Monthly Archives: January 2015
Bryan Habana
World Cup-winning Springbok Bryan Habana is enjoying his stay in Toulon so much, he might extend it.
The 31-year-old, Player of the Year after equalling the record set for most tries in a World Cup, said discussions are underway to extend his contract the French and European champions when it expires in 2016.
His arrival in the south of France was marked by a groin injury that sidelined him for most of his first season.
Morné Steyn & Mosese Ratuvou
Veteran Springbok Morné Steyn claims he was ‘eye-gouged’, which is why he kicked out at Fijian wing Mosese Ratuvou.
The 30-year-old flyhalf was red-carded for the kick in the first half of the Stade Français’ 9-12 loss to Lyon in a French Top 14 match last Friday.
Steyn, the top-scorer at the 2011 World Cup and a holder of numerous international records, had confidently kicked Stade into a 6-0 lead – courtesy of a 40-metre penalty and a quick-thinking drop-goal.
But after Ratuvou had cut the deficit with the game’s opening try, Steyn saw red in the 31st minute for kicking the Fijian wing as the two tussled on the ground.
Rhys Priestland
Aviva Premiership Rugby club Bath have signed Welsh international flyhalf Rhys Priestland from the 2015 / 2016 Premiership season from Welsh side the Scarlets.
Twenty-seven-year-old Priestland is closing in on 150 appearances for the Scarlets for whom he has scored over 1000 points.
Priestland, who has 32 caps for his country, burst onto the international scene in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, where he steered Wales to their first semi-final since 1987.
South Africa and the West Indies battled each other in the 3rd and last 5-Day Cricket Test at Newlands, Cape Town. The Test ran from 2 to 6 January 2015.
The 2nd Test in Port Elizabeth was a bit of a disapointment, with wet weather spoiling the Test and forcing a draw. Better weather was expected and delivered in Cape Town for the 3rd Test.
Play started on schedule on Day 1, at 10:30 SA Time (08:30 GMT).
The score cards were updated at regular intervals, here on Rugby-Talk.com.
The West Indies won the toss and elected to bat.
The first West Indies wicket fell with their score on 30. At Lunch on Day 1 the West Indies were on 80 / 2 after 27 overs and at Stumps on Day 1 the West Indies were 276 / 6, after the day’s 90 overs.
The Proteas wrapped up the West Indies tail relatively quickly on Day 2 (within 9.5 overs), with the West Indies all out for 329 after 99.5 overs. The Proteas started batting and lost the wicket of Dean Elgar at 48 / 1. At Tea on Day 2 the Proteas were 135 / 2, after 42 overs. With the Proteas on 227 / 3, rain interrupted play… which should lead to Stumps – Day 2.
On Day 3 the Proteas resumed batting and lost the wicket of Hashim Amla on 63, with the Proteas on 254 / 4. Proteas were on 313 / 5 at Lunch – Day 3, still 16 runs behind. AB de Villiers easily reached his TON after Lunch on Day 3 and eventually perished on 148 as he tried to hit it out of the park. Proteas lead by 92 at the Innings break, having scored 421 All Out.
The West Indies 2nd Innings started off well for them and after the first 10.5 overs they were on 23 / 0 before Morné Morkel struck, making it 23 / 1 after 11 overs. The 2nd wicket fell shortly afterwards, on 27. The West Indies soldiered on and were 88 / 2 at Stumps – Day 3.
Morning Day 4… it is raining and the outfield is soaked. Prospects of play did not look good for the rest of Day 4. Play eventually resumed at 15:00 on Day 4. The West Indies hung in for most of the afternoon, till the wickets started falling rather fast, losing the last 7 wickets for just 33 runs. West Indies All Out for 215 in their 2nd Innings, a lead of 123. This leaves the Proteas needing 124 for the win, with a Day and a few overs remaining in the Test. Alviro Petersen falls without troubling the scorecard, with the Proteas on 9 / 1 after 2.3 Overs, as Stumps was called on Day 4.
The Proteas needed 115 runs for the win on Day 5 of the Test and lost the wicket of Faf du Plessis with the score on 51 / 2, leaving 73 runs to win. South Africa won the Test before Lunch on the final Day, a win by 8 wickets.
West Indies:
First Innings – 329 All Out (99.5 Overs)
Second Innings – 215 All Out (79.5 Overs)
South Africa:
First Innings – 421 All Out (122.4 Overs)
Second Innings – 124 / 2 (37.4 Overs)
Michael Jones – new Brumbies CEO
The Brumbies have appointed Michael Jones as the club’s Chief Executive Officer for the next three years, replacing Doug Edwards who resigned in December.
