Springboks confirm final Test before 2027 Rugby World Cup
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Road to World Cup 2027.
The Springboks have confirmed they will face Fiji in their final Test before launching their bid for a third successive Rugby World Cup title next year.
Rassie Erasmus’ side will take on the Flying Fijians at Polytec Stadium in Gosford, on Australia’s Central Coast, on Saturday, September 18, 2027.
The game will kick off at 6pm local time and will bring South Africa’s preparations to an end just over two weeks before their World Cup campaign begins. The defending champions open their tournament against Italy in Adelaide on October 3.
Fiji should provide a significant final examination for the Boks, having established themselves as a genuine threat to the world’s leading nations in recent years.
They reached the quarter-finals of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France and are currently competing alongside South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Japan as one of the six southern hemisphere nations in the Nations Championship.
Erasmus believes their recent progress makes them an ideal opponent immediately before the World Cup.
“Fiji are a quality team who have consistently tested some of the top teams in the world over the last few years,” Erasmus said.
“They proved that they can be a force to be reckoned with by advancing to the quarter-finals of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, so it’s certainly going to be a great test for our team before the international spectacle in Australia.”
It will remarkably be just the fourth Test between South Africa and Fiji. The nations last met at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, when the Springboks recorded a 49-3 victory in Wellington.
Their most famous encounter came four years earlier when Fiji pushed South Africa in a thrilling World Cup quarter-final in Marseille before the Boks eventually pulled clear to win 37-20.
Both teams will also establish training camps on the Central Coast around the fixture as they make their final preparations for the tournament.
South Africa will arrive at the 2027 World Cup attempting to achieve something no nation has managed before by winning the Webb Ellis Cup three tournaments in succession.
