Three-test SA tour for Wales next summer

WALES will travel to South Africa next summer for a three-test series against the world champion Springboks.

The news has been revealed by head coach Wayne Pivac as he outlines his team’s schedule in the run-up to the 2023 World Cup.

It will be the first time Wales will have toured South Africa since 2014 when they came tantalisingly close to a first Test victory in the country during a cliffhanger of a contest in Nelspruit.

They have had a series of titanic tussles with the Springboks in recent years.

There were four successive victories over them sandwiched between two narrow World Cup knock-out defeats.

Next year’s tour will come as the culmination of a hectic period for Pivac’s Welsh team.

They have three matches against Canada and Argentina at the Principality Stadium next month, when some new faces will be handed a chance, with five uncapped players in the squad.

That will be followed by autumn Tests at home to New Zealand, the Springboks, Australia and Fiji.

Then comes the defence of their Six Nations title prior to the trip to South Africa, which will be a return visit for a number of the players heading there with the Lions this summer.

Looking ahead, Pivac said: “We’ve got a pretty hefty autumn series, by any stretch of the imagination.

“Then we’ve got a Six Nations where we’re obviously trying to defend a title and then three Tests in South Africa.

“So if you look at the next 12 months, this summer is the time to look at building the extra depth that’s going to be required.”

Meanwhile, England have added Ed Robinson and Alex Codling to their coaching team for their summer series against the USA and Canada.

Robinson, an assistant at Championship side Jersey Reds, will return to Eddie Jones’s staff after serving as skills coach during the recent Six Nations.

He will help Jones run the attack following the recent departure of Simon Amor.

Codling, who won his solitary England cap in 2002, will focus on the line-out and joins the national set-up after spells with England Under-20s, Harlequins and Ealing.

England open their summer series with an ‘A’ fixture against their Scottish counterparts on June 27 followed by Tests against the USA and Canada.