The Springboks’ new Head of Athletic Performance, Andy Edwards, summed it up perfectly - it is unfair in terms of player welfare to think players can just keep performing without ever taking a break or having a development window.
There are lots of positives to South African rugby’s switch to northern hemisphere competition at franchise level, but the Bok participation in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship has meant it has also been problematic in terms of creating a rest opportunity. And rest, meaning off-season, has to be followed by a pre-season for strength and conditioning.
That is where the current Bok alignment camp being held in Cape Town over three weeks comes in. Those Boks who have played non-stop since last season, and even before that, were given their rest opportunity for four weeks, and now they are busy with a camp until they return to their franchises on 19 March.
“There isn’t much change from our last World Cup year in 2019, it is just the timing of the off-season gap for the top players that has changed,” explained Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber.
“It is similar to then, it is just that back in 2018/2019 we didn't need to create this block (for rest and development). The guys finished Super Rugby before the international season started and then were off over December and January, before the next Super Rugby season started. They had a month of rest followed by six weeks of development. What we’ve done now is just move the rest period on by a month (into the time when previously Super Rugby would have been starting).”
PLAYERS AT CAMP ARE THOSE WHO HAVE PLAYED RIGHT THROUGH
Nienaber said that when the northern nations are committed to the Six Nations, when there isn’t as much Vodacom United Rugby Championship play and the overseas teams are understrength anyway, was the obvious gap to be exploited. Of course, that doesn’t mean all the players are included in this camp. Those playing for overseas clubs haven’t been released, while there are other players in Nienaber’s World Cup plans who did not feature in the Rugby Championship in August and September and had a proper off-season after the end of the last URC season.
“The biggest mistake people can make is to look at the names of the guys attending the camp and say those are the guys going to the World Cup,” said the Bok coach.
“There is no specific reason why it is these 14 guys attending the camp other than that they are the guys who haven’t had a break from rugby since the series against the British and Irish Lions (in 2021). Our commitment to the Rugby Championship has meant we have played through the period when the northern hemisphere players have been resting.
“We will have a couple of camps during the year, depending on how much we feel we need to insert ourselves with the players. But different guys will come to different camps depending on our specific needs. There will also be future camps for the overseas players. We will stage alignment camps on a Sunday for instance for the players playing in Japan.”
Nienaber said that there were around 60 players being tracked regularly, in other words meaning they are on the World Cup radar.
CREATING THE RESTING BLOCK WAS A NECESSITY
Edwards, who was Strength and Conditioning Coach at Saracens before this, would not have been part of the planning that led to the timing of the current camp, because that started last January. But he does feel the block that has been created for the Bok players involved with SA teams to have a rest and then recharge is a necessity.
“The Boks are selected from all over the globe and we have to be sensible about player management. Obviously we can’t do anything with the overseas based players, but when the shift (SA going to the northern hemisphere competitions) happened we had to start looking at it differently,” said Edwards.
“These guys have been on a long stretch now. It has been relentless. There have been lots of positives in going north and playing two competitions but it does create problems with rest windows and development windows. Because we play in the Rugby Championship, the rest the northern teams get we don’t get. So we took that block they have (in August) and moved it to now. We tried not to disrupt too much. There are no Heineken Champions Cup games over this period and the northern teams in the URC will be without their Six Nations guys over this period. So it was the best opportunity.
“The players who are here are guys who didn’t get a break, who played in last season’s URC and then went straight into the Wales series and then the Rugby Championship. The local players not involved with the Boks had a month off at the end of last season in June and then a development block. These guys at this camp didn’t do that.”