SA Rugby
Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has named his 23-man side to face the Cell C Sharks at Growthpoint Kings Park Stadium on Saturday evening.
Toyota Cheetahs Coach, Naka Drotske , has announced a team that shows 3 changes to the starting line up.
Oregan Hoskins will be President of the South African Rugby Union for another four years.
Hoskins, who has already been in the hot seat for eight years, will be unopposed at the Annual General Meeting of SARU.
Akona Ndungane will become the ninth Vodacom Bulls player to play 100 Vodacom Super Rugby matches for the franchise when they take on the Blues at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. The stalwart winger made his Super Rugby debut way back in 2005 against the Cats and earned his 50th cap for the Bulls in 2009, playing against the Reds in Pretoria.
Ndungane, who scored against the Blues in last year’s win in Auckland, will start in an unchanged backline, as all three changes to the starting line-up made by Vodacom Bulls coach Frans Ludeke, are in the forward pack.
The Springboks will face 2013 Six Nations champions Wales in two Tests in Durban and Nelspruit during the Castle Lager Incoming Series in June, followed by a once-off international against Scotland in Port Elizabeth.
The fixtures were confirmed by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) on Wednesday.
Singapore has emerged as the favourite Asian region to be included in an expanded 18 team Super Rugby tournament from 2016.
SANZAR are looking at proposals to expand Super Rugby after the current broadcast deal expires at the end of 2015.
A sixth South African team the Southern Kings has been promised and SANZAR are looking at ways to include Argentina.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann knows he has a massive task getting his charges ready for this weekend’s massive Vodacom Super Rugby showdown with the Sharks, but the weather that has beset Gauteng over the past week certainly isn’t helping.
Ackermann lamented the fact his team couldn’t train because of waterlogged pitches as the rain continued to bucket down for a fifth consecutive day in Johannesburg.
Coach Allister Coetzee has made four changes to his starting line-up for the DHL Stormers’ first match of their 2014 Vodacom Super Rugby tour.
The DHL Stormers will take on the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday (kick-off 08:35 SA Time, 19:35 NZ Time) without injured forwards, lock Rynhardt Elstadt and flanker Siya Kolisi, with the fit-again De Kock Steenkamp and Schalk Burger replacing them up front.
Read this and see if you understand it. This was copied by me, nothing changed, no spelling corections made, from the Official SA Rugby Referee website.
The incident we have today must be the most bizarre in the whole of the time the TMO has been implemented to help referees get to the right decision.
SANZAR has released the names of the match officials for Round 4 of Super Rugby 2014. Craig Joubert starts the action this weekend in Wellington with the Hurricanes vs Brumbies match.
This weekend has 6 matches, with 2 on Friday and 4 on Saturday.
The Chiefs, Highlanders and Waratahs have bye weekends.
Siviwe “Shakes” Soyizwapi and Scott van Breda will start against the Tusker Simba XV in Cape Town on Saturday in the Eastern Province Kings first Vodacom Cup match of the season.
Vodacom Cup head coach, Mzwandile Stick, said both Soyizwapi and Van Breda, who had been on loan to the Stormers, had returned to the Kings this week, as they had not been selected as part of the Stormers touring squad.
FNB NWU-Pukke handed defending champions FNB UP-Tuks their first defeat of the 2014 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International tournament on Monday to claim top spot on the standings.
Coach Robert du Preez’s team were ruthless in wet conditions Pretoria as they shut out the home side to claim a convincing 18-0 victory and leapfrog them on the log in the process.
FNB UCT recorded their third away win of the season in Johannesburg, scoring five tries on their way to a 37-29 victory over FNB UJ to move up to third position.
The Ikeys have lost both of their home games this season, to table-topping teams UP-Tuks and NWU-Pukke, but have won all of their games on the road, whilst the defeat leaves UJ down in seventh place and facing a tough road to make the semifinals.
