The Springboks have finally confirmed their fixtures for 2022. Whilst their opponents have been widely known since Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus had to disclose same at his Disciplinary hearing late last year. We now have confirmation of dates and venues, which were not previously available.
The Boks will firstly host Wales in three fixtures during the Incoming Tour in July with the games set to take place in Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town. The Springboks and Wales have had a number of tight fixtures in recent years, with both teams playing a similar style of attritional rugby it should make for a great contest. Wales are currently playing in the 6 Nations with an injury ravaged squad, but should be much closer to full strength come July.
Most exciting is the fact that the All Blacks will return to SA for the first time since 2018 when they secured a narrow victory over the Springboks at Loftus. This year the All Blacks will play two fixtures in SA during the Rugby Championship, a task that will have Jacques Nienaber licking his lips at the double take on home soil. They will face the Springboks at Mbombela first, before moving on to Ellis Park a weekend later.
The Rugby Championship will further see home and away fixtures against Argentina at Durban and in Buenos Aires, with Los Pumas finally getting to play at home for the first time since 2019. Los Pumas will relish the fact that they will face a less arduous travel schedule this time around and will look to build on what they achieved in 2020 when they toppled the mighty All Blacks.
The Boks will face Australia away for both fixtures with a trip down under on the cards. The venues for these fixtures will only be confirmed at a later stage, most likely depending on the Covid situation at the time. The Wallabies beat the Springboks twice in last years Rugby Championship and the Boks will need to make big strides in their game play if they hope to correct the history books there.
The Boks round out their year with four games on tour in November. They will face two powerhouses in Ireland and France, with a further game against the struggling Italians during the test window. The Boks are also set to face England in a fixture which falls outside of the test window and will likely require the use of SA based players only in their last game of 2022.
Its an exciting year for Springbok rugby and one can only hope and pray at this stage that we will see more than 2000 fans inside the stadiums when the Boks take on some quality opposition in the last full year before their title defence in France in 2023.
Incoming Tour:
02 July – SA v Wales (Pretoria)
09 July – SA v Wales (Bloemfontein)
16 July – SA v Wales (Cape Town)
Rugby Championship:
06 August – SA V All Blacks (Mbombela)
13 August – SA v All Blacks (Ellis Park)
27 August – SA v Australia (Australia)
03 September – SA v Australia (Australia)
17 September – SA v Argentina (Beunos Aires)
24 September – SA v Argentina (Durban)
Outgoing Tour:
05 November - Ireland
12 November - France
19 November – Italy
26 November - England