New Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has hinted the national team could sit out this year's Rugby Championship if they do not get sufficient game time in the period leading up to the tournament.

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The southern hemisphere's premier international rugby competition was initially scheduled for August but now looks like it will be staged in November, with the entire tournament probably taking place in a single country, likely to be New Zealand.

But while the Australian and Kiwi players have already resumed their local Super Rugby competitions, the Springboks have yet to play a professional game since winning the World Cup in Japan last November.

The prospect of having to spend several weeks in New Zealand's own backyard playing the All Blacks and Wallabies is a daunting one indeed, and Nienaber is mindful of sending his players into such a scenario if they are not sufficiently conditioned.

Rassie Erasmus' former protege feels the Currie Cup competition would need to begin at least by the end of August in order for the Springbok players to have an adequate amount of preparation for the intense cauldron-like atmosphere of a Rugby Championship staged entirely in New Zealand.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that the players have received sufficient conditioning so that they can play rugby," Nienaber told Rapport newspaper.

The Bok coach said his players would need to have an extended run of domestic matches before the Rugby Championship.

"If we can't play six games, then I don't think we will go. The player well-being risk would just be too great."

Nienaber also mooted the idea of having a bigger squad of 45 players in order to avoid any problems with mandatory quarantine periods if replacement players need to be called upon, should the tournament go ahead.

- TEAMtalk media