The coach, Rassie Erasmus, made a turn in the City of Roses on Tuesday where he conducted a franchise visit to the Toyota Cheetahs.

Erasmus, who previously captained and coached the Free State to the Currie Cup title, told OFM that Bloemfontein will be the ideal base for fine-tuning his troops.

“You want to be focused,” said the former Springbok captain.

“There will be seven extra guys that will be on standby for the World Cup, and they cannot train with you during the entire Rugby World Cup.

“That week there will be a bit of fine-tuning in order to make sure that the whole 37-man squad know the game plan and are on par with what we want to do.

“Sometimes when you are a little bit more isolated it gives that players a lot more focus before boarding the plane.

“This is from previous experience by other World Cup coaches, so hopefully the same works for us.”

The Springboks will face Japan in Tokyo in a warm-up match, before tackling the All Blacks on 21 September in Yokohama in their opening game of the World Cup.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport