New Zealand Rugby
New Zealand flyhalf Stephen Brett will join second division leaders Lyon on a two year deal from Bayonne next season.
The 28-year-old, who has been capped by the All Blacks at Under-21 level, signed with Bayonne one year ago and has made 20 Top 14 appearances, kicking 15 penalties and a conversion.
All Black flyhalf Tom Taylor will start at outside centre when the Crusaders travel to meet the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday.
The 25-year-old playmaker has never started a match at outside centre in Super Rugby before, but with the injury to Kieron Fonotia and with Reynold Lee-Lo having fallen out of favour at the Christchurch-based team – the number 13 jersey will be Taylor’s on Saturday.
Tanerau Latimer will play his 100th game for the Chiefs when they host the Crusaders in Hamilton on Saturday.
The 4-cap All Black loose forward first played five Super Rugby games for the Crusaders in 2006, but since joining the Chiefs in 2007 he has racked up 99 caps, scored eight tries and won two Super Rugby titles.
The 27-year-old will become only the second player in the Chiefs 18-year history to become a centurion and will join Liam Messam in this elite club.
Chiefs outside back Mils Muliaina has been ruled out for the rest of the Super Rugby season.
The former All Blacks fullback has succumbed to an elbow injury aggravated in their round two match against the Crusaders in February.
South-African born prop Reggie Goodes will make his first start of the season for the Hurricanes against the Blues in Wellington on Friday.
The introduction of the 22-year-old loosehead prop is the only change that Hurricanes head coach Mark Hammett has made to his side for the arrival of the Auckland-based side, and it is injury-inforced.
Veteran hooker Keven Mealamu will make his long-awaited return to Super Rugby against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Friday after battling back from another calf injury that sidelined him for more than a month.
The veteran Blues forward has battled calf injuries for the last three seasons and has played just once in 2014, as a second half replacement against the Crusaders on 28 February.
SANZAR has released the names of the match officials for Round 10 of Super Rugby 2014.
Nick Bryant starts off proceedings this weekend in the game between the Hurricanes and Blues on Friday at 09:35 SA Time.
This weekend sees 6 games, with 2 games on Friday and 4 games on Saturday.
The Brumbies, Highlanders and Reds have BYE weekends.
Highlanders flank TJ Ioane has been ruled out of his team’s two-match tour of South Africa due to a calf strain.
The explosive loose forward has been sidelined for the two home wins against the Rebels and Bulls, and has since been ruled out of their South African trip which features clashes against the Stormers and Sharks.
The Chiefs have been given a boost for this weekend’s Super Rugby match against a resurgent Crusaders team in Hamilton on Saturday as Brodie Retallick has been passed fit.
Retallick was forced to leave the field in Saturday’s ninth round match against the Melbourne Rebels after suffering a head knock but looks OK to play this weekend.
Former All Black Piri Weepu could potentially make a miraculous return to playing Super Rugby this weekend when the Blues face the Hurricanes in Wellington.
Thirty-year-old halfback Weepu has made a full recovery from a minor stroke and heart surgery and has returned to training.
Weepu says that he went through an emotional time a couple of weeks ago when he revealed that he had had a stroke before his two Super Rugby matches in South Africa and also a hole in his heart.
As Super Rugby nears its 20th year, I wonder if it’s time to shake things up and maybe take a step back from South Africa.
I got up in the early hours of the morning at the weekend and watched my old Crusaders team battle the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein – but I’m sure I was in the minority.
I can’t help thinking we might have lost a little interest in playing South African teams, and that ultimately the future of this competition might be more localised round time zones.
The Cell C Sharks ground out their sixth win of the Vodacom Super Rugby season to stay at the top of the standings, but for the other three South African teams in action this weekend, the ninth round wasn’t a happy one.
The KwaZulu-Natalians beat a plucky Lions side by 25-12 in front of more than 30,000 people at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday evening. It was a battle of attrition and the visitors from Durban scored the only try of the match.
Earlier on Saturday, the Toyota Cheetahs put up a brave fight, but for a second successive week they fell off the pace in the final 10 minutes as they lost by 52-31 to the Crusaders in Bloemfontein – the team from Canterbury’s first win in the Free State Stadium for seven years.
On Friday morning, the Vodacom Bulls could not put an end to a seven-year drought in Dunedin as they paid the price for making way too many errors with ball in hand and on defence as they went down by 27-20 to the Highlanders.
Every time the Cell C Sharks score a win there are mutters in the background that they still have to travel overseas, but the rate they are going they will leave for Australasia needing to do very little to confirm themselves as the winners of the South African conference in Vodacom Super Rugby.
It has been written that the Sharks, in beating the Lions at Ellis Park this past weekend, showed that they are not as commanding away from home as they are at Growthpoint Kings Park. But that should surely be a given in a season where until the past two weeks home ground advantage was so important, and these days a win over the Lions in Johannesburg is not something you just accept as an expected event. You have to work for it.
The Blues have called Hawke’s Bay Magpies and Maori All Blacks first five-eighths Ihaia West into their Super Rugby squad as replacement for the injured Baden Kerr who has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
After fracturing a bone at the base of his thumb in a pre-season match against the Hurricanes, 24-year-old Kerr then fractured two fingers playing rugby for his club side Karaka last month and was forced to have surgery, ruling him out of action for at least 12 weeks.
Legendary All Black Brad Thorn’s ageing body has broken down for a second time this season, a bicep injury ruling him out or the remainder of the Super Rugby competition.
It was revealed that the 39-year-old lock forward tore his bicep in the Highlanders’ 27-20 win over the Bulls in Dunedin at the weekend.
Connacht captured a major overseas signing for the 2014 / 2015 season to further strengthen the midfield.
