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World champions South Africa choose Toulon as base for World Cup pool stages / Photo: © AFP/File
World champions South Africa choose Toulon as base for World Cup pool stages
Reigning world champions South Africa will base themselves in Toulon for 28 days of the pool stages of next year's Rugby World Cup, it was announced Friday.
The Springboks will also be based in Paris for a week leading into the third pool match against Ireland at the Stade de France.
South Africa had a selection of three potential bases in the south of France, but after inspections by head coach Jacques Nienaber and the team’s head of operations Charles Wessels, Toulon was the preferred venue.
The Springboks will launch their title defence against Scotland on September 10 in Marseille, before taking on Spain a week later in Bordeaux, Ireland on September 23 and the top qualifier from the Asia/Pacific region back in Marseille on October 1 in their final pool match.
"Toulon Rugby Club's RCT campus hosts some of the best training and team facilities in the regions we visited, and we are delighted with our selection with Toulon as our base for three of the pool matches in the round-robin stages of the competition," said Nienaber.
Toulon will be well known to at least two of the Bok squad, winger Cheslin Kolbe and second-row forward Eben Etzebeth, who both currently play for the club in the Top 14 and European competition.
"They have an exceptional infrastructure," said Kolbe, one of the stars of the Springbok side that won the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
"I'm very excited to welcome my teammates here and I hope to be in the squad for this World Cup," which runs from September 8 until October 28.
Y.Harris--SFF
