SA Rugby
SA Schools coach Chris October on Wednesday announced his squad to face England in their opening International Under-18 Series clash on Friday at the City Park Stadium in Cape Town.
Western Province and Paarl Gym No8 Rikus Bothma will lead the squad which features seven players who took part of the victorious SA Schools team last season. These players are the Du Preez twins, Daniel and Jean-Luc, Ox Nche, Justin Philips, Duhan van der Merwe, Warrik Gelant, Abongile Nonkontwana and Jurie Linde.
Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar included four Absa Currie Cup novices in his team to play defending champions DHL Western Province in Cape Town on Saturday in his team’s opening match of the 2013 competition.
Travis Ismaiel, Tony Jantjies, Jacques du Plessis and Wiaan Liebenberg all return to the venue of massive significance to them.
The ABSA Currie Cup is once again upon us and MTN Golden Lions coach Johan Ackermann has named his side for this Saturday’s opening match against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs.
DHL Western Province will kick-off their Absa Currie Cup title defence with three starting debutants in the team to face the Blue Bulls at DHL Newlands on Saturday (17:05).
The player exodus at the Southern Kings is continuing, with Kings scrumhalf Shaun Venter the latest player to secure a contract with a Super Rugby franchise. Venter has signed a two year deal with the Cheetahs, commencing on the 1st November 2013.
Demetri Catrakilis wants to use the upcoming Currie Cup season to play open a spot in the Springbok squad for the end-of-year tour to Europe.
The Absa Currie Cup competition starts this Friday evening with The Sharks hosting Griquas at Growthpoint KINGS PARK in a Women’s Day spectacular for this opening clash.
Ballz Visual Radio recorded a very, very interesting interview with Xander Janse van Rensburg, Blue Bulls High Performance Manager, discussing and detailing how young talent is identified ranging from as early as 12 years of age upwards. It details how relationships are formed with them and how they are drawn into junior high performance structures at the Bulls, how scouting is done and ultimately how these players are brought into the Blue Bulls fold.
You would be doing yourself an injustice not to view and listen to the whole interview.
The Blue Bulls have further bolstered their ranks with the signing of Kings loose forward Jacques “Vleis” Engelbrecht who joins them on a three-year deal.
The hard-working Engelbrecht impressed for the Kings in their debut Super Rugby season this year, and he joins teammate Waylon Murray in heading to Loftus Versveld following the Eastern Cape side’s relegation from Super Rugby.
Kings flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis has confirmed that he will be heading back to Cape Town to play for Western Province in the Currie Cup.
The newly promoted Golden Lions will formally sit down with prop Jacobus (Bees) Roux on Tuesday to see if they can sign him on a short-term Currie Cup contract.
Roux, better known as ‘Bees’, hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in August 2010 – when he was arrested in connection with the death of a South African police officer in Pretoria.
Roux was given a five-year suspended jail sentence in 2011 over the beating to death of Tshwane metro police officer Johannes Mogale the year before.
Springbok and Bulls flank Jacques Potgieter has signed a two-year deal with the Waratahs.
Potgieter will this week join Japanese outfit Fukuoka Sanix Blues on a six-month sabbatical, but was expected to return to the Pretoria-based franchise for next year’s Super Rugby tournament.
New Sharks director of rugby Brendan Venter is “very impressed” with the set-up at the rugby union, he said on Monday.
Coenie Oosthuizen has an ideal opportunity to cement a permanent place for himself in the Springbok squad heading towards the 2015 Rugby World Cup as coach Heyneke Meyer looks desperately for a back-up for Jannie du Plessis.
The Bok coach made his intentions quite clear this past week when he selected Oosthuizen as the back-up tighthead.
The new scrum laws will wind the clock back, says Dan Cron. Hookers actually hooking, halfbacks putting the ball in straight – it won’t be scrummaging as we’ve come to know it.
The Springboks will utilize the skills of Richie Gray as breakdown consultant for the remainder of the Test season in 2013.
DHL Western Province coach Allister Coetzee has released a 26-man squad ahead of this weekend’s Absa Currie Cup opener against the Blue Bulls at DHL Newlands.
This Friday, 9th August 2013, The Sharks host Griquas at Growthpoint KINGS PARK in their first pool match of the 2013 Absa Currie Cup competition.
Friday is also Women’s Day and The Sharks would like to acknowledge and celebrate their female fans by rewarding them with free entry to the match.
The Springbok selectors have opted for continuity when they named a 30-man squad for the opening two rounds of The Castle Lager Rugby Championship later this month against Argentina.
Only three players who were not part of the Springbok squad which won the Castle Lager Incoming Series in June have been added to the squad.
They are experienced scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, who has been selected for the Springboks for the first time since the Rugby World Cup in 2011, Gurthrö Steenkamp (prop) and Duane Vermeulen (No 8), who last played for the Springboks in November 2012.
As the Southern Kings lick their wounds after their narrow exit from Vodacom Super Rugby they will now face a massive exit as players and coaches look to greener pastures both locally and abroad.
EP Kings president Cheeky Watson has played down the exit, focusing on the glass-half-full scenario, but up to 10 Kings players are likely to announce moves to other franchises and abroad in the next few days.
