By Ayanda Nyuswa
Proteas head coach Shukri Conrad and the Cricket South Africa High performance management team visited the Springboks’ second alignment camp in Cape Town on Thursday.
Conrad, who was recently appointed as sole head coach of the Proteas men’s team across all formats, and his management team was hosted by Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus and his technical team in the morning sessions which included insights into the Boks’ values, and a look into their upcoming international season.
The Springboks will kick off their international season at home in July with two clashes against Italy, followed by a match against Georgia before they begin the defence of their Rugby Championship title in August. The World champions will be looking to build on last year’s form where they were victorious in 11 of their 13 matches across the season.
Meanwhile, the Proteas are still in preparation for next month’s World Test Championship final against Australia that will be staged at the home of Cricket at Lord’s in London. This will be South Africa’s second major final at an ICC event in two years after reaching the final of last years T20 World Cup.
“For all of us it has been really inspiring, I think if you look at the history of the Springboks and you look at the recent past, two successive World Cup, back to back and potentially a third. They must be doing a lot of things right and we’d like to see what they are doing right and learn from each other as well,” said Conrad.
“I think it is great rubbing shoulders across different codes. It’s not only coming here wanting to learn from them, it’s us almost sharing ideas and that was always the intention when Rassie and I started chatting. The cross-pollination, sharing of ideas and learning from each other.
