The Rugby Championship
Tom Taylor will make his All Black debut at flyhalf against Australia in the second Bledisloe Cup Test in the Rugby Championship in Wellington on Saturday
The starting 15 features two injury-enforced changes from the team that started last week’s Bledisloe Cup Test, with lock Brodie Retallick coming in for Luke Romano and Taylor slotting in at No.10 for Aaron Cruden.
Springbok assistant coach John McFarland says the manner in which they scored was the most pleasing aspect of Saturday’s Soweto hammering.
The Springboks scored nine tries as they got their Rugby Championship campaign off to a perfect start with a 73-13 victory over Argentina at Soccer City.
However, it’s how they scored their tries rather than how many that showed the improvement the team have made over the past 12 months, according to McFarland.
Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie looks set to resist the temptation to dump his rookies after one bad performance.
There has been a clamour for McKenzie to make changes – with fullback Jesse Mogg and Matt Toomua the two players most in the firing line of the Australian critics.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is likely to keep his starting XV unchanged for their Rugby Championship Test against Argentina in Mendoza on Saturday (21:10 SA time kick-off).
The Boks annihilated the Pumas 73-13 at FNB Stadium last week and it is expected that Meyer will opt for continuity this week.
New Zealand suffered a triple blow ahead of their return match against Australia in Wellington on Saturday.
All Black pivot Aaron Cruden and his back-up Beauden Barrett have both been ruled out of the Rugby Championship Round Two clash.
Australia, still reeling from the humiliating 29-47 loss to New Zealand last week, have had injury added to the insult.
Wallaby back row forward Hugh McMeniman will miss the remainder of the Rugby Championship and also the year-end tour after being forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury.
Trevor Nyakane has been dropped from the national squad for “repeated breaches of team protocol”.
It was announced on Sunday that Lourens Adriaanse and Piet van Zyl, who made his Test debut in June against Scotland in Nelspruit, have been added to the Springbok squad of 26 players that travelled to Argentina on Sunday.
South Africa have the potential to rival New Zealand as the top team in the world.
This is the candid assessment of World Cup-winning Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, after his telling contribution to his country’s record-breaking 73-13 victory over Argentina in Soweto at the weekend.
Du Preez, who played his first Test in nearly two years after being released by his Japanese club Suntory Sungoliath, scored one of the Boks’ nine tries.
New Zealand have called four players into their squad as cover for Saturday’s Rugby Championship return match against Australia after suffering a number of injuries in the Sydney opener at the weekend.
Argentina captain Felipe Contepomi is looking for a big response from his team when they face the Springboks on home soil this weekend.
The Pumas were blown away by the Boks in Soweto on Saturday, conceding nine tries to one in a resounding 73-13 defeat, so they will have everything to prove in the return fixture in Mendoza.
This was supposed to be the Bledisloe that sparked the Wallaby revival. Instead, after an emphatic All Black victory, all it’s done is heap more pressure on Australian rugby.
The Wallabies had such a huge buildup and high expectations around how they were going to turn things round.
Springboks (26) 73 / 13 (6) Pumas (Final Score)
The South African Springboks and Argentinian Pumas did battle in The Rugby Championship at
Soccer City (FNB Stadium), Soweto at 17:00 SA Time (15:00 GMT, 12:00 Arg Time.
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SS4, SLSA, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
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Wallabies (19) 29 / 47 (25) All Blacks (Final Score)
The Australian Wallabies and New zealand All Blacks did battle in The Rugby Championship at
ANZ Stadium, Sydney at 12:05 SA Time (20:05 AEST, 22:05 NZ Time, 10:05 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1 & SHD on TV in SA.
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Engineers will undertake checks at Wellington Regional Stadium ahead of next week’s Rugby Championship clash between the All Blacks and Australia following a 6.5 magnitude earthquake south of New Zealand’s capital city on Friday.
Flyhalf Matt Toomua will make his debut for Australia, while Quade Cooper was named on the bench for Saturday’s opening Rugby Championship match against New Zealand in Sydney.
