Daily Archives: 24 March 2015
SANZAR has announced the appointments of the Match Officials for Round 7 of the 2015 Super Rugby season.
The Brumbies have a BYE weekend.
There are 7 Super Rugby games this weekend, 2 on Friday and 5 games on Saturday.
The weekend’s action is kicked off by Stuart Berry in the game between the Hurricans vs Melbourne Rebels at 08:35 SA Time. Thereafter also on Friday the Reds host the Emirates Lions at 11:00 SA Time, where Glen Jackson will be the man with the whistle.
On Saturday the action starts early, at 05:30 SA Time, when the Chiefs host the Toyota Cheetahs in Hamilton, controlled by Craig Joubert in the middle. Thereafter it is the Highlanders vs DHL Stormers in Dunedin at 08:35, where Rohan Hoffman will be in charge. Next up, at 10:40 SA Time in Sydney, the Waratahs host the Blues where Jaco Peyper will preside.
On Saturday afternoon and evening in South Africa, the Cell C Sharks host the Western Force in Durban at 17:05 SA Time, with Nick Briant in charge. The Last game of the weekend sees the Vodacom Bulls take on the Crusaders in Pretoria at 19:10 SA Time, where Angus Gardner will be the man in the middle.
Considering the shenannigans last weekend in the game between the Cell C Sharks and the Chiefs, where 3 Red cards were dished out and a further player cited after the game, here’s hoping that the Match Officials are impartial and sees themselves as facilitators of the game and not controllers and here’s hoping that player-dicipline is markedly better than in Round 6!
All we can and should ask for is even-handed application of the Laws and rules.
Two late bonus points saw FNB NWU-Pukke sneak into the FNB Varsity Cup semi-finals ahead of FNB Maties, on points difference.
Last year’s beaten finalists will face table-toppers FNB UP-Tuks in Pretoria next week, while defending champions FNB UCT will travel to Bloemfontein to take on the unbeaten FNB UFS-Shimlas in the other semi-final.
Three-time champions Maties romped to a comprehensive 53 / 8 victory over winless FNB CUT in Bloemfontein, but it was not enough in the end as they miss the play-offs for just the 2nd time in the history of the competition.
Although NWU-Pukke went down 29 / 26 to UFS-Shimlas in Bloemfontein, 2 late tries saw them pick up 2 vital bonus points to knock Maties out on points difference.
UFS-Shimlas are the only team that have not lost this season, but they ended in 2nd place to UP-Tuks, who were far too strong for FNB NMMU.
The Pretoria outfit outscored the Madibaz by 5 tries to 1 in Port Elizabeth to seal Top Spot ahead of UFS-Shimlas, on points difference.
UFS-Shimlas will host their 1st-ever semi-final against UCT who battled to a tough 8 / 0 victory over FNB UJ on a windy Green Mile in Cape Town, to secure their spot in the play-offs.
Ikeys flank Jason Klaasen scored the only try of the match in a tight encounter, which saw UJ end the season in 6th place ahead of NMMU and CUT – who finished their debut season without a single Log Point.
The Warriors have announced that hooker Dougie Hall will retire from rugby at the end of the season, while prop Jon Welsh and assistant coach Shade Munro will also leave the club.
Shade has been part of the coaching staff at the Warriors since 2003 and will leave his role this summer when his contract expires.
Dougie arrived from Edinburgh in 2007 and has gone on to make 141 appearances for the PRO12 side over an 8-year spell. In the summer he will join one of the club’s sponsors, McCrea Financial Services.
Jon, who joined Glasgow in 2008 and has gone on to make 106 appearances, will join Newcastle Falcons for next season.
Burger Odendaal
Vodacom Bulls midfielder Burger Odendaal will return to training today after a successful rehabilitation phase on a meniscal knee injury which saw him miss the opening part of the Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Odendaal will find a number of team mates missing on Monday though, as Jan Serfontein (stiff hip flexor), Marcel van der Merwe (contusion)and Dean Greyling (neck) will only return to the training field on Tuesday and Roelof Smit (ankle) and Lappies Labuschagne (nasal fracture) only on Thursday.
Amongst the longer term injuries, Jacques-Louis Potgieter (1 week, hamstring), Flip van der Merwe (pectoral, 2 weeks) and Akona Ndungane (hand, 3 weeks) are a week closer to returning to the fold.
Emirates Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has announced his side to face the Reds in Brisbane on Friday.
In the forwards, Ackermann has made just 1 change for the game, as Robbie Coetzee starts at hooker.
Meanwhile, in the backline, Ross Cronje returns to the starting 15 at scrumhalf. He pairs up with Elton Jantjies who shifts back to flyhalf. Sampie Mastriet shifts to left wing, making way for Ruan Combrinck who starts at right wing.
Harold Vorster returns to the starting line-up at inside centre, while Andries Coetzee starts at fullback.
Kick-Off is at 11:00 SA Time on Friday.
Cobus Reinach
Marcell Coetzee
Patrick Lambie
The Springbok trio of Cobus Reinach, Marcell Coetzee and Patrick Lambie are all expected to be rested for the Cell C Sharks’ showdown with the Western Force, in line with the agreement with SA Rugby over player management.
The 3 have earned the break after influential performances during the competition, and the good news that Frans Steyn was cleared to play means he may well take over the flyhalf position from Lambie, although the coaches may not want to break up his midfield partnership with JP Pietersen.
If the pair remain at No 12 and No 13 respectively, either Fred Zeilinga or Lionel Cronje will step into the number No 10 jersey, after solid performances for the Sharks XV in their Vodacom Cup clash on Saturday.
“It’s a huge boost that we will have Frans available, it provides massive stability to the team, especially due to the changes we will have with the resting of the Springboks,” said assistant coach Paul Anthony.
Liam Messam
Chiefs captain Liam Messam’s citing has been upheld after the charge was amended to an act contrary to good sportsmanship.
However, there has been no sanction placed on the All Black flank.
Messam was cited, along with teammate Hika Elliot, Sharks captain Bismarck du Plessis and centre Frans Steyn, after a spiteful game in Durban last weekend.
The Chiefs captain was cited after the match for tackling and gripping Sharks flank Renaldo Bothma around the neck in a ruck – the incident went unnoticed by the match officials on the day.
A SANZAR judicial hearing has found Messam guilty of contravening Law 10.4 (m) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship.
No sanction has been imposed on the player.
David Pocock
David Pocock’s principled stand against homophobia on the field will cost him any chance of captaining Australia again, says former Wallaby Greg Martin.
Pocock’s on-field complaints to the referee led to Waratahs forward Jacques Potgieter being fined AU$ 20 000.00 for using homophobic slurs during his side’s win over the Brumbies on Sunday.
Respected rugby commentator Martin says Pocock did the right thing in speaking out but his action will split opinion in the game.
“He’ll pay for it. It will mean that he will never captain the Wallabies again,” Martin told Brisbane’s Triple M radio on Tuesday.
“What he’s done, he hasn’t fractured the game down a Waratahs-Brumbies line… It won’t be fractured down like that, but it will be fractured upon clear-thinking, modern-thinking footballers who will support David Pocock and the more old school, hard heads who will say that was a disgrace he shouldn’t have done that.
Tevita Kuridrani
The Brumbies have been left with a gap in the midfield following news that destructive outside centre Tevita Kuridrani will be sidelined for 2 months with a shoulder injury.
It is just the second major blow to the Brumbies’ injury list this season.
Scans suggested Kuridrani damaged his AC joint in the 13 / 28 loss to the Waratahs at the weekend.
The skilful Wallaby centre will luckily avoid surgery and that could mark an earlier return to the field if his rehabilitation goes well.
Dom Shipperley
The Melbourne Rebels will be without winger Dom Shipperley until at least Round 11 in Super Rugby after he fractured his hand playing against the Emirates Lions.
Rebeles winger Shipperley suffered the injury in the Rebels 20 / 16 loss to the Lions at AAMI Park on Friday and will be sidelined for an estimated 4 – 6 weeks.
Shipperley, who was making his 50th Super Rugby appearance, has started all 5 games for the Rebels this season since moving to Melbourne, however he will now be ruled out until at least Round 11 after undergoing surgery.
Former Bulls prop Bees Roux has signed for Oyonnax as medical cover for Antoine Guillamon, the Top 14 side announced on Monday.
The 33-year-old Roux played this season with the Lions, having previously lined out for the Leopards (2002 – 2006), the Griquas (2007 – 2008) and Cheetahs (2007).
He also played for French clubs Clermont (2008 – 2009) and Begles-Bordeaux (2011 – 2012) and Italian club Benetton (2012 – 2013).
New Zealand and South Africa battled each other in 1 of the 2 Semi-Final games of the Cricket World Cup, at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand.
The match started at 03:00 SA Time (14:00 NZ Time).
As expected, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and India made the Semi-Finals.
The Other Semi-Final, between Australia vs India take place on Thursday 26 March at 05:30 SA Time (14:30 Sydney Time) at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first.
The South African Innnings was interrupted by rain and the game was reduced to a 43 Over per side game.
South Africa reached a total of 281 / 5 in their allotted 43 Overs, with Faf du Plessis (82), AB de Villiers (65 not out) and David Miller (49 off just 18 balls) doing the damage.
New Zealand started like a house on fire, with Brendan McCullum racing to 59 off only 26 balls… till he eventually perished. Kane Williamson perished on 6 runs, off 11 balls. Martin Guptill eventually perished on 34, from 38 balls and then Taylor departed for 30 off 39 balls. At this stage, New Zealand was still just above the required run-rate.
2 More wickets followed but it was not enough for South Africa.
New Zealand won with 1 ball spare, a 6 off the last ball by Grant Elliott, an Ex-South African himself!