The top four after five weeks of action is rounded off by FNB UFS-Shimlas who ended deadlocked at 13-13 with three-time champions FNB Maties in their clash in Stellenbosch.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann and his fellow selectors will have a few tough decisions to make this week.
Top of their list will be what to do with Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies, now that the pivot has been “medically cleared” to resume playing.
Will the Vodacom Bulls spring a surprise and bring former captain Dewald Potgieter straight back into the starting lineup?
That’s the question that needs to be answered ahead of their team announcement to face the Blues in their Vodacom Super Rugby match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
DHL Stormers coach Allister Coetzee is to name his team for Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash with the Crusaders in the early hours of the morning South African time on Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see what choices he comes up with in some key areas.
Francois Steyn is happy to see the Lions back in Vodacom Super Rugby – but he has warned that the competition returnees can expect no mercy from his Sharks team when the team’s clash in a derby at Growthpoint Kings Park on Saturday evening.
UJ (16) 29 / 37 (29) UCT (Final Score)
FNB UJ (University of Johannesburg) and FNB UCT (University of Cape Town)
did battle in the Varsity Cup at UJ Stadium, Johannesburg at 19:00 SA Time (17:00 GMT).
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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The Vodacom Bulls released two Media Releases today, the first dealing with their weekly fitness update and the second announcing some interesting loose forward signings to counter the two long term injuries of Pierre Spies (6 months) and Arno Botha (5 months to go).
Deon Stegmann is fit again and training with the team this week.
Wimpie van der Walt, who played for the Southern Kings in Super Rugby in 2013 and who now plies his trade in Japan, will join the Bulls for 2 months with options for him to stay on longer and negotiations with Dewald Potgieter who also plies his trade in Japan is in advanced stages.
Wits (4) 12 / 18 (5) NMMU (Final Score)
FNB Wits (University of the Witwatersrand) and FNB NMMU (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)
did battle in the Varsity Cup at Wits Rugby Stadium, Johannesburg at 16:45 SA Time (14:45 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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The Vodacom Bulls and DHL Stormers both scored their first wins of the season, but this past weekend of Super Rugby action should have confirmed the growing concern among neutrals that the story of the South African conference this year will be that there is the Sharks and then there’s rubbish.
The Sharks, who would hardly have been quaking in their boots as they watched the games featuring South African teams on television during their bye weekend, admittedly weren’t all that flush in their last performance, when they beat the Hurricanes.
Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske has read the riot act to his players, and demanded a better performance than the one they put up in their Vodacom Super Rugby loss to the Melbourne Rebels.
Drotske was not a happy man after his side went down 35-14 to the Melbourne Rebels in their opening tour match – continuing their trend of not being able to win in their first match on tour.
It has been described as the “tour from hell” and also as “Mission Impossible”, but the toughness of the four-match trip that the DHL Stormers embarked upon with their departure from Cape Town on Sunday could just work for them.
The 19-18 win over the Hurricanes at Newlands this past Friday wasn’t enough to turn around the negativity that swamped Cape rugby after the shock defeat to the Lions in the opening game the week before, and which has arguably been around since the Currie Cup final last October.
The Reds have earmarked their encounter with a misfiring Cheetahs team as the game in which to bounce back.
The Reds suffered a disappointing 5 / 32 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney at the weekend, and are one from two after a 10-point win over the Brumbies the previous week.
The Vodacom Bulls and DHL Stormers returned to winning ways on a weekend of Vodacom Super Rugby where 6 from 7 home teams were victorious.
Ironically both the teams from Pretoria and Cape Town were outscored by 2 tries to 1 in their respective matches against the Lions and the Hurricanes, but won mainly because of pin-point goal-kicking accuracy.
On Friday evening the DHL Stormers snuck through by 19 / 18 against the Hurricanes at DHL Newlands, while the Vodacom Bulls beat the Lions by 25 / 17 in the first Gauteng-derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t a happy weekend for the Toyota Cheetahs though, as they lost their first tour match of the season by 35 / 14 to the Rebels in Melbourne.
