Wales to face world champions South Africa at Twickenham in June

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Feb 22, 2024, 05:33

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/68197294

Wales to face world champions South Africa at Twickenham in June


h Africa beat Wales convincingly in a World Cup warm-up game last August

Wales will face world champions South Africa on 22 June at Twickenham before travelling to Australia for a two-Test series.

The Twickenham tie is a double-header with Wales and the Springboks kicking off at 14:00 BST, followed by Barbarians v Fiji at 17:15.

Wales will then travel for matches against Australia in Melbourne and Sydney in July.

The Springboks host Ireland in a two-match series this summer.

The Wales and South Africa match in south-west London is outside World Rugby's international window and takes place on the same day as the United Rugby Championship (URC) final, although the kick-off times will not clash.

Welsh and South African sides compete in the URC tournament.

South African side Stormers have featured in the past two URC finals and are currently sixth with the Bulls third, with the top eight of 16 teams reaching the play-offs that start in early June.

Ospreys are the highest-placed Welsh side in seventh spot, with Cardiff, Scarlets and Dragons further adrift.

Wales say they will be the "away" team for the Twickenham fixture.

The Principality Stadium is not available this summer because of concerts, with Taylor Swift playing at the ground on 18 June and the Foo Fighters on 25 June.

Wales were comprehensively beaten 52-16 by South Africa in a World Cup warm-up match in Cardiff in August.

The Twickenham match will be the Springboks' first since they retained the World Cup in October by beating New Zealand in Paris.

"I'm incredibly excited about the fixture list for Wales this summer," said Wales head coach Warren Gatland.

"To have the opportunity for our young squad to test itself against the world champions at a neutral venue is an extremely important experience and something we will relish.

"It should also be a great occasion for the fans and something a little bit different for them."

South Africa defeated New Zealand at Twickenham in a World Cup warm-up match in August.

"We are thrilled to return to Twickenham and we have fond memories of the warm-up Test we played against the All Blacks last year," said South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus.

"The atmosphere and occasion were remarkable, and we are expecting a similar experience in June.

"The fact we're facing Wales, who we have faced there before in an exhilarating World Cup 2015 quarter-finals, will bring back plenty of other memories as well."

The game is a warm-up before Wales' two-Test series in Australia in July, while the Springboks are hosting Ireland on the same weekends.

South Africa have confirmed they will play Ireland on 6 July in Pretoria before another Test in Durban seven days later.


Wales travel to face Australia in Sydney on 6 July and Melbourne on 13 July. They will be Joe Schmidt's first games in charge of the Wallabies since he took over from Eddie Jones, and Australia will want to erase memories of Wales' record 40-6 World Cup victory in Lyon.

"We know the Wallabies will be hurting after the World Cup," said Gatland.

"Australia is a tough place to go and play rugby and we're expecting a fired up side led by new head coach Joe Schmidt."

Wales had also been exploring the possibility of two further matches this summer. One game would potentially have been a fourth international, while they are also looking into the prospect of a match against an Australian domestic side.


Feb 22, 2024, 06:01

Let's see how good Ireland are in South Africa. Like to have played Wales at home as well. 

Fact is we seldom play home games against these NH sides.

So often we tour the NH at the end of an arduous season.

Going to be an interesting season with a new Bok team and coaching staff. 

Feb 22, 2024, 17:58

I need to go to that

Feb 23, 2024, 03:15

I want to refer to the 2018 test between SA and Wales in Washington.    In that test Erasmus selected a team of potential players consisting of 5 regular Springboks and of 18 players who never played in tests before - while Erasmus was finding potential new players and vey few of the participants actually became test regulars - the real Springbok squad remained in SA in preparation for the test series in England.

Of the 18 players  none made a major impression causing them to end up in the 2019 WC squad - but a few played in minor tests in 2018 and 2019.   In other words the Wales test were there to start with a quest to find replacement players to start preparing them for a future test career.

Dave - that makes for an interesting test potentially and you may enjoy it since very few regular Springbok players will be involved,      .  ,       .    

 
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