Springbok coach Nienaber invites more players for alignment sessions

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has called up eight more players for two-day off-field sessions in Cape Town as they prepare for the international season which includes the World Cup in France later in the year.

Joseph Dweba (hooker), Deon Fourie (utility forward), Marco van Staden (flanker), Evan Roos (No 8), Herschel Jantjies and Grant Williams (scrumhalves), Manie Libbok (flyhalf) and Sbu Nkosi (wing) will be involved in two days of off-field sessions this weekend. 

This comes after 14 players ended their eight-week regeneration block, which included a four-week rest period and a four-week rugby and physical development block. 

“We’ve planned to host alignment sessions — some in person, such as at these two camps, and others online with the overseas-based players — to ensure everyone is on the same page about what is expected of them, where we are as a team and the areas of our game we would like to improve,” said Nienaber. 

“With the players we are tracking scattered around the country and the world, it means we need to be innovative in the way we interact with them. But the most important factor is we have regular communication with them as we work towards the Rugby World Cup. 

“The players attending the sessions over the weekend have been participating in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC), so we are pleased to have this opportunity to work with them face-to-face.” 

Commenting on the training camp hosted in Cape Town and Stellenbosch in the past three weeks, Nienaber said they achieved their objectives. 

“We were fortunate to have this camp. It was crucial from a rest, rugby and development perspective for the players. 

“The focus was to develop their physical capabilities and fundamental skills, and the players will now return to their franchises for the closing stages of the Vodacom URC and the Heineken Champions Cup.

“It was excellent in the sense that we had on-field sessions and off-field alignment sessions, which allowed us to analyse where the game is at this point and what we have to work on, and we were pleased to see the collaboration between the coaches and players. 

“We’ll now keep a close eye on how the players kick on from this and implement what they learnt at franchise level,” he said.