SA Rugby
Racing-Metro’s Springbok utility back Frans Steynwill be fit to play the Top 14 playoff tie against Toulon on 26 May after recovering from a thigh injury, his club confirmed on Wednesday.
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) has welcomed a compromise agreement on the kick off date for the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament as well on a new funding model to recognise impacts on unions in Rugby World Cup years.
The IRB Council on Tuesday reached agreement that the 2015 tournament will kick off on September 18, which represented a compromise between the organiser’s preferred date and that of the SANZAR nations, who will be engaged in the Castle Rugby Championship until shortly before Rugby World Cup kick off.
Saracens eighthman Ernst Joubert could be on his way to Cape Town to help alleviate the Stormers’ loose forward injury crisis.
SANZAR have released the match officials for Week 13 of Super Rugby 2012, with Mark Lawrence starting the first game on Friday and Marius Jonker finishing the weekend off in Perth on Sunday.
This weekend has 7 matches, 1 on Friday, 5 on Saturday and the last 1 on Sunday, meaning only one team has a bye-weekend, namely the Chiefs.
The Sharks could be forced to play their Super Rugby clash this weekend against the Cheetahs without star flyhalf Patrick Lambie due to injury.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee wants SANZAR to change their regulations so that Super Rugby teams can field their strongest teams in the play offs.
Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee has confirmed that eighthman Nizaam Carr will miss the rest of the Super Rugby season due to injury.
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula is bringing former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers back into rugby to assist with the development of the sport, according to a Sowetan report.
As much as I hate this clichéd saying that every sports commentator has used with gay abandon since the 1980’s, where the English football hacks had run every overused idiom, including this one into the ground, it is most apt for this game. This really was “a game of two halves”.
Taranaki 3 / 3 South Africa – 11 August 1956, Rugby Park New Plymouth
The Springbok team arrived in New Plymouth in high spirits after winning the second test and constructing an impressive win against Wanganui – scoring 7 splendid tries. There was a feeling in the camp that the tour was back on track and that the team was starting to hit form. The struggling performance against a spirited Taranaki team therefore came as a bit of a shock; a reality check.
Within context of the tour it was a match as important and influential as the Waikato game. The spirit, commitment and overall performance of the Taranaki team showed the way for the All Blacks according to Terry McLean and this had a highly significant influence on the outcome of not only the third test but also the series:
LIONS president Kevin de Klerk believes next week’s crunch meeting between the South African Rugby Union and franchise bosses would “draw a line in the sand” on the Super Rugby participation saga. In January the Port Elizabeth-based Southern Kings were guaranteed their place in the 2013 Super Rugby tournament by unanimous decision at a General Council meeting of SARU.
During the Stormers and Cheetahs clash at Newlands a fight of sorts broke out in the second half. Just prior to this happening, Assistant referee Jonathan Kaplan had his flag out. Steve Walsh was about to walk over to him when the whole fight broke out.
Stormers (16) 16 / Cheetahs (0) 14 (Final Score)
The DHL Stormers and Toyota Cheetahs did battle in Super Rugby at Newlands, Cape Town at 19:10 SA Time.
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
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The whole Southern Kings and Super Rugby situation in South Africa has gotten me thinking and after discussing it with a avid rugby & Lions supporter in Francois Nell, the following transpired:
Why don’t we have teams playing in both Super Rugby, Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup? We have enough teams to do this and it should strengthen South African rugby. Here are a couple of options SARU might well want to consider in going forward in to the future.
Sharks (20) 53 / Force (6) 11 (Final Score)
The Sharks and Western Force did battle in Super Rugby at Mr Price Kings Park, Durban at 17:05 SA Time.
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
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Waratahs (13) 24 / Bulls (10) 27 (Final Score)
The Waratahs and Vodacom Bulls did battle in Super Rugby at Allianz Stadium, Sydney at 11:40 SA Time (19:40 Sydney Time).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
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Blues (10) 25 / Lions (3) 3 (Final Score)
The Blues and MTN Lions did battle in Super Rugby at Eden Park, Auckland at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
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Here are the Super Rugby Team Sheets for Week 12 of Super Rugby 2012.
Herewith all the Teams, as announced for the weekend.
Vodacom Super Rugby has been attracting bumper TV audiences as it reached the halfway mark at the weekend. Average viewership has increased by 15% on 2011, while viewership of South African derbies averages 685,581, making it easily the most popular sporting event on DSTV’s premium bouquet – apart from Springbok Test matches.
England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster has named a 42-man squad for next month’s five-match tour of South Africa.
Drawn mostly from the Senior and Saxons Elite Player Squads, nine Aviva Premiership clubs are represented for the three-Test series, with the party captained by Player of the Season, Harlequins’ Chris Robshaw.
Canada’s Jebb Sinclair has been loaned by his Aviva Premiership side London Irish to the Stormers as loose forward cover.
The Cheetahs have acquired the services of Boland Cavaliers pivot Elgar Watts to prevent a possible flyhalf crisis.
Two of the most slippery and mercurial scrumhalves in Super Rugby will lock horns in Sydney on Friday.
The match-up between the Bulls’ Springbok Francois Hougaard and Sarel Pretorius, the former Cheetahs try-scoring factor who has made a new home for himself at the Waratahs this season, will be one of the highlights of the encounter.
VS
Last night, one of our Authors, Just for Kicks, mailed me regarding the spreading spat between the Pro-HSM (Highbury Safika Media) crowd and the Pro-Joffers crowd (Greame Joffe and like-minded parties), for want of defining the parties better…
… and thrust in the middle is the dillemma of involvement of the Southern Kings in Super Rugby in 2013 versus possible relegation of the worst performing South African Super Rugby franchise, the Lions, as well as SARU’s apparent woeful handling of Super Rugby participation.
The matter has now escalated to a seemingly FREE-FOR-ALL !
The contents of this Article is long and sometimes laboured, but the serious South African rugby supporter would do well to read and listen to all of it, and form his or her own opinion about the subject matter.
Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez has committed himself to seeing out his contract with Japanese champions, Suntory Sungoliath, but he has also declared himself available should he be needed for Test duty with the Springboks.
Western Province rugby player, Kitshoff, is one of a number of players that have signed with French Top 14 side Bordeaux-Begles for next season.
We take a quick glance at the results, what-ifs, leading points and try scorers after the eleventh week of competition in 2012 Super Rugby.
The Stormers have re-signed fly half Peter Grant for the 2013 Super Rugby season but he will miss the Stormers pre-season warm ups next year.
Cheetahs lock Andries Ferreira has been cited for alleged foul play through a dangerous tackle on the Force’s Matt Hodgson during the Cheetahs Super Rugby victory over the Force.
Prop Rayno Gerber and loose forward Gerrit-Jan van Velze has been called into the Vodacom Bulls touring squad in Australia. Continue reading