AT LAST, STARS HAVE ALIGNED FOR BOKS

THE Springboks arrive in Australia today to resume their participation in the Rugby Championship against New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, and we wish Siya Kolisi’s men luck as they endeavour to defend the title they won in 2019, which proved to be a precursor to winning the World Cup that year.

Last year, the Rugby Championship could not be played in its entirety because South Africa was on lockdown and the Boks’ rivals contested a Tri-Nations instead, but at last the stars have aligned for our team to travel and play their first overseas matches since that epic final in Japan two years ago.

And last week it seemed that the Championship would be called off because of spiralling Covid-19 cases in New Zealand and Australia, sparking speculation that it could only be saved if hosted in Europe or even South Africa, where the British and Irish Lions and then Argentina have been successfully hosted.

The Argentinians and the Springboks were kept in limbo in Gqeberha, where the Boks had beaten the Pumas in the opening rounds of the Rugby Championship, as they awaited a decision from organisers Sanzaar, and the subsequent decision was that the Championship would be played in Queensland.

The Pumas and the Boks yesterday boarded the same flight to Brisbane, and there they will join the All Blacks and the Wallabies in a Queensland bio-bubble. The Boks’ first match will be against the Australians on September 12, on the Gold Coast.

The Boks have a return match against the Wallabies, and then it is the big centenary match against the All Blacks on September 25 in the northern Queensland city of Townsville.

The bitter rivals first played each other in the New Zealand South Island city of Dunedin in 1921, and few could have predicted that 100 years later they would be doing battle in a stadium better known for the rugby league team that is the North Queensland Cowboys.

But the global pandemic has changed the world, and we are grateful that the Springboks are back on the road, and we wish them well wherever they play.