Toomua was given the starting No.10 assignment ahead of Cooper by new Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie, for the match doubling up as a Bledisloe Cup encounter.
Blindside flank Liam Messam on Thursday withdrew from the All Black team to face Australia this weekend due to a hamstring strain, forcing coach Steve Hansen to draft in inexperienced Steven Luatua.
Messam pulled up sore at training, preventing him from featuring in the Rugby Championship opener against the Wallabies in Sydney on Saturday.
The Springbok side for Saturday’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship opener against Argentina at Soccer City in Soweto shows four changes from the team which beat Samoa in June.
Two of the changes are in the starting XV, both of them in the forwards, and two on the bench for this Test, which forms part of the Nelson Mandela Sport & Culture Day activities.
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen has put his faith in the fitness and mental toughness of Richie McCaw by naming him to lead the world champions in their opening Rugby Championship clash against Australia on Saturday.
The 32-year-old has only recently returned to rugby after a six-month sabbatical from the game, playing 80 minutes of a lower level club match and making cameo appearances off the bench for the Crusaders in the Super Rugby playoffs.
Felipe Contepomi will captain the Pumas in the Rugby Championship clash against the Springboks in Soweto on Saturday.
Contepomi will lead Argentina in the No.12 jersey in place of regular captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, who has been ruled out with a calf injury.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer welcomed the calming effect Fourie du Preez brought to the team ahead of their Rugby Championship opener against Argentina at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.
The veteran of 62 Tests has been called into the Springbok squad for the first time since the Springboks’ quarter-final defeat to Australia at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
“I was very impressed with Fourie du Preez today (Monday), I always knew he was a world-class player and it’s been an honour for me to coach him since he was 19-years-old,” Meyer said.
“He hasn’t lost anything.
Flyhalf Dan Carter will miss New Zealand’s first two Rugby Championship Tests against Australia and could be sidelined for up to four weeks with a calf strain.
This Monday morning the overseas contingent of the Springboks joined the squad in preparation for The Rugby Championship and this weekend’s game against Argentina. This after the Pumas have already been in camp for a month and having just completed 2 vital warm-up games against a strong New South Wales Barbarians touring side, just winning the first encounter and then doing a real demolition job on the NSW Barbarians side on the weekend, winning 58 / 12.
Of course the Springboks firstly have to come to grips with the new scrum engagement sequence, something we saw this past weekend in The Currie Cup Premier Division matches, which caused quite a stir.
During last week Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira sat out with a hamstring twinge, Coenie Oosthuizen had the flu and Jannie du Plessis was nursing a light calf strain, so it’s fair to assume not a great deal of scrum preparation work could be done.
Controversial back James O’Connor said on Monday he is prepared to change his ways to be part of the Wallabies set-up under new coach Ewen McKenzie.
Aviva Premiership Rugby club Bath have announced that Springbok flanker Francois Louw has signed a new long term deal with the Club.
Crusaders centre Ryan Crotty was rushed into the All Blacks squad Sunday as injury cover less than a week from their opening Rugby Championship game against Australia in Sydney.
Argentina warmed up for their Rugby Championship campaign with an impressive 58-12 demolition of a NSW Barbarians selection.
In chilly conditions in Salta the Pumas recorded a second victory against the touring New South Wales team, producing a much improved performance from the opening encounter of their two-match series.
Veteran prop Benn Robinson and scrumhalf Nick Phipps were among the 10 players cut from the Wallabies squad.
New coach Ewen McKenzie narrowed his selection pool for the opening Rugby Championship Test against New Zealand on August 17 – an encounter which doubles as a Bledisloe Cup contest.
McKenzie, who replaced Robbie Deans as head coach after Australia’s 1-2 series loss to the British and Irish Lions last month, included eight uncapped players in the 30-man squad announced Friday.
He still needs to trim that down to 22 for the Test in Sydney.
If the Springboks wonder where they will be tested next week, the answer is surely to come in the scrums.
The International Rugby Board’s decision to change the scrum set laws again will come under scrutiny as South African props have to come to terms pretty quickly with the new regulations at international level, with players not yet being able to trial them at local level.
