SANZAR
SANZAR CEO Greg Peters has ruled out the possibility of expanding Super Rugby from 15 to 16 teams from next year after South Africa said that the Southern Kings will play in the tournament from 2013.
SANZAR is to trial new disciplinary rules during the 2012 Super Rugby competition, CEO Greg Peters announced on Thursday.
Sanzar will move to close the “Stormers loophole” in Vodacom Super Rugby’s regulations that allowed Schalk Britz to fly in from the United Kingdom and play in the Super Rugby semi for the Stormers earlier this year.
SANZAR have announced the ten-man Merit Panel of referees for the 2012 Super Rugby competition with South Africans making up half of the positions.
The Springboks will kick-off the new format competition against the Pumas when the all-new “The Castle Rugby Championship” launches in 2012 – the replacement for the Tri-Nations series, SANZAR announced on Tuesday.
An agreement confirming Argentina’s participation was signed in Auckland recently by the SANZAR Joint Venture partners after several months of negotiations with the Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) and the International Rugby Board (IRB).
I still just can’t get over that quarter final loss.
The more I think about it the more I feel we were robbed. Yes, the referee was bad and wrong and yes we contributed to our demise with how we approached the game and by the appointment of a puppet as Springbok coach 4 years ago. However, all of that (poor referee, game plan, coach selection) and the Pool construction process at this year’s Rugby World Cup is part of an insidious virus, in my opinion, which is destroying Rugby Union as we know it. It is this virus which orchestrated our demise in the Rugby World Cup quarter final match against Australia.
John Smit was born on 3 April 1978 in Pietersburg, he went to Pretoria Boys High where he was head prefect and played for the first XV from 1996 to 1998. As natural born leader he was destined to become captain of the Springbok team and was identified at a very young age by Jake White, making his debut for South Africa against Canada at the tender age of 22. Since his debut in 2000 John Smit has played 111 test matches for South Africa, captaining his country on 83 occasions. South Africa won 69 of the 111 tests in which John Smit represented his country, he captained South Africa 83 times winning 54 tests.
Is this a pot of crock by Brenden Nel, or is it just a public relations stunt or is there after all something most of us miss?
Why are senior players like Fourie du Preez and Victor Matfield, who could possibly benifit the most from John Smit’s exclusion, so happy to play under his captaincy?
It is way too early to start hitting the panic buttons after the Springboks narrow win over Wales on Sunday.
John Smit & Victor Matfield
Springbok captain John Smit and Vice Captain Victor Matfield say they want to end their international careers as double Rugby World Cup champions.
Springbok captain John Smit has not yet been ruled out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, a South African Rugby Union (Saru) spokesperson confirmed on Sunday.
Springbok captain John Smit and fullback Frans Steyn are in doubt for the World Cup after they were both injured in South Africa’s 9-14 loss to Australia in the Tri-Nations.
Springbok and Sharks captain John Smit has confirmed that he will join Aviva Premiership team Saracens on a two year deal after the rugby world cup this year.
The Sharks have named their team to face the Waratahs in what will be their final home game of the Super Rugby pool stages with John Smit as captain.
The Sharks Super Rugby loss to the Bulls in Round 14 came at a cost as at least two players will miss this weekend’s Waratahs clash.
Peter de Villiers has confirmed that John Smit will captain the Springboks at the World Cup. Rassie Erasmus was appointed as technical adviser.
At a press conference on Monday, Peter de Villiers confirmed the appointments of his captain and management staff. Smit will continue as captain with Victor Matfield named as vice-captain. Erasmus has been brought in as a technical adviser and conditioning coach Derik Coetzee is the other new appointment.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, is starting to push the panic buttons.
John Smit is being done a massive disservice at the moment, one that could spell disaster and cost him the Springbok captaincy for the Rugby World Cup later this year. Continue reading
South Africans will know on 2 May whether John Smit will again lead the Springboks at the World Cup.
The Sharks have named their team to face the Chiefs in Hamilton with Captain John Smith moving to loosehead in place of Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira who drops to the bench.
John Smit aka “Barney” will start for the first time in this year’s Super Rugby Tournament as he leads the side out in their second tour match against the Melbourne Rebels on Friday.
Sharks coach John Plumtree has scoffed at suggestions that Springbok captain John Smit is no longer a viable option as a prop.
Speaking ahead of the pre-season Tri-Series finale, against the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday, Plumtree said he will continue to “rotate” the Bok skipper in all three front row positions.
According to Sharks coach John Plumtree, Springboks skipper John Smit will have shed seven to eight kilos by the time the Super Rugby season starts.
Springbok rugby and South African rugby in general is coming to the end of an era, and it might be time to think about what the future holds. Continue reading
Statistics are like a lamppost to a drunk man. It does not serve to illuminate but rather, to keep him upright. Continue reading
Springbok captain John Smit has been given the all clear to return to the playing field and has already been training for a month.
Springbok captain John Smit will get an opportunity next year to fill in the one gap that was left in his impressive CV following the 2007 World Cup triumph.
Springbok captain John Smit has officially been ruled out for the End of Year Grand Slam Tour as he is recovering from an operation. Continue reading
I know the rugby experts are going to take issue with me on this one…but bear with me and just consider something for one second.
I know everyone says John is not a tighthead prop. But damn, we did some good work when both John and Bismarck was on the park together!
Continue reading
We have read a lot and discussed a lot that our players are overplayed. The Tim Noakes’ and the Neels Liebel’s and other scientists all have their opinions and we have recently learned that the ideal is for a player to play no more than 1400 to 1600 minutes of Rugby per year.
I am of the view that these minutes are dependant on whether you are a backline, looseforward or tight forward player and also on your age and your proneness to injury. Guys like Bismarck get injured often, and its probably a challenge to even get him up to the 1600 minute mark! Continue reading
The Springboks host the Wallabies in thier last Tri-Nations and Mandela Plate encounter of 2010 against one another.
As far as Tri-Nations glory goes, this is a dead rubber apart from playing to avoid the wooden spoon.
We preview this game below.
A lot has been said about the way the Springboks seemed to have stagnated in their play. The most obvious direction to pass blame is towards PDV and his assistant coaches. They are the ones who must give direction to the team. They are also primarily responsible for selecting a group of players that can fit into a game plan that is required to win tests. Continue reading
The possibility of further misery or a likely last chance in 2010 to get his Test-level act back together?
Recordings of both After Match Press Conferences were made by me, both on Audio Format as well as seperately on Video Format.
The Audio Recordings:
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The Video Recordings: The Videos are long, so they’ll take long to buffer before playing, hope you have proper broadband
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The Springboks host the Wallabies at Loftus, Pretoria at 17:00 on Saturday 28 August in the 2nd last Tri-Nations encounter between the 2 teams for 2010.
We see the match like this: