Domestic rugby will return to our TV screens next week when the Stormers tackle the Lions on Super Fan Saturday.
The match will be one of two encounters on the day, with the Bulls and the Sharks locking horns in the other clash at Loftus Versfeld, in what will be the first rugby action since the coronavirus brought a halt to Super Rugby in March.
Super Fan Saturday is not the only event to whet your appetite for the upcoming season, with Saru yesterday also announcing a Green versus Gold match the following week.
Springbok assistant coaches Mzwandile Stick and Deon Davids will coach the respective teams for the match that will take place at Newlands on 3 October.
Saru explains: “The selection process will take the form of a draft pick from an enlarged squad of 60 players with Green and Gold team bosses taking alternate turns in an old-style ‘school yard pick’ to assemble their match-day squads of 25 players each.”
Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus adds: “This will not only be an opportunity to see the best of the best available in South Africa square off against each other in what promises to be something never seen before, but it will also provide the players with another valuable opportunity to shake of the rust and get the legs and lungs going after not playing any rugby in the last six months.”
These two matches will serve as curtain raisers to the actual domestic tournament, details of which will be released in due course.
Saru does say, though: “In what is another first for South African rugby, the local competition will continue over Christmas and New Year and will culminate in semifinals [January 16] and a final on January 23 next year.”
Fans will still not be allowed at stadiums, though.