SA Rugby
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers on Wednesday became only the sixth player to be named South African Rugby Player of the Year more than once, while Eben Etzebeth was named the Young Player of the Year for 2013 for the second successive season at a glittering ceremony at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg.
De Villiers led the Springboks to 10 wins in 12 Tests in 2013 and scored five tries in the process following an outstanding Vodacom Super Rugby campaign for the DHL Stormers. His first-class record now stands at 254 matches with 91 tries scored.
Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has announced his first Super Rugby side to take on the Cheetahs in the South African Super Rugby opener on Saturday.
The team features 6 Super Rugby debutants namely Chrysander Botha, Marnitz Boshoff, Franco Mostert, Julian Redelinghuys, Robbie Coetzee and Schalk van der Merwe and is captained by Warren Whiteley.
The Lions were not involved in the 2013 Super Rugby season, after being relegated by the Southern Kings. The Lions will be eager to show that they belong in Super Rugby and not on the sidelines.
Vodacom Bulls coach Frans Ludeke will look at his next generation Vodacom Bulls players to deliver the goods in the Vodacom Super Rugby season after he named a youthful looking side to face the Cell C Sharks in the season’s opener in Durban on Saturday.
Regular captain Pierre Spies will lead a team on the field with a number of players on debut and a number of others with only a handful of caps, but will also have the luxury of Victor Matfield on the bench.
Matfield will join former Sharks AJ Venter and John Smit in becoming the most capped South African Vodacom Super Rugby players and will play in his 125th match at this level.
Former Sharks mentor Brendan Venter believes the Durbanites will have too much firepower for the Bulls in their Super Rugby opener in Durban on Saturday night (19:10 kick-off).
The Stormers have received a major boost at prop this year with the rise in form of promising young loosehead Oliver Kebble.
Kebble was excellent for the WP in last year’s Under-21 provincial competition and he will get a chance on Saturday to show what he can do in the team’s friendly match against the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington.
Cell C Sharks director of rugby, Jake White, has named a 39-man squad that will contest the 2014 Super Rugby tournament, which includes 17 Springboks.
White has insisted that having one of the best squads in Super Rugby means little if his team cannot transfer the weight of expectancy into results.
The match officials for the 1st and 2nd Rounds of the 2014 Super Rugby season have been released.
South African teams alone will contest the opening round and the Stormers have a bye in the first week.
Australian and New Zealand teams will start their Super Rugby seasons in Round 2.
Round 2 of Varsity Cup 2014 was played on Monday.
UCT demolished Maties by 33 / 16, Tuks rumbled past Wits by 53 / 8, Pukke put Shimlas to the sword by 48 / 29 and NMMU scored a last gasp try to beat UJ by 21 / 15.
The Varsity Cup is certainly providing a few surprises in 2014, with NMMU the surprize package so far and Maties the most disappointing side to date.
Naka Drotske has announced the first team of the Toyota Cheetahs for the 2014 Super Rugby season!
This weekend sees the start of Super Rugby, but only in South Africa, with the New Zealand and Australian sides joining a week later.
Four of the 5 South African teams will be in action and the DHL Stormers side start their campaign with a bye weekend.
Lions head coach Johan Ackerman has announced his squad to compete in the 2015 Super Rugby competition.
The Lions, back in the competition after a year in the wilderness have done their best to choose a squad with as much experience as is available, mixed with a group of talented youngsters who will have to take a step up to the next level if the Lions are to avoid a disasterous 2015 Super Rugby campaign.
Coach Allister Coetzee has announced a much-changed line-up for the DHL Stormers’ final warm-up game ahead of the 2014 Vodacom Super Rugby season.
The DHL Stormers will take on the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington on Saturday afternoon and Coetzee has named a new-look side in a bid to give his entire group of players a run before the start of the season proper.
Experienced hooker Tiaan Liebenberg will lead the Stormers into battle this weekend, with flyhalf Gary van Aswegen serving as his vice-captain.
The Vodacom Bulls have released a statement about the finess of its players.
Bulls Fitness Update
The Vodacom Bulls will have to face the Cell C Sharks in Saturday’s season opener of the Vodacom Super Rugby competition without Arno Botha, Mornè Mellett and Jesse Kriel, it was announced on Monday.
The last thing the DHL Stormers need ahead of the new Vodacom Super Rugby season is more injuries at lock, so even though coach Allister Coetzee is confident there is nothing to worry about, the squad will nonetheless be waiting with bated breath for results of a scan conducted at the weekend on Rynhardt Elstadt’s ribs.
The powerfully built forward came off at halftime of the 40 / 7 win over the Southern Kings in a warm-up match in Port Elizabeth with sore ribs. According to Coetzee, he was walking comfortably afterwards, but nonetheless he underwent a scan on the affected area, the results of which will be made available on Monday.
The Stormers are hunting the services of Tongan utility back, Fraser Anderson, for this year’s Super Rugby competition, according to reports.
SANZAR is proud to announce a two-year extension of its long-standing partnership with GILBERT to continue its role as the exclusive Vodacom Super Rugby ball supplier.
South African Rugby Union (SARU) medical consultant Dr Jon Patricios has been appointed to an expert International Rugby Board (IRB) concussion advisory panel aimed at promoting best-practice concussion management, education, prevention and research.
The Stormers could lose another frontline player with wing / fullback Gio Aplon linked with a move to France.
Pukke (8) 48 / 29 (13) Shimlas (Final Score)
The North-West University (FNB Pukke) and University of the Free State (FNB Shimlas) did
battle in the Varsity Cup at Fanie du Toit Sports Ground, Potchefstroom 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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Maties (8) 16 / 33 (15) UCT (Final Score)
The University of Stellenbosch (FNB Maties) and University of Cape Town (FNB UCT) did
battle in the Varsity Cup at Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch at 16:45 SA Time (14:45 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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With the Super Rugby season less than 6 days away, here is a bit of history on the Competition.
Super Rugby is run by SANZAR and consists of franchise teams from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, 5 teams each, devided into 3 Conferences.
Super Rugby is the Southern Hemisphere’s prime Franchise tournament and part of the reason why the Southern Hemisphere currently dominate world rugby, with the New Zealand All Blacks 1st on the IRB World Rankings, the Springboks from South Africa comfortably in 2nd spot and the Wallabies from Australia in 3rd spot.
Super Rugby gets underway in South Africa first in 2014, on 15 February 2014 and a week later the Antipodion sides join in.
Springbok Siya Kolisi scored a hat-trick as the Stormers dispatched the Southern Kings in a Super Rugby pre-season outing.
The Stormers eventually won 40 / 7, after racing into a commanding 19 / 0 lead inside the first half-hour, at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
The second round of the FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International will feature two classic rivalries which will both be televised live on Supersport.
The action will kick off on Monday night with the clash between FNB Maties and FNB UCT from the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch and will be followed by the showdown between FNB NWU-Pukke and FNB UFS-Shimlas in Potchefstroom, with both matches broadcast live on Supersport One.
The other two matches will see defending champions FNB UP-Tuks travel to Johannesburg to face last year’s wooden spoonists FNB Wits, whilst just down the road FNB UJ will host the FNB NMMU Madibaz.
The New Zealand leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series, in Wellington, was played this weekend.
The South African Blitzbokke started their bid to win a 3rd Tournament in a row in fine fashion, by beating Wales 26 / 0 and beating Portugal 27 / 5.
The Blitzbokke’s next challenge was England, and the game was won by England, by 19 / 5. Both England and South Africa advance to the Cup Quarters, England played Samoa and the Blitzbokke played Australia.
New Zealand comfortably beat France, 47 / 0 in the last game of Day 1, after earlier losing to Fiji, but also advanced to the Cup Quarters, where they played against Canada.
At the 2nd Day of the tournament, New Zealand and South Africa advanced all the way to the final, with Fiji beating England in the 3rd place play-off.
New Zealand won the final by 21 / 0 against the South African Blitzbokke, capitalizing on mistakes and shutting the Blitzbokke out in the 2nd half.
Our featured image just features the Cell C Sharks, and not the Lions, because at times it seemed like there was just ONE SIDE on the field!
The Lions were given a reality check when a full-strength Sharks team handed them a 57 / 14 drubbing in their pre-season friendly.
In what was their last run-out before their return to Super Rugby, a young and inexperienced Lions selection were outscored by 9 tries to 2 at Ellis Park on Friday.
Toyota Cheetahs coach Naka drafted in a number of Varsity Cup stars when he unveiled his 2014 Super Rugby squad on Friday.
Springbok lock and Ulster captain Johann Muller has announced that he will retire at the end of this season.
The 34-year-old joined the province in 2010; he has made 73 appearances for Ulster so far and has captained the team since the start of the 2011/12 season.
There are two vastly different approaches from the teams going into Friday’s Super Rugby pre-season showdown between the Lions and Sharks in Johannesburg.
While Lions coach Johan Ackermann continued to experiment with his team, Sharks Director of Rugby Jake White have risked injury to his vast array of Springboks.
A new proposal could see the so-called big five unions and the Eastern Province Kings be assured of their Currie Cup status for at least the next two years.
This is the latest proposal to be voted on at an annual South African Rugby Union (SARU) meeting next Thursday.
The Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has announced his team to take on the Sharks in a Super Rugby warm up game at Ellis Park on Friday evening.
Ackermann has opted to make wholesale changes to the side that narrowly beat the Kings last weekend.
The South African Blitzbokke Sevens team head into the weekend’s Wellington Sevens in New Zealand looking for a 3rd successive tournament title in what would be a first for the South Africans.
The last time any team could win 3 consecutive tournaments on the IRB Sevens World Series was in 2010 when Samoa took the honours in the USA, Australia and Hong Kong.
The Lions will face a stern examination of their Super Rugby pedigree when they face the Sharks in Johannesburg on Friday.
And the biggest test will be in the scrums, where they will come up against the all-Springbok front row of Jannie and Bismarck du Plessis, as well as Tendai Mtawarira.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke has identified three areas of concern as they prepare for their Super Rugby opener against the Sharks in Durban on 15 February.
The Bulls lost a pre-season match in Polokwane 26 / 19 to the Stormers last weekend and according to Ludeke they must improve their scrums, tactical kicking and work ethic before the season-proper starts.
Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Jake White has named a powerful line-up for Friday night’s pre-season warm-up match against the Lions at Ellis Park, in this, their final hit-out.
White pointed out after training on Tuesday that he would name potentially a similar side to the one that will play the Bulls in the Vodacom Super Rugby opener at Growthpoint KINGS PARK next Saturday. This will obviously give the team the best opportunity to gel as a unit in the match scenario.
We are just a few days away from the 6th annual Nokia Cape Town Tens, which will be kicking off at Hamilton’s in Green Point this weekend, and as promised, the 2014 event is set to be one for the books!
With over 100 rugby teams, 30 netball teams and a selection of Rugby Legends competing throughout the weekend there is of course non-stop sporting action and excitement. But as most know, Tens is not only about sports!
Former Baby Boks, Lions and Boland coach Eugene “Loffie” Eloff will coach the Border Bulldogs in this year’s Vodacom Cup.