Boks’ travel plans to Australia thrown into disarray by delayed departure

The Springboks' departure to Australia for the away leg of the Rugby Championship on Thursday was thrown into disarray by the cancellation of their flight to Sydney as a result of complications with the flight crew.

The 34 players assembled in Johannesburg early on Thursday afternoon and were scheduled to fly out to Adelaide via Sydney later that evening, but their plans were disrupted.

The Boks will now travel to Sydney on Friday at midday. They will have a short stop-over before flying to Adelaide, which is the venue for their first of two Tests against the Wallabies next Saturday.

The team will face Australia again in Sydney on September 3 and will conclude their campaign with back-to-back Tests against Argentina in Buenos Aires and Durban on September 17 and 24 respectively.

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said it was important to adapt to the travel delay rather than allow it to have a negative impact on their planning.

“We are a solution-driven team and we will not gain anything by allowing unforeseen circumstances such as this to derail our plans.

“The coaches and conditioning staff have already adapted our training programme to suit our delayed arrival in Australia and we will get back down to business as soon as possible when we arrive Down Under.

“Fortunately this group of players have been together all season and they know our game plan and what we need to do to get our Castle Lager Rugby Championship campaign back on track, and that is our sole focus at this point.

“We lost a little preparation and travel recovery time, but we have a massive task ahead of us, so we will do everything possible to adapt to the conditions and time zone as quickly as possible once we arrive in Australia and return to the training field.”

The Boks are set to arrive in Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.

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