Venues and kick-off times for Castle Rugby Championship confirmed

Sanzar confirmed the final draw and kick-off times for the Castle Rugby Championship 2012, where Argentina will join the three teams from the former Tri-Nations in a new elite tournament.

All three of the Springboks’ local matches – in Cape Town, Pretoria and Soweto – will kick off at 17h00.

The South African kick-off times of the Springboks’ tour matches are: 21h10 against Argentina in Mendoza on August 25; 12h35 against Australia in Perth on September 8 and 09h35 against New Zealand in Dunedin on September 15.

The opening day will see the introduction of the new ‘double-header’ format with the Wallabies hosting the All Blacks in the opening game of the tournament. New Zealand, Australia and South Africa currently occupy the top three positions in the IRB World Rankings, with Argentina, who finished third at the Rugby World Cup in 2007, ranked seventh.

Sixteen rich years of competition in the Tri-Nations Series will now evolve into a never-before seen tournament which will not only give the Pumas a much-anticipated entry into a major world rugby tournament, but also see Australia, New Zealand and South Africa travel to Argentina to play.

There are two bye weeks to allow for travel in what will be arguably the toughest international tournament in world rugby, outside of the Rugby World Cup. The Rugby Championship for 2012 runs from 18 August to 6 October. The full draw is attached