship around the corner, we decided to host two camps to get the ball rolling and get everyone on the same page for the international season," Nienaber said in reference to the two camps.

"The camps will include both off and on-field sessions, and they will offer us a great opportunity to get the building blocks in place for our first full-on training camp in June in preparation for the Castle Lager Rugby Championship in July.

“These camps will build on those we hosted in Cape Town and Stellenbosch, respectively, at the end of February and March, which included a bunch of locally based players."

Nienaber added that with a little over four months to go before the World Cup kicks off, every day with the players would count. 

"The Castle Lager Rugby Championship is around the corner, and then we have three warm-up games and the World Cup, so we have very little time to get all our plans in place and ensure we peak, in terms of