Internationals
The George Sevens Premier League tournament has received a major boost ahead of its revised date in January.
The very popular and highly competitive Kenyan national team will now also play at Outeniqua Park early in 2014.
Back row forward Sean O’Brien is in danger of missing Ireland’s entire Six Nations campaign, as he requires surgery on the dislocated left shoulder he suffered against Ulster last Saturday.
Australia winger Digby Ioane will make his much-anticipated Stade Francais debut against Perpignan on Sunday, his club said Saturday.
Carlin Isles, a 24-year-old US Sevens wing, touted as the fastest man in rugby, was signed to a practice squad receiver contract on Thursday by the NFL’s Detroit Lions.
All Blacks 11 / 5 Springboks (Eden Park, Auckland 1 September 1956)
Ron Hemi:“The fourth test was the hardest game I ever played in, and this was at a time when I considered myself to be at peak physical fitness. South Africa made a big mistake in the selection of their first five-eighth and fullback. Bill Clark and Ross Brown were able to box in Howe and kill play close in, preventing the South African outside backs from operating. And a more determined fullback than Viviers would have prevented Jones’s try. The New Zealand tactics of bursting around the rucks, the ball being kept at close range in front of the forwards, was the winning formula.”
The year was full of spectacular moments and performances as well as disappointing lows and infamous incidents; we name and shame the best and worst in our 2013 Awards.
New Zealand and Wales ruled their respective hemispheres for the second successive year, the All Blacks enjoying a flawless 2013 campaign.
The New Zealand Rugby Union have confirmed that cross-code star Sonny Bill Williams has signed with the Chiefs for 2015.
Williams, who will continue in rugby league with the Sydney Roosters in 2014, has signed a two-year deal, meaning he could appear for the All Blacks at the 2015 World Cup.
He will return to the Chiefs, for whom he played in 2012, in the Super Rugby competition.
Northampton have been fined £60,000 by a Premiership Rugby disciplinary panel for letting wing George North play for Wales against Australia on 30 November. The match, which Wales lost 30-26, took place outside of the International Rugby Board’s autumn window.
The IRFU and Ulster Rugby are pleased to announce that Rory Best has signed a new two-year Irish contract. The deal will run until June 2016.
Warren Gatland has extended his contract as Wales coach until the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
This is the second extension of the contract between the WRU and the New Zealander who was originally appointed as head coach of Wales in 2007.
The British & Irish Lions of 2013 were named team of the year and Warren Gatland won the top coach honour at the 2013 BBC Sports Personality awards. Kiwi Gatland, 50, led the Lions to their first Test series win in Australia for 16 years.
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie is not concerned by the possibility that the Waratahs may play Israel Folau at centre next year.
All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter will have surgery to remove bone spurs from his right ankle, which is a separate issue from his Achilles injury.
Ireland prop Cian Healy looks set to miss the start of next year’s Six Nations tournament after undergoing surgery on an ankle injury.
Five key members of the Springbok squad in 2013 will go head-to-head for the annual SA Rugby Player of the Year Award, while the Steval Pumas have been rewarded for their great form this season with nominations in four categories.
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers, the winner in 2008 who led South Africa to 10 victories in 12 Tests in 2013, will go up against Bismarck du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Willie le Roux and Duane Vermeulen for the most prestigious individual award in South African rugby.
When Heyneke Meyer’s second season as Springbok coach came to an end a few weeks ago, it represented the halfway point between World Cup cycles, with less than two years remaining until the kick-off of the next global showpiece event in September 2015.
After a year which saw the Boks end with a success rate for the season of more than 80 per cent, only the third time it had happened in the post-isolation era, Meyer should have been well pleased with the progress his team has made since the nervous beginnings against England at home in June 2012.
South Africans Craig Joubert and Jaco Peyper have been appointed by the International Rugby Board (IRB) to referee in next year’s Six Nations.
Leigh Halfpenny’s stunning 12 months continues after he was named Wales Sports Personality of the Year on Monday night.
Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver pulled no punches about what he thinks of Quade Cooper’s boxing career.
