World champions rugby defending South Africa will be back on the field after a 19-month hiatus, with the squad playing a pre-match against Georgia on the first and second weekends in June, MTI wrote.
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| World Cup champion South Africa is back against Georgia after 19 months (Photo: AFP) |
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The association has not yet decided the location and promised a specific date at a later date. Meanwhile, the team’s manager, Rasi Erasmus, confirmed that the new federal captain, Jacques Ninaber, and his professional crew are working hard to return to the Nimbus national team after a sudden and prolonged failure due to the pandemic.
South Africa last played on November 2, 2019, when they defeated their final World Cup opponent England, 32-12, in Japan. The other leading teams in the sport didn’t miss much. Unusually in Europe, they managed to hold the meetings of the prestigious Six Nations Championship of 2020 in two installments, spring and autumn, which were held again this year in a completely closed system. In contrast, the Africans withdrew last summer from the tournament that included Australia, Argentina and New Zealand.
The Lions, made up of the best British and Irish players, will be visiting South Africa for more than a month from early July, with the World Cup title keeper reaching the final three stages of the eight-round. Lions tour the Southern Hemisphere every four years, the most recent being in the African country in 2009.
Like South Africa, Japan has not played a quarter-final match at the 2019 World Cup since then. The Asian national team will visit the Lions in Edinburgh on June 26th.
(MTI)
