Despite hearing that they had left injured prop Frans Malherbe back in South Africa, the Springboks arrived in Jersey on Monday in a positive mood and eager to begin getting ready for their end-of-year visit to the UK.
Before leaving for Scotland for their first Test of the November internationals, they will spend a week at a training camp on the Channel Island between England and France.
Unfortunately for Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and his coaching staff, Malherbe’s ankle injury sustained during Stormers’ United Rugby Championship (URC) loss to Glasgow Warriors on Saturday meant he would have to stay behind in South Africa.
Whether he will be replaced in the touring squad, which will play Scotland, England, and Wales over three weekends in a row, has not yet been decided.
The Springboks’ head of athletic performance, Andy Edwards, expressed excitement about the training camp on the picturesque island and said it was the ideal place to start the team’s preparations for what is expected to be a challenging tour against three new opponents.
“It’s nice to get back together and regroup because it’s our first time together since the Rugby Championship and the players have been doing different things for the past few weeks,” Edwards added.
While the Japanese players were on vacation, the URC players had a mix of downtime and other players, while the players from the UK and Europe have returned from their clubs.
The most important thing is to get back into the rhythm of things in terms of the planning that the coaches want to undertake and to tighten things up once again before the internationals in November.
“The players will undoubtedly have an easier transition ahead of the November tour because we are in Jersey, which is close to the UK.”
“Jersey has everything we need, and it’s close to the UK, especially with us heading to Scotland next, so there won’t be concerns about long-haul travel going into the first Test,” Edwards stated in reference to the new training camp location.
Additionally, it’s a little island, which allows us to try something new. Jersey offers top-notch facilities that are only a few years old, which meets all of our high-performance needs with a fantastic gym and fields. In addition, I don’t believe anyone in this group has ever been to Jersey.
“It’s good to get the players who have been in South Africa used to the conditions here, but some guys have already adapted to the weather in the northern hemisphere because they have been in the UK with their URC (and English Premiership) teams.”
The players who spent the weekend in South Africa travelled straight from Johannesburg to London on Sunday night, stopping briefly at Heathrow Airport before boarding a quick 40-minute flight to Jersey.
The remaining travelling group came from, successively, Venice, Montpellier, Bath, Leicester, and Dublin.
The team will start their on-field training on Tuesday after the players took Monday off to rest and recuperate from the trip to Jersey.