The Cell C Sharks had a bye.
Predicting how many games each of the South African Conference franchises will lose, is the object of this game. After 3 Rounds of Super Rugby in 2014 we still have no casualties.
Each franchise plays 16 games in the regular season, 8 against fellow South African Conference sides (home and away) and 8 against the sides in the other 2 Conferences.
Players in this competition had to predict how many games each team will lose and draw during the regular season.
All participants showed little faith in the Lions and the players who gave the Lions their best chance of not losing too many were Gumboots and Grootblousmile, with only 11 loses predicted. The Lions might just be the Achilles heel for most in the competition. The Lions were only given a chance to win between 2 and 5 games.
There is little to choose between any of the teams in a mouth-watering set of fixtures in Round Five of the 2014 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International.
With two log positions the biggest gap between any of the teams in each match on Monday, the standings could get another serious shake-up with the play-offs getting ever-closer.
Top spot will be on the line when defending champions FNB UP-Tuks host FNB NWU-Pukke who trail them by just a single point, whilst it will be a very similar scenario in Stellenbosch where FNB Maties will look to move past opponents FNB UFS-Shimlas into third place.
DHL Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee has announced a 27-man squad for his team’s four-match Super Rugby tour of Australasia.
Centre Jean de Villiers will lead the squad abroad, a group that includes new Samoan star Sailosi Tagicakibau and the Japan-based Peter Grant, but excludes Argentinean lock Manuel Carizza.
Bulls (19) 25 / 17 (10) Lions (Final Score)
The Vodacom Bulls and Lions did battle in Super Rugby at
Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria at 17:05 SA Time (15:05 GMT).
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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Stormers (6) 19 / 18 (12) Hurricanes (Final Score)
DHL Stormers and the Hurricanes did battle in Super Rugby at
Newlands, Cape Town at Fiday 28 Feb 19:10 SA Time (17:10 GMT, 06:10 Saturday 1 March NZ 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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Rebels (17) 35 / 14 (0) Cheetahs (Final Score)
The Melbourne Rebels and Toyota Cheetahs did battle in Super Rugby at
AAMI Park, Melbourne at 10:40 SA Time (19:40 Melbourne Time, 08:40 GMT).
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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Super Rugby is already in Round 3! We have 7 games in Round 3, with 3 games on Friday and 4 games on Saturday.
The Cell C Sharks have a bye weekend and of course Bye Points fall away in 2014.
In June / July 2014 the Antipion teams will catch up in played games with the South African counterparts, when the South African sides sit out for 1 Round.
The Combined Log will therefore be skewed for the majority of the competition and one has to question why individual countries are allowed to start such a long competition ahead of it’s rivals. In 2013 the Australian sides started a week early, but at least they had the excuse that they needed an extra week in the middle of the year to prepare for the British & Irish Lions series, which they lost.
Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has named his 23-man outfit to do battle with the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.
Ackermann has opted for consistency, making just two forced changes to the Lions’ starting 15, that derailed the DHL Stormers 34 / 10 last weekend.
Looking back on Round 2 of Super Rugby 2014, the first full Round where all three participating nations took part in Super Rugby, it might be good to look at some key factors coming to light in the Round.
The official SANZAR website, www.sanzarrugby.com brings you the seven key statistics over the second round of the 2014 season.
The Vodacom Bulls, who have been struggling in the first two Rounds of Super Rugby in 2014 are reportedly hunting the services of Dewald Potgieter, who is currently playing his rugby in the Japanese league and also the services of Juan Smith, who is playing his rugby at Toulon in France.
In the meantime, Frans Ludeke is still adament that backing Louis Fouché is the right thing to do, despite Louis Fouché being dropped from this weekend’s match-day 23.
Former Chiefs wing Sailosi Tagicakibau is set to join the Stormers on the Australasian leg of their Super Rugby tour.
The 31-year-old Samoan international has played 24 Tests (21 for Samoa and three for the Pacific Islanders) and has played in the last three World Cups.