Lions (8) 18 / 23 (9) Kings (Final Score)
The MTN Lions and Southern Kings did battle in the 2nd and last Super Rugby
Promotion / Relegation game at Ellis Park, Johannesburg at 17:0 SA Time (15:00 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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Some thoughts for you to chew on…
I was asked yesterday by someone at Sky what my feeling was on the future of SuperRugby and I said, all three Unions of SANZAR have recently released their year end figures and none of them made any real profit. They are all close to borderline break even.
The current number Super Rugby matches per annum is 125, so any reduction of matches would no doubt mean a reduction in broadcast money.
The talk is about South Africa splitting from SANZAR in terms of Super Rugby only. However the South African time zone goes a long way to pushing up the money that is earned from the broadcast deal.
If SA leave, more matches will be played in New Zealand and Australian time zones (according to the reports). This has no global appeal.
MTN Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has announced his side to face the Southern Kings in the second leg of the Super Rugby promotion / relegation series.
The match will take place on Saturday 3 August at 17:00.
One of the guys who sit with us in the Press Box at Loftus, calls Deon Stegmann, “STEGMONSTER”, well Koos excuse me for using the same expression.
The Blue Bulls have received another blow with the news that flank Deon Stegmann will miss the 2013 Absa Currie Cup season.
It is the time of the year I always dread the most. This is the time where every Player Agent licks his lips and rubs his grubby little hands at the prospect of selling his wares to the highest bidder, with no regard to the welfare of the rugby of any Player, Country, Club, Union or Franchise.
It is the time of the year that the greedy pigs grin!
It is reported that the Stormers are chasing the signature of the mercenary called Lionel Mapoe, who’s been about everywhere now, Cheetahs, Sharks, Lions, Bulls… and possibly now heading for his 5th SA Super Rugby Franchise.
The Western Force announced today that they have signed 2 more South Africans, WP’s Marcel Brache and Chris Heiberg.
The Bulls seem to be investing, or rather re-investing in another ton of Young Guns, to replace the loss of 8 Springboks in one heap but seemingly giving no heed to the warning sirens that seriously flawed players like Dean Greyling and Werner Kruger now seem to be their most experienced players! The Blue Bulls have re-signed players like Paul Willemse (lock) and Under 20 SA star, Jacques du Plessis (looseforward) as well as a host of others… and the name Lood de Jager jumped at me, with me initially thinking that it might be the Cheetahs Super Rugby lock but alas it is the junior Blue Bulls centre who has suffered quite an injury run. See the details below on the rest of the Blue Bulls signings. In the last 3 years the Bulls have lost the services of 18 Senior Springbok players, whilst purchasing only 4 senior players from elsewhere.
Anything you can do, we can do better! This is the message, loud and clear, from Lions fans to their Southern Kings rivals.
The Kings have been praised for their good crowd attendances at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, but the Lions will well and truly upstage them.
The South African Rugby Union’s (Saru’s) policy of favouring local players over overseas-based stars could be under threat, especially when the Springboks name their squad for the Castle Rugby Championship at the end of the week.
Saru have been firm that there has been no change in the policy regarding players based overseas, but a recent exodus of Boks stars may make that policy shift when the Bok squad is chosen for the November tour of Europe.
Lions president Kevin de Klerk is confident that his team will take what he believes is their rightful place in Super Rugby.
This is what really happened behind the scenes…
[youtube]http://youtu.be/_APSHxnTZp8[/youtube]
You know we’re joking, of course
Springbok scrumhalf Francois Hougaard will not play again this year and will undergo surgery next week.
South African Rugby player Bryan Habana pushed himself to new heights as he went up against British Airways’ brand new superjumbo, the Airbus A380.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P66ISniQCqY[/youtube]
The Irish Rugby Football Union today announced the appointment of John Plumtree as Ireland forwards coach.
The Blue Bulls Company (Pty) Ltd is pleased to announce that Piet van Zyl has agreed terms and will join the Vodacom Bulls on a two year contract from November 1st, 2013.
The Pretoria-born 23 year old scrumhalf made his Springbok debut in 2013 following some very good performances for his Super Rugby franchise, the Toyota Cheetahs.
JC Janse van Rensburg will ‘ride off’ into the proverbial sunset soon, but the long-standing captain is determined to leave the Lions with a perfect parting gift.
The 27-year-old uncapped Springbok prop wants to ensure he plays part in the Johannesburg-based franchise regaining their Super Rugby status.
Having captained the Lions to a 26-19 win over the Southern Kings in the first of the two promotion-relegation matches in Port Elizabeth last week, Janse van Rensburg will run out in front for the last time in the return match at Ellis Park on Saturday – before heading to French team Bayonne, where he signed a to-year deal.
Who remembers the old movie, King Solomon’s mines? Well, The Southern Kings, own Solomons… Alan Solomons, is off to dig for gold elsewhere. We’ve known about it, it has been denied, but still came to pass.
Kings Director of Rugby Alan Solomons will part ways with the Eastern Cape franchise after being appointed head coach of Edinburgh.