New Zealand-born centre Bundee Aki, 24, a member of the two-time defending Super Rugby champion Chiefs, has signed a three-year deal with the Irish province, Connacht, and the Irish Rugby Football Union.
Cardiff Blues revealed a major coup in the signing of New Zealand international forward Jarrad Hoeata, from Super Rugby outfit the Highlanders.
Hoeata, who can play second row or back row, will move to the Arms Park at the completion of the 2014 Super Rugby season.
The Tauranga-born ace has been a member of the All Blacks, Maori and All Blacks Sevens teams.
Cheetahs (10) 31 / 52 (19) Crusaders (Final Score)
The Toyota Cheetahs and Crusaders did battle in Super Rugby at
Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein at 17:05 SA Time (15:05 GMT, 03:05 Sunday 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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Chiefs (19) 22 / 16 (6) Rebels (Final Score)
The Chiefs and Melbourne Rebels did battle in Super Rugby at
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 17:35 AEST, 07:35 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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Highlanders (13) 27 / 20 (13) Bulls (Final Score)
The Highlanders and Vodacom Bulls did battle in Super Rugby at
Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin at 09:35 SA Time (07:35 GMT, 19:35 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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It is Round 9 of Super Rugby 2014 this weekend! We have 6 games in Round 9, with 2 games on Friday and 4 games on Saturday.
The Blues, Hurricanes & DHL Stormers have bye weekends.
In June / July 2014 the Antipodian 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.
Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett will step down from the Super Rugby side when his contract expires at the end of the season.
His decision to fall on his sword comes after four years in charge.
Chiefs coach Dave Rennie made eight changes to his team to play the Rebels in a Super Rugby encounter in Hamilton on Saturday.
The changes to the starting line-up is headlined by the move of Gareth Anscombe from fullback to flyhalf.
Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder has named his team to play the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein with Kieran Read returning to the starting line up.
Blackadder has largely stuck with the same 23 players that beat the Lions 7-28 in Johannesburg last week.
There will be a 39-year-old facing off against a 36-year-old in Dunedin on Friday.
No, it is not in an old-crocks club game, but a high-charged Super Rugby encounter – when two of the most respected locks, both World Cup winners, go head-to-head.
The Crusaders will play a midweek match against England when the Six Nations team tour New Zealand in June this year.
According to the Crusaders’ official website, the game will take place in Christchurch on Tuesday 17 June.
The Rugby Football Union (England) have failed in their bid to have England’s opening Test match against New Zealand pushed back a week.
England have a three match tour of New Zealand this June but they will be without many of their best players in the opening Test due to their domestic fixtures.
It was a disappointing weekend for South Africa’s Vodacom Super Rugby franchises, with the best result among the four teams that took to the field being a 43-43 draw by the Toyota Cheetahs.
The Vodacom Bulls faced the Hurricanes in Napier on Saturday in their first tour game with the hope of becoming the first domestic franchise to win in the Antipodes this season, but penalties conceded at crucial times allowed the hosts to come away with a 25-20 victory.
The Toyota Cheetahs, meanwhile, built up an encouraging 34-10 half-time lead against New Zealand conference leaders and defending champions, the Chiefs, in Bloemfontein, but they allowed the visitors to fight back strongly after the break and had to settle for a 43-43 draw.
At Ellis Park, the Lions produced a competitive first-half performance against the Crusaders to trail only 6-0 after 40 minutes, but the home side battled to shut out the seven time Vodacom Super Rugby champions in the second half, and went down 28-7.
In the last match of the weekend, the DHL Stormers’ woes continued in their first home game after their Australasian tour, as they suffered their fifth back-to-back defeat after going down 22-11 against the Waratahs in a physical encounter at DHL Newlands.
SANZAR has released the names of the match officials for Round 8 of Super Rugby 2014.
Rohan Hoffmann starts the action this weekend in Dunedin when the Highlanders take on the Vodacom Bulls.
This weekend sees 6 matches, with 2 games on Friday and 4 games on Saturday.
The Blues, Hurricanes and Stormers have BYE WEEKENDS.
Remember that Daylight Savings Time changes occured all over the Globe on Sunday, so the Time difference between South Africa and their Antipodian counterparts increase bu an hour.
Highlanders wing Kurt Baker has been handed the biggest ban of the Super Rugby season – a six-week suspension for a spear tackle.
Baker was slapped with the suspension for his tackle on Rebels scrumhalf Nick Stirzaker during the Highlanders’ 33-30 win on Dunedin last Friday.
Chiefs wing Asaeli Tikoirotuma has been issued with an off-field yellow card for contravening Law 10.4 (b) stamping or trampling.
Chiefs’ flyhalf Aaron Cruden will miss six to eight weeks of Super Rugby after breaking his thumb in a dramatic draw with the Central Cheetahs, the club said on Monday.
In a major dent to the Chiefs’ hopes of securing three titles in a row, the 25-year-old had an X-ray following the 43-43 draw in Bloemfontein which confirmed his left thumb was fractured.
Lions (0) 7 / 28 (6) Crusaders (Final Score)
The Lions and Crusaders did battle in Super Rugby at
Ellis Park, Johannesburg at 17:05 SA Time (15:05 GMT, 03:05 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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Cheetahs (34) 43 / 43 (10) Chiefs (Final Score)
The Toyota Cheetahs and Chiefs did battle in Super Rugby at
Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein at 15:00 SA Time (13:00 GMT, 01:00 Sunday 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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Hurricanes (16) 25 / 20 (13) Bulls (Final Score)
The Hurricanes and Vodacom Bulls did battle in Super Rugby at
McLean Park, Napier at 08:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 06:35 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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