‘We are still going to be heavily tested’– Thando Manana on Springboks season
South Africa got their season off to a great start. Robert Marawa interviews Thando Manana, Head of High Performance and Special Projects at the Blue Bulls Company.
RUGBY | Springboks VS the Barbarians | 28 June 2025 | Image Credit: Ruth Smith
947’s Robert Marwa chats to former Springbok (2000) Thando Manana. He is the Head of High Performance and Special Projects at the Blue Bulls Company.
Listen below:
The Springboks blew the Barbarians away with a thunderous 54–7 victory in rainy Cape Town over the weekend.
The back-to-back World Cup winners outplayed the visitors to win the Qatar Airways Cup for a third time.
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“The alignment camps and a couple of weeks in Johannesburg… truly proved that they are onto something.”
– Thando Manana
“Rassie Erasmus giving those youngsters time to play against the Barbarians… he does have people like Tshituka, Asenathi, Jean-Luc de Preez… they are on the outskirts looking for the opportunity, but when they get it, they perform.”
– Thando Manana
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Manana says there is a lot at stake for the Boks this year.
Erasmus will use this time to find his best starting 15 ahead of the Rugby Championship and the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
“…this is a big year for them... they have to win most of their games, if not all, for them not to be in the Group of Death.”
– Thando Manana
“Opportunities and game time at international level, we are still going to be heavily tested… [But] we’ve got good preparation against Italy and Georgia.”
– Thando Manana
The Springboks are back in action this weekend as the Test season kicks off.
South Africa takes on Italy on Saturday, 5 July, at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
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Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.