Boks plan three extra games in their 'toughest year'

It is already the longest year of this Rugby World Cup cycle and arguably the toughest in recent memory but the Springbok management confirmed on Wednesday that they are seeking extra games to make the coming international season even more of a litmus test in the buildup to Australia 2025.

One of those games, according to Bok operational manager Charles Wessels, will be against the Barbarians in June, and there will be another two test matches added on to the 13 that have already been scheduled for 2025.

Neither Wessels nor Bok coach Rassie Erasmus were prepared to say where those games will be and whether they will be against Tier 1 or Tier 2 nations, but Erasmus did say that he wanted as tough a schedule as possible at this halfway point between two World Cups.

✅- Barbarians.
⌛- Two more Test matches to be announced.

The Springboks are ready to make 2025 their "toughest year" yet 😤🏉

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 5, 2025

“We are hoping for 15 test matches and they will confirmed soon,” said Erasmus at a media briefing at SARU House in the Cape Town suburb of Plattekloof on Wednesday.

“This is going to a tough season, but that is what we want. The 2022 season was tough but there will be more tests this time if we get to play 15. The aim is to give our players opportunities (to build experience and show what they can do). We will be continuing with our policy of giving opportunities while winning, with an eye on the future, with the mission of rotating players at the correct times.

“We want to look at all our options and all our position while achieving the results that will ensure that at the end of the year we are ranked well when the draw for the World Cup is made,” he added.

BOKS TOGETHER FOR 137 DAYS

With the Barbarians game not counting as a full international, if the Boks get the schedule they plan there will be 15 tests plus one extra game to take the total up to 16 games in all.

Wessels said that the aim was to work with a group of 80 players during the course of the season, not all necessarily at the same time, and that there will be 137 days this year where players will either be at alignment camps, in conditioning camps, on tour or preparing for home internationals.

“We will be together for 137 days this year, if you count the conditioning camp that starts next Monday,” said Wessels.

“That includes three alignment camps, and three weeks of conditioning camps ahead of the international season. The players will have the calendar presented to them when they attend the first alignment camp so they will know in advance when they will be in camp and can plan accordingly. All the travel has been booked, the accommodation has been ticked off, and we are ready to go.”

Wessels said that the games on the end of year tour will be played at Stade de France in Paris, the Allianz Stadium in Torino that is the home of the Juventus football team (Italy), the AVIVA Stadium in Dublin (Ireland) and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff (Wales).

He said that dates for the additional games had been identified and there were gaps in the calendar that allowed it.

The Grand Final of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship will be played on 14 June this year, which is a week earlier than last year as in 2024 there was a later start to the URC season because of the World Cup in France.

OVERSEAS BASED PLAYERS

As it stands, the Boks open their 2025 international campaign on 5 July against Italy, so that leaves a gap of three weeks before the official kick-off to the season.

Last year the Boks played Wales in London on the same day that the Vodacom Bulls played the Glasgow Warriors in the URC final at Loftus so it is possible that could happen again and given the Boks do draw on overseas based players it makes sense for them to play in that buildup period to the new season so that the Japanese based players in particular can get game time.

“Sometimes Japanese based players have been off for six to seven weeks before we go into camp so it makes sense for them to get some game time and also players who have been out for some time through injury can get in some games before the incoming tours,” said Erasmus, who started his first tenure as Bok coach with an out of the international window clash with Wales in Washington in 2018.

There is also a four-week gap in the calendar between the final incoming tour international against Georgia in Mbombela on 19 July and the opening Castle Lager Rugby Championship test against Australia in Johannesburg on 16 August.

Given that the Boks don’t have to travel in that period as all the games are at home, that would appear to be an ideal opportunity to play an extra game, although it would probably require one of the northern hemisphere teams to add a game onto their season.

The venues for the six Springboks' home Test matches have been confirmed, with the team returning to Gqeberha for the first time since 2021 🇿🇦🏟️ pic.twitter.com/jxZ9433qrw

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) February 27, 2025

SPRINGBOK SCHEDULE FOR 2025 AS IT STANDS:

5 July: Italy - Pretoria

12 July: Italy - Gqeberha

19 July: Georgia - Nelspruit

16 August: Australia - Johannesburg

23 August: Australia - Cape Town

6 September: New Zealand - Auckland

13 September: New Zealand - Wellington

27 September: Argentina - Durban

4 October: Argentina - London

8 November: France - Paris

15 November: Italy - Turin

22 November: Ireland - Dublin

29 November: Wales - Cardiff