Since the Springbok squad for the upcoming Rugby Championship was announced, featuring 10 players who will be applying their trade away from South African shores, speculation has been ongoing whether there has been a shift away from picking South African based players over internationally based South Africans for the Springboks.
This week there has been some mumblings by Jurie Roux, SARU CEO, and the inclusion of Japan-based Fourie du Preez has prompted the question whether Japan’s clubs and our National team setup has moved the goal posts as far as selection of Japanese players are concerned.
Opinion is widely devided on whether the Springboks should allow foreign-based players to be eligible for Springbok selection, with the one lot saying it’s the professional era and where you are based no longer matters, as long as you are the best in your position. The result is the conundrum of player availability well before a Test. At the moment clubs overseas are only obliged to release the players to be available on the Monday preceeding the Test, which allows for very little preparation time.
On the other hand there has been the stance that overseas-based players should not be picked for the Springboks, in order to firstly discourage players leaving the SA shores for lucrative deals elsewhere, having chosen to apply their trade elsewhere and thus voluntarily choosing not to be considered for the Springboks. I was a serious proponent of this stance, but I’ve had somewhat of a mind shift, I must admit.
Certainly for the upcoming Rugby Championship, it would have been foolhardy not to pick the Springboks who have recently decided to go overseas, after all there are 6 regular starting Springboks amongst those recent departees.
I now find myself in the middle somewhere, hoping players could stay in South Africa if they aspire to continue or start their Springbok careers, yet seeing the inevitability of the lure of the stronger currencies abroad.
The solution would have been simple…. institute a CENTRALLY CONTRACTED SYSTEM here in South Africa (very similar to the New Zealand system), where SARU takes charge of the contracts of the frontline Springbok players, but that remains a pipe dream and clearly is beyond the capabilities of the inept bunch at SARU. In stead we can rely on SARU to muck things up even more and I’m afraid but I would not want their grubby hands to touch Central Contrating under those circumstances.
Another solution could be to impliment a CLEAR OVERSEAS QUOTA SYSTEM in the selection policy, where SARU regulates to the players and national coach that only 2 or 3 overseas-based players may be included in a 30-man squad. This would have put the Springboks in a conundrum situation right now before the start of The Rugby Championship, but maybe with an eye on the End Of Year Tours and beyond, that system must be applied, unless it can be negotiated that overseas-based players are available earlier and for every Test of the year, no exceptions allowed.
Below some of the news and speculation in this regard, taken from what was available in the press.
Argentina head coach Santiago Phelan has confirmed a twenty-six man squad to travel to South Africa and play the Springboks at Soccer City on Saturday 17 August 2013.
The team will play a warm-up match against New South Wales in Salta on Friday before they travel to South Africa.
Experienced hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau and lock Peter Kimlin are out of the Wallabies’ extended squad for the Rugby Championship because of injury and will miss the opener against New Zealand.
Coenie Oosthuizen has an ideal opportunity to cement a permanent place for himself in the Springbok squad heading towards the 2015 Rugby World Cup as coach Heyneke Meyer looks desperately for a back-up for Jannie du Plessis.
The Bok coach made his intentions quite clear this past week when he selected Oosthuizen as the back-up tighthead.
The new scrum laws will wind the clock back, says Dan Cron. Hookers actually hooking, halfbacks putting the ball in straight – it won’t be scrummaging as we’ve come to know it.
The Springboks will utilize the skills of Richie Gray as breakdown consultant for the remainder of the Test season in 2013.
The Springbok selectors have opted for continuity when they named a 30-man squad for the opening two rounds of The Castle Lager Rugby Championship later this month against Argentina.
Only three players who were not part of the Springbok squad which won the Castle Lager Incoming Series in June have been added to the squad.
They are experienced scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, who has been selected for the Springboks for the first time since the Rugby World Cup in 2011, Gurthrö Steenkamp (prop) and Duane Vermeulen (No 8), who last played for the Springboks in November 2012.