Blue Bulls back at Loftus for pre-season preparation series
The new pre-season rugby tournament, in which the country’s top eight rugby teams will participate, kicks off this coming weekend.
Due to all the bizarre events and strange phenomena in the sports world caused by the Covid-19 crisis, it is almost strange to realize that we are once again on the eve of a new rugby season in South Africa.
Although the previous season only ended a few weeks ago with the Currie Cup final, the new 2021 season will kick off this coming weekend with the first matches in the Preparation Series for the country’s eight top teams.
The new season will kick off this coming weekend with a number of preparation fixtures for eight provincial teams as national planning focuses on entry to the international Rainbow Cup (previously the Pro14 series) and the Springboks’ forthcoming Test season, starting with the series against the British & Irish Lions.
This series of encounters have been specifically designed by the Rugby Department of SA Rugby and the competing unions to meet teams’ high-performance needs against the landscape of the pandemic and to prepare them for the coming season.
One significant change is that teams will play on a ten-day cycle (rather than each week) to manage Covid testing protocols.
The eight teams – the EP Elephants join the seven sides that competed in the Super Rugby Unlocked tournament and the Carling Currie Cup from October last year – have been split into two groups and will play cross-pool matches between 27 February and 27 March, ensuring four encounters for every side.
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