All Blacks hooker Hika Elliot has been ruled out of Super Rugby next year after undergoing neck surgery and may quit rugby altogether.
The Wallabies have agreed to play the Great Britain rugby league team in a $10 million hybrid-game spectacular at Wembley Stadium next year. London’s most famous football venue has been booked for December 6, a week after the Wallabies’ last game on their 2014 spring tour.
The South African leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series, was held at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth, takes place on 7 and 8 December 2013.
The tournament was played in emotionally charged circumstances after the death of beloved South African and world statesman, Nelson Mandela, who passed away in the night of 5 December 2013.
In these circumstances the open question was whether South Africa’s Blitzbokke could go one better than the previous tournament when they were beaten in the final by Fiji.
The question was answered… the South African Blitzbokke are the winners and title holders at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth!
Here are the Fixtures and Results:
Ireland will tackle South Africa and Australia in next year’s November international Test series, the Irish Rugby Football Union announced on Friday.
British and Irish Lions hooker Richard Hibbard and Wales flyhalf Rhys Priestland have joined the exodus of Wales players leaving the Welsh regions and joined the growing contingent of Wales internationals playing in England.
Lions hooker Hibbard has agreed to join Gloucester at the end of this season while Scarlets pivot Priestland has agreed to move to Wasps.
Maybe it’s fitting that the South African leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series tournament of 2013 / 2014 takes place a couple of days after the passing of the world’s biggest ever statesman, Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) at the stadium named in his honor, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
It is the last sevens action in the HSBC Sevens World series of 2013.
The South African Blitzbokke will be eager to tribute this tournament to Madiba.
We bring you all you need to know about the 16 teams who will be vying for top honours in the Nelson Mandela Bay SA Sevens, the third round of the IRB Sevens World Series in Port Elizabeth this weekend.
New Zealand rugby saluted Nelson Mandela on Friday, saying the sport had lost “a champion of our game” with the passing of the former South African president.
Only players who make a Test appearance will be given a Springbok number and regarded as full Springboks.
Wales will have an opportunity to break their SANZAR bogey when they face the world’s top three sides in next year’s November internationals.
The International Rugby Board’s (IRB) top three ranked sides, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia will visit the Millennium Stadium along with Pacific Island nation Fiji.
Wales coach Warren Gatland has confirmed that he would be interested in coaching the British and Irish Lions when they tour his country of birth New Zealand in 2017.
All Blacks and Crusaders vice captain Kieran Read has been named the International Rugby Board’s Player of the Year for 2013.
New Zealand rugby claimed a triple scoop on the awards as the All Blacks were also named team of the year while coach of the year went to Steve Hansen.
The Springbok Sevens have called up Steven Hunt, Kwagga Smith and Rosco Speckman as injury cover for Stephan Dippenaar, Jamba Ulengo and Frankie Horne.
The South Africans will be in action over the weekend in the Cell C Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens in Port Elizabeth.
The South African Blitzbokke and the other 15 international teams participating in this weekend’s Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens arrived at the Port Elizabeth International Airport on Monday evening.
The 16 teams arrived on two flights from Johannesburg, with the second flight about half an hour after the first flight.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens tournament marks the last leg of the 2013 part of the 2013 / 2014 HSBC Sevens World series, to be resumed well into 2014.
SANZAR have announced the draw for the 2014 Rugby Championship which will start on the 16th of August when Australia host New Zealand in Sydney.
The 2014 Super Rugby season ends on August the 2nd and then the Southern Hemisphere’s best players will get the weekend of August the 9th off and then the Rugby Championship starts a week later on the 16th.
The New Zealand Rugby Union have confirmed their Test schedule for 2014 which starts with a four match tour of New Zealand by England.
England will tour New Zealand for the first time since 2008 and along with three Test matches they will also play a midweek match against the Crusaders.
Wales dropped out of the top five on the IRB World Rankings following their 26-30 loss to the Wallabies in Cardiff on Saturday.
With only three international fixtures over the weekend, the focus was on the pulsating encounter between Wales and the touring Australians at Millennium Stadium.