Rugby Championship trophy (Getty Images)

SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux on Friday welcomed the announcement that the Rugby Championship would be held in 2020 but could not confirm the defending champions, South Africa’s participation.

Australia was picked over New Zealand to host the coronavirus-affected tournament on Friday which was originally scheduled to begin in August.

The four-way international tournament, which also involves Argentina will be held from 7 November to 12 December.

“We are pleased that the venue has now been confirmed and would like to commend SANZAAR and Rugby Australia for their work behind the scenes to make it possible,” said Roux.
 
“We are very eager to see the Springboks return to play but there are still some hurdles to clear and we will be addressing those in the coming weeks.”

Roux added that there were several logistical challenges to overcome with a ban on international sporting activity still in place. A number of player wellness issues to also consider would be the differing physical conditioning of the teams.

New Zealand resumed match play three months ago while Australia had been in action for 10 weeks. By contrast, South African players only resumed contact training two weeks ago.

– Compiled by Baden Gillion