{"id":24219,"date":"2026-02-25T10:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/boks-to-launch-2026-season-with-clash-against-barbarians\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:56","slug":"boks-to-launch-2026-season-with-clash-against-barbarians","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/boks-to-launch-2026-season-with-clash-against-barbarians\/","title":{"rendered":"Boks to launch 2026 season with clash against Barbarians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The fixture serves as preparation for their Nations Championship opener against England at Ellis Park two weeks later. The Barbarians will be coached by former All Blacks boss Scott Robertson and Argentina&#8217;s Felipe Contepomi, supported by Patrice Collazo and Kenny Lynn. South Africa won last year&#8217;s meeting 54-7 in Cape Town, and coach Rassie Erasmus says the match will be an ideal opportunity to sharpen structures and mindset ahead of a new season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n<div><a id=\"OWA03ec4c96-556c-e955-ccb0-5d8b60cbc07c\" class=\"x_OWAAutoLink\" title=\"Original URL: https:\/\/sabc-plus.com\/. Click or tap if you trust this link.\" href=\"https:\/\/zaf01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsabc-plus.com%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CDlaminiSD%40sabc.co.za%7C219a693a8bb24c7abbfc08de74423ee1%7C17694f0c19394195913e8542ec6bea22%7C0%7C0%7C639076025031395791%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=aak8oum9ICarqaoTEdwqinpIsKJBAwceNwTGjKitZ7Y%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBTAA7\" data-imageproxyendpoint=\"\/actions\/ei\" data-imagetype=\"External\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23236,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-24219","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Springboks will launch their 2026 season with a non-cap clash against the Barbarians at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on June 20","published_date":"2026-02-25 00:00:00","news_description":"The Springboks will launch their 2026 season with a non-cap clash against the Barbarians at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on June 20","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26970,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24219\/revisions\/26970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=24219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}