Daily Archives: 2 July 2014
Considering the amount of Toyota Cheetahs that are leaving for greener pastures, Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash against the Cell C Sharks may be the last time that their fans may see them in their orange and white strip before joining new teams.
And since it is their last home Super Rugby game of the season, coach Naka Drotske has included all his stars for the clash to try and score a win against in the local derby.
No less than eight Springboks are back in action for the team after spending the last month with the Springboks and Trevor Nyakane, captain Adriaan Strauss, prop Coenie Oosthuizen, lock Lood de Jager, utility forward Teboho Mohoke, flyhalf Johan Goosen, wing Cornal Hendricks and fullback Willie le Roux all return to the side for the clash.
The Chiefs have announced their team to play the Hurricanes at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton this Friday.
Friday’s encounter is expected to be the Chiefs last home game for the season and will mark the official farewell for Chiefs players, Tanerau Latimer, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Bundee Aki and Mils Muliaina who are all heading off-shore to continue their careers.
Changes to the side will see Jamie Mackintosh starting at prop, Tawera Kerr-Barlow at scrumhalf and Charlie Ngatai and Tim Nanai-Williams in the midfield.
Asaeli Tikoirotuma and James Lowe start on the wings with Tom Marshall at fullback.
An injury crisis at hooker means Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett was unable to finalise his team for their crunch encounter with the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday.
The men in black and yellow will be doing all they can to claim victory at the Waikato Stadium, as it will be the last round-robin match of the Super Rugby season for the fifth-placed franchise.
Who occupies the No.2 jersey remains to be seen – with team management continuing to monitor the injuries of Dane Coles, Ash Dixon and Motu Matu’u throughout the remainder of the week.
Injuries to Alapati Leiua and Victor Vito in last Saturday’s bruising win over the Crusaders means they have made way for Hadleigh Parkes to start at inside centre, while Brad Shields moves to the back of the scrum.
Handré Pollard
Handre Pollard is not your typical Bulls flyhalf and when he is in control, the Bulls become a different creature all together.
Pollard has enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom culminating in a starting No 10 spot for the Springboks against Scotland on the weekend.
Now, as he returns to Pretoria to get ready for his first senior match in his home province at Newlands, against the Stormers, Pollard is already causing a lot of head-scratching in the Cape.
The Bulls have always been a powerful yet predictable side, especially when it comes to the flyhalf’s role.
Burger Geldenhuys
Former Springbok and Bulls loose forward Burger Geldenhuys fears the Pretoria side may struggle at the breakdowns against the Stormers at Newlands this weekend.
With Jacques du Plessis out with a broken jaw, and Deon Stegmann still sidelined with a groin injury, the Bulls will tackle the Stormers with a slightly make-shift loose trio.
Grant Hattingh, Jacques Engelbrecht and Jono Ross are likely to have their hands full on the ground. None of them are renowned for being great ball fetchers.
Do the business in Bloemfontein on Saturday night … then warm up the Sunday morning coffee smartly and become temporary Highlanders enthusiasts for 80 minutes.
Those ought to be key items on the Sharks’ to-do list this weekend as Super Rugby 2014 enters its penultimate round of ordinary-season play.
Director of rugby Jake White will be aware of the potential hazard of putting the cart before the horse, and drum into his charges that victory against the Cheetahs in a domestic derby is very much the main target.
But if they manage that, their attention will undoubtedly turn pretty smartly to a Sunday morning cracker (in SA time-zone terms, at 08:05) between the log-leading Waratahs and New Zealand-based playoffs challengers the Highlanders in Sydney.
Johan Ackermann
With only two matches left in the round-robin stage of the 2014 Super Rugby competition, the Lions will be looking to finish with a flourish to complete one of their best seasons.
Coach Johan Ackermann said on Tuesday his team would be looking to bow out of this year’s edition with seven victories but they would first have to move past their first challenge against the Rebels in Johannesburg on Friday.
“After the break, these two games are almost a campaign on its own and in rugby you only get remembered for the last game you played,” Ackermann said at the team announcement on Tuesday.
“And if we don’t do well in the last two games, the Super Rugby season will be remembered as not being too good. The opposite side of the coin is that if we win the games, we can look back on a good season with a few mistakes.”
Francois Hougaard
Who Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer earmarks as his flyhalf at the outset of the Championship next month could also have a major bearing on which scrumhalf he chooses to plug the unfortunate Fourie du Preez gap.
Incumbent No 9 and still world-class customer Du Preez, 32, was confirmed on Tuesday as having an ankle injury serious enough for him to ruled out of the entire southern hemisphere tournament.
Given his vast, 70-cap experience and precious ability to read and control a game better than most other South African scrumhalves right now, the loss of Du Preez certainly dents the Boks’ chances of ousting New Zealand from their status as defending champions, even if there have been enough positives in other departments of late to suggest they’ll be seriously competitive nevertheless.
The veteran was just beginning to benefit from a decent run of international matches – important given that he plies his franchise trade in the much more modest arena of Japanese club rugby now – in the June window, looking increasingly more like the character who helped drive the World Cup 2007 success.
Anton Bresler
Sharks lock Anton Bresler has signed a three-year deal with Scottish side, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, who are coached by South African Alan Solomons, announced the news via their official website on Wednesday.
Bresler, who has played 39 Super Rugby games for the Sharks, will join his new team after the completion of this year’s Super Rugby competition.
Angus Cottrell
The Force has received a boost in the lead-in to Saturday’s match against the Reds with flanker Angus Cottrell re-committing to the club for another two years.
The gritty back-rower started in all but one match for the Force this season before suffering a broken ankle against the Crusaders last month.
The 24-year-old has formed a powerful back-row combination with Wallabies Matt Hodgson and Ben McCalman this season, both of whom are signed until the end of 2015.
Beauden Barrett
All Black Beauden Barrett may be in the market, but he is definitely not on the Blues’ wishlist.
Barrett revealed that he is likely to resolves the issues around his future next week, when the Hurricanes have a bye.
However, he should be expecting a call from Blues coach John Kirwan, who said he would be looking internally for a flyhalf.
It followed speculation the Hurricanes playmaker, Barrett, could be moving to Auckland.
Shota Horie
Japanese hooker Shota Horie has signed a new one-year deal with Super Rugby side Melbourne Rebels that will take him through to the Rugby World Cup next year, the club said on Wednesday.
Horie, the first Japanese player to play Super Rugby in Australia, has made 17 appearances for the team and scored his first try in April.
The 28-year-old, aiming to play his second Rugby World Cup in England in 2015, said he was happy to remain in Melbourne after welcoming baby Yoshino to his family a month ago.
Schalk Burger
Schalk Burger returns to the DHL Stormers line up as captain for this weekend’s match against the Bulls in Cape Town.
Burger who was in fine form for the Springboks in the June test series returns after missing the Stormers last game through injury. Springbok Sevens star Seabelo Senatla comes into the match day 22 for what looks to be his Super Rugby debut for the Cape based franchise. Senatla gets the nod due to Kobus Van Wyk not being available through injury.
Injuries have necessitated some positional shifts with Sailosi Tagicakibau lining up in the 13 jersey and Juan De Jongh will play at 12 in the absence of injured Bok newcomer Damian De Allende.