Bryan Habana will undertake a fitness programme with other leading Springboks © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours: Tri Nations

Teams: South Africa

Top Springboks will undertake a four-week fitness programme after the Tri-Nations as part of continued preparations for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

Twenty players will be placed on tailored regimes after the South African Rugby Union (SARU) reached an agreement with their provincial counterparts over Currie Cup player release. Leading players will now enter the competition at the semi-final stage.

The plan is not a new one, having worked successfully in 2006 prior to the Boks' World Cup victory a year later.

"We undertook a similar programme in 2006 and were satisfied with the results and have again had buy-in from the provincial unions and our competition sponsor, Absa and from [TV broadcasters] SuperSport," National Teams manager Andy Marinos said. "The significant difference this time is that the players will appear in the knockout stages of the Currie Cup - something that didn't happen in 2006.

"That was a strategic decision as we wanted to give the players some game time before the end-of-season tour, which will be deliberately approached as if it were a World Cup campaign."

South Africa begin their Tri-Nations defence against New Zealand at Eden Park next weekend, finishing the campaign against the Wallabies in Bloemfontein on September 4. Players will return to their provinces by October 16.

South Africa players selected to take part in tailored fitness programmes upon the completion of the Tri Nations:

Andries Bekker, Bakkies Botha, Heinrich Brussow, Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis, Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana, Adrian Jacobs, Ricky Januarie, Tendai Mtawarira, Victor Matfield, Wynand Olivier, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Danie Rossouw, John Smit, Juan Smith, Morne Steyn, Pierre Spies