Springboks eager to stamp their authority in Rugby Championship
The Springboks will be looking to stamp their authority during the Rugby Championship and hammer home their status as the top team in world rugby and the side to beat heading towards the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027.
The Boks superbly backed up their 2023 World Cup triumph in France with a fantastic 2024, in which they won 11 out of 13 games, won the full (double round) Rugby Championship for the first time, and enjoyed an unbeaten end-of-year-tour to the UK.
Their two losses came in one-point thrillers, with Ireland needing a drop goal after the fulltime hooter to win in Durban, while a fringe side was edged by Los Pumas in Argentina.
With coach Rassie Erasmus and his management team continuing to evolve the Boks and strengthen their depth, they now have a great chance to make a big statement to the rest of the world in 2025 that they are seriously going for the three-peat in 2027.
It has been an underwhelming start to the season for the Boks, as they have yet to be seriously challenged, so they may be heading into the Rugby Championship a tad undercooked.
They crushed a well-known but ageing invitational Barbarians side 54-7 in their opening match, before easily dispatching Italy 42-24 and 45-0, and then cruising to a 55-10 win over second-tier Georgia.
With the opposition not the strongest, the Boks took the opportunity to give fringe players game time, tried out some combinations and mixed it up with some innovative plays during their four matches so far.
Wallabies up next
However, they now head into the meat of the season, and defending their Rugby Championship title will be at the top of their agenda.
Starting off at home against the Wallabies is probably the perfect way for them to build up a head of steam, heading into a huge two-game tour of New Zealand against the All Blacks.
Australia are not the strongest opposition, but they look to be a much improved team from last year when the Boks dispatched them easily 33-7 and 30-12 Down Under.
They will also have plenty of momentum and motivation after an impressive showing against the British and Irish Lions, where despite losing the series 2-1, they were very unlucky to lose the second Test and won the admittedly dead rubber finale over the past weekend.
So they definitely can't be underestimated, but if the Boks can up their game from what they have produced so far this season, they should be able to comfortably deal with them on home turf.
Rest of the season
If they can start as expected, with two bonus-point wins against the Wallabies, that will set up their tour to New Zealand, where the Boks will be chasing a famous win over the All Blacks in Auckland, as well as in Wellington.
The final two games of the Rugby Champs are against Argentina in Durban, and at Twickenham in England to close out the competition, and if they have sewn up the championship by then, they may use that game to shake things up a bit.
The Boks then face the small matter of a four-game end-of-year-tour to the UK and Europe, where they will face Ireland and France on their home turf, and they will be keen to lay down a marker there as well.
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