Daily Archives: 12 September 2014
SUPER MAN: Humble 23-year-old Brodie Retallick turns into a super-powered lock when he pulls on the All Blacks jersey.
Brodie Retallick is forging a reputation as one of the best locks in world rugby. Toby Robson got to know the 2.04-metre 23-year-old with his head in the clouds but his feet firmly on the ground.
Brodie Retallick has been working things out from the start.
As a youngster he and his two brothers, Logan and Brook, would crowd around their father Glen as he worked on their motorbikes.
Long days spent riding around the family’s 5-acre block in Broomfield or towing each other on sleds took their toll on the machinery.
It wasn’t long before the Retallick boys were fixing things themselves. Mum Jo’s boys were the hands-on types, out playing rugby in the yard rather than parked in front of the television.
EP Kings (6) 13 / 28 (11) Blue 
Bulls (Final Score)
The Eastern Province Kings and Vodacopm Blue Bulls did battle in the ABSA Currie Cup Premier Division at
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth at 19:10 SA Time (17:10 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1 & CSN on TV in SA.
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Round 3 of the Rugby Championship ended in heartbreak for the Springboks when they went down to Australia by 1 point in the final few minutes of what was not an entertaining match at all.
The referee, the yellow card to Bryan Habana, the failed touchfinder by Morné Steyn and various other reasons have already been dissected and discussed, so we won’t dwell on those.
The second round of matches in the Guinness PRO12 take place this weekend with four matches scheduled for Friday night, one for Saturday and one for Sunday.
Both matches involving teams from Scotland will be played on modern artificial pitches. In the first match, tonight, Edinburgh Rugby will play host to Connacht Rugby at BT Murrayfield in what will be the first match on the newly laid hybrid pitch at the National Stadium. The final fixture of the weekend will see a top four clash between Cardiff Blues and Glasgow Warriors on the 3G pitch at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park.
In the spotlight: George Clancy
SANZAR are looking to bring in a challenge system in order to combat refereeing errors, with each team allowed three per game.
Following in the footsteps of cricket and tennis, teams would be able to challenge a referee’s decision, while the TMO would be used only for these challenges, leaving the on-field referee to make the rest of the calls.
There are currently concerns that referees are hiding behind their TMOs at the moment, rather than making their own decisions, and the official in charge would now be responsible for deciding on tries and incidents of foul play.
The news comes after a weekend where both Rugby Championship games featured controversial refereeing decisions, with Argentina denied a perfectly good try when Pascal Gauzère called a knock-on on a charge-down from Leonardo Senatore.
Ruan Pienaar’s prodigious kicking highlights a flaw in the Springbok rugby mindset.
Forget what you think about this test match.
There is so much more riding on tomorrow night’s capital contest than a handful of competition points.
This is a battle between total rugby and totalitarian rugby, a stylistic skirmish between one team that enjoys the sweet freedom of expression and another which squirms in the grip of moderation’s gorilla mitt.
The All Blacks have a higher winning percentage in the professional age against the Springboks than they do the Wallabies and yet it is the Boks who are viewed as the ultimate foe.
Questions have been asked in the past few years about whether Australia are still a worthy adversary. A once intense rivalry has lost its edge.
Veteran Lock: Victor Matfield
Victor Matfield can remember the time when he turned the All Blacks lineout into a jellyfish.
The veteran Springboks lock believes those days are over, but says South Africa can beat the All Blacks at Westpac Stadium on Saturday night.
“There was a time when their lineout didn’t fire, and now I think it is almost the best [in the world] to go up against,” the 37-year-old said today.
“I think they probably analyse it more, see it as a facet of its own and put a lot of time into it.
“They contest very well and I think they spend a lot more time at the lineout than they did in those early years.”