Jones returns to his hometown Canberra to tackle the role with the Brumbies having most recently held the Chief Executive’s position with investment banking and corporate advisory firm, Canterbury Hill Advisory in Sydney.
Jones said it was exciting to be back in Canberra working with an organisation he has followed closely his entire life.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity, there is a lot of work to get the Brumbies and community rugby to where I want it, but I’m excited by the challenge,” Jones said.
Manu Tuilagi
England centre Manu Tuilagi could miss the Six Nations opener against Wales next month as he continues his recovery from a groin injury, his Leicester Tigers club boss said on Sunday.
The powerful 23-year-old, widely regarded as key to England’s hopes in the annual European tournament and September’s home World Cup, has not played since last October.
“It may well come too soon, we’ll see,” Leiceister’s Richard Cockerill told reporters when asked about the 6 February date in Cardiff.
Scott Higginbotham
Scott Higginbotham has become the latest to join a growing list of Wallabies that will head for the exit door after the World Cup this year.
The veteran back row forward, Higginbotham, confirmed on Monday that he will leave Australia after the World Cup, where he is in contention to represent Australia.
Higginbotham will take up a contract in Japan.
His departure follows on the news that James Horwill and Adam Ashley-Cooper will continue their careers in Europe beyond the 2015 World Cup.
Montpellier’s new coach, Jake White, arrested a nine-match slide for his French club by using his tried and tested method – going back to basics.
The South African, a former World Cup-winning Springbok coach, got off to a winning start as the Top 14 strugglers beat European and French champions Toulon 16-12 at the weekend.
White was brought in as a consultant to replace the suspended Fabien Galthie in an aim to stem the tide of losses in European and domestic action.
Club President Mohed Altrad, who caused so much controversy when he called Galthie a failure, was full of praise for White.
Hi Rugby-Talkers,
First working day of the New Year!
Just saying we’re open, not that we ever closed over the Festive Season.
Owen Farrell wearing the impact sensors
Saracens players wore impact sensors during the match against London Irish on Saturday, launching the first element of the club’s ground-breaking programme to determine the effects of concussion on rugby players. The gadgets measure the force and direction of impact to the head, and are taped behind the ear lobe.
Edward Griffiths, chief executive, said: “We’re collecting data because we want answers. In simple terms, we don’t want to meet our players in 20 or 25 years’ time, to find them suffering from dementia or any similar condition, and to reflect we suspected something was going on but we didn’t really know. We want to know.”
Morné Steyn
South African flyhalf Morné Steyn endured a miserable first start of the season for Stade Francais on Friday when he was red-carded in the Top 14 leaders’ 9-12 defeat at Lyon.
Steyn, the 30-year-old top-scorer at the 2011 World Cup, had confidently kicked Stade into a 6-0 lead – courtesy of a 40-metre penalty and a quick-thinking drop-goal.
But after Mosese Ratuvou had cut the deficit with the game’s opening try, Steyn saw red in the 31st minute for kicking the Fijian wing as the two tussled on the ground.
Hello Rugby-Talkers,
No time to make videos today, just relaxing and taking it easy.
I spent the day and evening with my closest family and on old year’s eve we had a family fondu dinner and a general relax.
Tomorrow, 1 January 2015, we head to Mpumalanga for the day and night for a big New Year’s bash with friends and a heap of people, so do not expect ANY rugby news on 1 January 2015.
All the preparations on the site has been done for a flawless transfer into the New Year… so enjoy it and the last few Hooker Articles I did on the SA Super Rugby franchises… 10 Articles now gone and only 30 to go for the Super Rugby Contenders for positions in the SA franchises.
Here’s hoping you are all resting well and spending quality time with your loved-ones and the people closest to you in the world.
The festive season continues with derby matches in Round 12 of the Guinness PRO12. Some of the matches are the return leg of derbies played around the Boxing Day period. The attention in Scotland will be focussed on BT Murrayfield on Friday night where Edinburgh will host their rivals from the west, Glasgow Warriors, in a PRO12 fixture that doubles up as the second leg of the 1872 Cup.
Glasgow Warriors go into the game with a 10-point advantage following their win over Edinburgh on Boxing Day and will be looking to retain what is said to be the oldest cup in club rugby, yet again. There was only 1 try scored in the first leg of the 1872 Cup last week and with blustery conditions likely for Friday night the game may be a low scoring battle of attrition that could go the way of the team that makes the least errors.
Considering the relative positions of the 2 teams on the PRO12 table and the fact that Glasgow go into the game with that 10- point cushion one should expect at the very least that they maintain their grip on the 1872 Cup.