Rugby: Poland fly out to South Africa for pre-season tour

Until now, the team would fly out to France for training session, although a decision of the team’s manager Maciej Brażuk will mean 24 Poland team members will train down south.

“We also took Portugal and Georgia into account, and were looking for a country where the discipline is played at a high level and also for a change of scenery,” Brażuk told the PAP news agency.

“I also wanted to show the boys what rugby looks like across the world, to get to know rugby culture. We have a lot to learn from the South Africans,” he added.

The Springboks have twice won the World Cup, in 1995 and 2007.

The first training match is billed for Friday against a local university XV. Barżuk admits that “we might have some big problems with this match, but it’s not about the result, because we are going over to learn”.

“This will be a good test before our matches against Belgium and Ukraine in the European Nations Cup,” he underlined.

The national team is set to meet the Polish Ambassador in South Africa as well as the local Polonia diaspora. There will not be much time for sightseeing, however, with Barżuk saying that “we’ll be concentrating on matches and training sessions”.

Poland is in the Division 1B of the European Nations Cup, and is currently second in the tables. Earlier in the season, Poland won at home against Sweden 29-17 and the Netherlands 9-8, but lost away to Moldova 25-48.

The matches against Belgium and Ukraine are billed for 18 April and 9 May respectively. (jb)

More on the European Nations Cup can be found here.