The earlier three Rugby Championships have all been received by the All Blacks, whereas the Boks completed as runners-up in 2023 and 2022.
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi is fired up for his facet to make a run at wining the Rugby Championship, however may be very conscious that they might be out of the operating in the event that they slip up of their opener in opposition to the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday morning (kick-off 6:45am).
Kolisi has presided as captain over an unprecedented run of success for the Boks, which has included successful two World Cups, a British and Irish Lions collection and the Rugby Championship.
However, that Rugby Championship triumph got here earlier than the World Cup in 2019, and in World Cup years the Rugby Championship is a shortened model and isn’t seen as extremely attributable to it solely being a single spherical of fixtures, whereas some groups are additionally making ready for the showpiece occasion.
Thus the present Bok group have by no means received a full model of the competitors and that will likely be a motivating issue for them this 12 months, but when they’re to win it their finest probability will likely be to stroll away from Australia with two wins over the coming days.
“This is a very important match for us, as we haven’t done well in Brisbane in the past. We know that we can’t win the Rugby Championship by winning these two games (in Australia), but we know that we can lose it by not doing well in them,” defined Kolisi at Friday’s pre-match press convention.
“We’ve worked hard since we arrived here and we know what we are up against, so stressing about the record (here in the past) won’t help. Our focus is on what we must do on the field, and we know it’s going to be challenging.”
Previous competitions
The earlier three Rugby Championships have all been received by the All Blacks, with them successful all three of their video games in 2023’s shortened model.
In the earlier two full variations, in 2022 the All Blacks received 4 out of six video games, the identical as the Boks, however edged the competitors due to an additional bonus level, whereas in 2021 they comfortably received with 5 wins, with their solely loss coming in opposition to the Boks that 12 months.
These two video games in Australia are thus vitally essential for the Boks and they are going to be determined to begin with a win at a stadium that they’ve received at solely as soon as in 12 makes an attempt.
Despite not being thought of a challenger for the Rugby Championship, the Wallabies will likely be keen to maintain bettering, after a dismal run of kind in recent times, whereas they may also be eager to maintain up their spectacular residence file in opposition to the Boks, in entrance of a packed residence crowd.
“We expect a side that’s going to come out to win. It’s a sold-out stadium, they have the people behind them. We’ve seen how well they did against Wales and Georgia,” stated Kolisi.
“We know it is going to be an enormous factor for them in the event that they can get a win over us. That actually hasn’t been our focus. We’ve accomplished our preparation and watched the gamers individually. Most essential is what we’ve to do.
“In the past, when we lost, we didn’t deliver on what we needed to do and then they got the upper hand. So the focus is on us, but also respecting them.”
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