Johannesburg - The Springboks are desperate to climb back on the horse after their shock defeat to New Zealand last week, but they suffered an unfortunate start to their tour to Australia when their flight to Sydney was cancelled.
The travelling squad of 34 players had assembled in Johannesburg early on Thursday afternoon and were set to fly to Adelaide via Sydney later that evening, but their plans were disrupted due to complications relating to the flight crew.
They will now travel to Sydney at 12noon on Friday when they will have a short stop-over before flying to Adelaide where they will play their first of two Tests against the Wallabies on Saturday, August 27.
The team will face Australia again in Sydney a week later on September 3, and will conclude their campaign with back-to-back Tests against Argentina in Buenos Aires and Durban on September 17 and 24 respectively.
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said it was important to adapt to the travel delay, rather than allow it to have a negative impact on their planning: “We are a solution-driven team and we will not gain anything by allowing unforeseen circumstances such as this to derail our plans.
“The coaches and conditioning staff have already adapted our training programme to suit our delayed arrival in Australia, and we will get back down to business as soon as possible when we arrive Down Under.”
Nienaber added: “Fortunately, this group of players have been together all season and they know our game plan and what we need to do to get our Rugby Championship campaign back on track, and that is our sole focus at this point.
“We have lost a little preparation and travel recovery time, but we have a massive task ahead of us, so we will do everything possible to adapt to the conditions and time zone as quickly as possible once we arrive in Australia and return to the training field.”
The Boks are set to arrive in Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.
IOL Sport