Mngomezulu and Libbok impress at Bok training camp

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber described Manie Libbok and Sacha Mngomezulu’s exposure to the team’s ways as “valuable” as the three-day training camp wrapped up in Stellenbosch on Wednesday.

Nienaber along with SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and SA A team head coach Mzwandile Stick are finalising their selections for the Springbok and SA A teams ahead of their tour of Europe.

Libbok was a late call-up to the group in the absence of Handré Pollard, Elton Jantjies and Johan Goosen, while 20-year-old Mngomezulu, who has been tipped as a star of the future, looks set to be included in the SA A team.

The players who attended the camp were put through their paces in a handful of training and gym sessions and had the opportunity to refamiliarise themselves with the national systems.

The Springbok and SA A travelling squads will be announced on Friday, with the senior team set to depart from Johannesburg on Saturday for the northern hemisphere.

The Boks will play Tests against Ireland in Dublin on November 5, France in Marseille a week later, Italy in Genoa on November 19 and England in London seven days later.

The SA A team will face Munster on November 10 and the Bristol Bears on November 17.

“The Springboks are facing the two best teams in the world on successive weekends in Ireland and France, and Italy and England are always forces to be reckoned with, especially at home. Munster and Bristol are top clubs and will test the SA A team thoroughly, and we are now all on the same page in terms of the expectations on the players and coaches,” Erasmus said.

He said they now have to decide which players will depart for Ireland on Saturday as members of the Springbok squad, and those who will travel straight to Cork on November 5, as part of the SA A touring group.

The players who will depart for Ireland on Saturday will be withdrawn from their respective United Rugby Championship franchises this weekend, while the other players will be eligible for selection for the two local derbies.  

Stick was confident they will put together a strong squad for their two matches.

“The SA A games will not only serve the purpose of exposing the players — both those who are young and their more experienced counterparts — to top-class international club rugby less than a year out from the Rugby World Cup, it will also allow the national coaches to give a wider group of players valuable game time at this level with the international spectacle in mind,” he said.