World champion Springboks seek first Rugby Championship title since 2019
World champion Springboks seek first Rugby Championship title since 2019
South Africa’s Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, top, jumps for the ball during a rugby test match between South Africa and Ireland at Kings Park stadium in Durban, South Africa, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
FILE - Argentina’s Pablo Matera runs with the ball during the Rugby Championship test match between the All Blacks and the Pumas in Brisbane, Australia, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. Matera will play his 100th test for Argentina against France in his Buenos Aires hometown on Saturday, July 13, . Matera will be only the third Puma to reach a century. Matera says lots of family, friends and people from his local Alumni club are coming to help him mark the occasion. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)
Australia teammates pose with their trophy after defeating Wales in their rugby union test match and 2-game series in Melbourne, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Wales’ Rio Dyer, left, celebrates with teammate Christ Tshiunza after scoring a try against Australia during their rugby union test match in Melbourne, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
South Africa’s Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, top, jumps for the ball during a rugby test match between South Africa and Ireland at Kings Park stadium in Durban, South Africa, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa’s Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, top, jumps for the ball during a rugby test match between South Africa and Ireland at Kings Park stadium in Durban, South Africa, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
FILE - Argentina’s Pablo Matera runs with the ball during the Rugby Championship test match between the All Blacks and the Pumas in Brisbane, Australia, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. Matera will play his 100th test for Argentina against France in his Buenos Aires hometown on Saturday, July 13, . Matera will be only the third Puma to reach a century. Matera says lots of family, friends and people from his local Alumni club are coming to help him mark the occasion. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)
FILE - Argentina’s Pablo Matera runs with the ball during the Rugby Championship test match between the All Blacks and the Pumas in Brisbane, Australia, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. Matera will play his 100th test for Argentina against France in his Buenos Aires hometown on Saturday, July 13, . Matera will be only the third Puma to reach a century. Matera says lots of family, friends and people from his local Alumni club are coming to help him mark the occasion. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File)
Australia teammates pose with their trophy after defeating Wales in their rugby union test match and 2-game series in Melbourne, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Australia teammates pose with their trophy after defeating Wales in their rugby union test match and 2-game series in Melbourne, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Wales’ Rio Dyer, left, celebrates with teammate Christ Tshiunza after scoring a try against Australia during their rugby union test match in Melbourne, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Wales’ Rio Dyer, left, celebrates with teammate Christ Tshiunza after scoring a try against Australia during their rugby union test match in Melbourne, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — South Africa has won two World Cup titles since it last lifted the Rugby Championship trophy in 2019. It will attempt to rectify that discrepancy in this season’s tournament which begins when the Springboks play Australia at Brisbane on Saturday.
The All Blacks host Argentina later the same day in Wellington as the Southern Hemisphere nations enter a new phase of the rebuilding process that has followed the last World Cup in France in 2023 in which South Africa beat New Zealand in the final.
All four teams have played three tests so far this season, using July internationals to introduce new players and in the case of Argentina, Australia and New Zealand to get used to new systems under new head coaches.
Australia (Joe Schmidt) and New Zealand (Scott Robertson) both are unbeaten so far under those coaches. Australia won mid-year tests against Wales and Georgia while New Zealand beat England twice and Fiji once.
Argentina under Felipe Contempomi split a two-test series with France and beat Uruguay by a record margin. South Africa won one and lost one test against Ireland in a series between the two top-ranked teams in world rugby — the Springboks won the first match against Ireland 27-20 before losing the second 25-24 — and then beat Portugal 64-21.
South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus used the mid-year tests to induct a number of newcomers into the Springboks lineup and on Saturday will hand starting debuts to 22-year-old flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and backrower Elrigh Louw.
Otherwise, there are only three changes to the team that faced Ireland in a move which appears to underline the Springboks’ seriousness about this year’s Championship.
South Africa hasn’t always placed a high emphasis on the Rugby Championship which, since 2019, has been won four times by New Zealand.
But this year is determined to play up to its top world ranking in two matches against Australia in Australia and in two home tests against the All Blacks. The Springboks, who also won the World Cup in Japan in 2019, play Argentina home and away.
“As we tell ourselves internally, we can’t look too far ahead and forget the present. We also just can’t look at the present and I think in the squad you can see that,” Erasmus said, explaining his selection. “I think there are nine guys in the squad that weren’t regulars prior to the World Cup last year.
“I wouldn’t say it is the changing of the guard. It is about giving guys an opportunity . . . “
Erasmus said Feinberg-Mngomezulu “is starting at No. 10 and No. 10 is pivotal in every test match. “But he is somebody we know well. He is not someone who has just fallen into our system.”
Schmidt also has introduced many new players as he works to rebuild the Wallabies after last year’s poor performances, highlighted by their early demise at the World Cup when they failed to make it out of the group stage for the first time.
So far, so good. The Wallabies played with confidence against Wales, given license by Schmidt to express themselves. Their revival has drawn a sellout 50,000-plus crowd to Saturday’s match in Brisbane.
Schmidt said his Wallabies team for the match mixes “continuity with freshness.”
“The players have worked with good enthusiasm during the week but we know there is still plenty to work on,” he said. “We’re conscious of the size of the challenge and the size of our opponents but there’s a keenness in the player group to take a step forward.”
The All Blacks managed, just, to see off England in two tests, winning the first by a point and the second by the margin of a converted try. Their match against Fiji in San Diego allowed Robertson to test a number of new players, though he has reverted to his best lineup on Saturday.
There are some questions still over leadership on the field and imagination in the coaching box. The All Blacks face issues at scrumhalf where the loss of Aaron Smith’s long pass has repercussions on attack and at lock where injuries have opened the way for one-test All Black Sam Darry to start on Saturday.
Argentina will field several players who did not take part in the July tests. Juan Martín González, Juan Cruz Mallía and Lucio Cinti have been named in the starting 15 while Agustín Creevy, Joel Sclavi and Tomás Lavanini are on the bench. Efraín Elías, who also is among the reserves, is set for a test debut.
___
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby