Daily Archives: 29 March 2015
Both of last year’s finalists are playing away from home in the FNB Varsity Cup semi-finals on Monday.
Defending champions FNB UCT travel to Bloemfontein to face the unbeaten FNB UFS-Shimlas and FNB NWU-Pukke take on the table-topping FNB UP-Tuks in Pretoria, with both matches televised live on Supersport 1.
The Ikeys and NWU-Pukke both won home semi-finals last year, before going on to contest the epic final in Potchefstroom which saw UCT launch an incredible late comeback to clinch their 2nd title.
This year they both had to work hard in the last open Round last week for their place in the play-offs, with UCT grinding out an 8 / 0 win over UJ on the Green Mile and NWU-Pukke’s 2 bonus points in a losing cause against UFS-Shimlas, enough to book semi-final spots.
It will be a 1st-ever home semi-final for UFS-Shimlas, who are the only team that did not lose in the round robin phase of the competition, and they should be confident against a UCT side that they beat 44 / 24 at Shimla Park in Round 6.
However, UFS-Shimla coach and former Springbok utility back Franco Smith knows that his team cannot afford to underestimate the Ikeys after their heroics in last year’s final.
“I think they must be one of the more difficult sides in the competition, they have got that never-say-die attitude. They are the champs and they would definitely like to prove their worth,” he said.
2-Time champions UP-Tuks have only lost 1 game this year, which was against their semi-final opponents NWU-Pukke who beat them 42 / 37 in an absolute thriller in Potchefstroom back in Round 4.
The nominees for the FNB Player that Rocks award have been announced, along with the Forward and Back that Rocks and the Varsity Shield awards.
UP-Tuks skipper Wiaan Liebenberg, young NMMU flank CJ Velleman and NWU-Pukke fullback Rhyno Smith are the contenders to be named Player that Rocks.
The Forwards that Rock nominees are all openside flanks, with Velleman joined by Maties’ Beyers de Villiers and UCT’s Jason Klaasen while in the backs it is between Smith, UFS-Shimlas captain AJ Coertzen and UCT flyer Lihleli Xoli.
The Vodacom Bulls delivered their top performance of the season as the Emirates Lions recorded their best Vodacom Super Rugby tour yet during an exciting weekend of Southern Hemisphere rugby.
The match in Pretoria was the undoubted highlight of the weekend from a quality point of view, with the Vodacom Bulls extending their winning run at home over the Crusaders after winning 31 / 19.
For sheer audacity, the Emirates Lions deserve a lot of plaudits for beating the Reds by 18 / 17 in Brisbane on Friday morning and thus ending their tour on 3 wins from 4 – their best Australasian return yet.
The Cell C Sharks meanwhile moved to the Top of the South African Conference and into the Top 3 on the log with a hard-fought 15 / 9 win over the Force in Durban on Saturday afternoon, scoring all their points in the 2nd half.
The Toyota Cheetahs and DHL Stormers found the going tough in New Zealand though as both went down – the side from Central South Africa by 37 / 27 to the Chiefs in Hamilton and the Capetonians by 39 / 21 to the Highlanders in Dunedin.
Reds flyhalf Quade Cooper’s last-second drop goal was charged down as his comeback ended in an 18 / 17 defeat at home to the Emirates Lions in Brisbane.
Having already knocked off the Blues and the Melbourne Rebels, the Emirates Lions picked up a 3rd win on their travels this season, with a gritty display.
The game marked Cooper’s return from a fractured collarbone and he showed no ill-effects as his passing game regularly put players into gaps.
That was about the only highlight for the home side for the 1st hour as they struggled to cope with the Lions’ dynamic back row and pace out wide.
South Africa collected 17 valuable World Series log points on Sunday after they defeated Samoa 26 / 5 to finish 3rd at the popular Hong Kong Sevens tournament.
The Blitzboks now have a 2 point lead (110 points) at the top of the standings after Fiji outplayed New Zealand by 33 / 19 to lift the Cup.
The tournament win moved Fiji into 2nd spot, just 1 point ahead of 3rd-placed NZ. The top 4 teams on the league table at the end of the season qualifies for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The teams will be in action in Japan next weekend where they will play in the Tokyo Sevens on 4 and 5 April.
The Springbok Sevens staged a magnificent comeback in their Cup semi-final against Fiji. Unfortunately for them, that was not good enough and they suffered a heart-breaking 21 / 15 loss against the Pacific islanders.
Debbie Jevans
England Rugby 2015 Chief Executive Debbie Jevans CBE has announced that she has decided to resign her position with the England Rugby World Cup organising body due to personal reasons.
Debbie has been at the helm of the Rugby World Cup Organising Committee since October 2012, and leaves with a highly experienced event delivery Executive team in place, with plans for the tournament in excellent shape. All aspects of tournament preparations are on or ahead of schedule, with over 1.9 million tickets sold to date.
The England Rugby 2015 Executive team will now report to Stephen Brown as the new Managing Director, working alongside ER2015 Chairman Andy Cosslett and the England Rugby 2015 Board to oversee the final stage of successful delivery of the tournament.
The Vodacom Bulls picked up their 4th victory of the Super Rugby season as they beat the Crusaders 31 / 19 in an entertaining game at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Fans and viewers were treated to a wonderful game to round off the weekend as the Bulls got the better of their Kiwi opponents, thus moving above them up to 7th in the overall standings and 2nd in the South African Conference, only 1 point behind the Cell C Sharks but with a game in hand compared to them.
In a week where the Bulls lost their best workhorse in Lappies Labuschagne, and lost 2 Springboks in Jan Serfontein (hip) and Arno Botha (hamstring) before kick-off, it wouldn’t be untoward to expect them to be under an immense amount of pressure.
But the 2 players who came in at the 11th hour – midfielder Burger Odendaal and flank Hanro Liebenberg – stepped up to make an indelible impression that they not only belong at this level, but have a number of big games in their future with the way they played.
It was a thrilling 1st half in Pretoria as the Bulls showed their intent to keep the ball in hand, which paid off after 3 minutes when wing Francois Hougaard finished off in the corner. Handré Pollard could not add the extras but it was a hugely positive, fast-paced opening.
The Cell C Sharks secured a scrappy 15 / 9 victory over the Western Force on Saturday in a game that won’t be remembered for quality.
It wasn’t pretty in Durban, far from it, but the home side won’t worry about that as they got the job done against a Force side who should have scored 3 tries, 2 of which were chalked off by the match officials.
The Sharks asserted their physical authority early on as a dominant scrum against the head led to a 1st shot for flyhalf Francois Steyn, who was off-target on the 5-minute mark. However, it looked like the set-piece was definitely going to be a trump card for the Sharks.
Surprisingly though, the Force would win a scrum penalty at the next scrum but this time Sias Ebersohn was the player missing his attempt at goal.
Allister Coetzee
DHL Stormers coach Allister Coetzee was disappointed with his team’s showing against the Highlanders, but he still believes they have what it takes to play winning rugby on their 2015 Vodacom Super Rugby tour.
The DHL Stormers went down 21 / 39 to the Highlanders in Dunedin earlier today and were unable to give flanker Schalk Burger the win they all craved in his 100th game for the Cape-based franchise.
“I am very disappointed,” Coetzee told www.iamastormer.com on Saturday evening (NZ time), “this wasn’t what we wanted for Schalk in his 100th match and it certainly wasn’t what we wanted in our 1st tour match.
Sir John Kirwan
Blues coach John Kirwan knows his team must beat the Chiefs if they are to have any hope of contending for a play-off spot this season.
The Auckland side have made a horror start to the season, losing all 6 of their matches, and Kirwan knows that they must beat the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday to keep their feint play-off hope alive.
“We knew going in we had to win 1 of these 2 games away to stay in the hunt. We were hoping that was going to come tonight, so that doubles the pressure on next week,” the Blues coach said after the loss to the defending champion Waratahs on Saturday.
Manu Tuilagi
England centre Manu Tuilagi is set to miss the rest of the Aviva Premiership season because of a groin injury but should be fit for the World Cup, his Leicester Tigers coach Richard Cockerill said.
The 23-year-old, who has won 25 caps and scored 11 tries for England, is still recovering from the injury he sustained in October.
England’s World Cup campaign begins against Fiji on 18 September, but they play France at home and away in August before hosting Ireland at Twickenham on 5 September.