SA Rugby
Injury ridden the 1956 Bokke arrive in New Zealand
This Article is a bit out of sequence with the rest of the Atricles on the 1956 Springbok tour. I recently got some more information on the 1956 tour, especially about the Australian leg of the tour. I also needed an Article on the arrival in New Zealand for my web site so I decided to add this information. By the end of this week I will write an Article on the first test of the 1956 series including some video clips.
After a smooth flight of five hours across the Tasman, the Springboks arrived in New Zealand on the evening of Tuesday 5 June. Warwick Roger narrates the arrival as follows in his book ‘Old Heroes’:
The Executive Council of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) has called a Special General Council meeting for January with a view to ratifying the appointment of the Springbok coach.
The meeting will take place in Cape Town on January 27, 2012 and is required by the SARU constitution, which specifies that the appointment of the Springbok coach has to be approved by the General Council to become official.
Former Lions, Stormers, and Western Province star center, Jaque Fourie, has reportedly been offered R22 million for the next two years to stay with his Japanese club Panasonic.
WIAN DU PREEZ is quiet-spoken. Thus, it made sense to meet the Munster and Springbok prop in the calm environs of the Castletroy Carlton Hotel in Limerick, rather than the chaotic surrounds of the Student Cafe in UL.
The Freestate Cheetahs Rugby Union has elected a new president for the term 2012 to 2014.
Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu has made two changes to his squad for the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament this weekend (2-3 December).
The Sharks have started their pre-season preparations ahead of next year’s Super Rugby tournament and assistant coach Grant Bashford has warned there will be no place to hide for unfit players.
Springbok giant Victor Matfield says that Andries Bekker has the ability to be an even better lock than him, and that the Stormers are very close to winning an elusive Super Rugby crown (clearly at this point he had just inhaled a bit of that ‘mountain baccy’).
With the international season taking a bit of a breather, I thought some informative statistics would be interesting. I am looking at the home record of the top nations, seeing when was the last time they lost a home test to each of the other nations.
I would think any nation would expect at least a 75% home win record as the minimm standard to attain. anything less would mean your home ground advantage counts for very little and travelling teams do not find it a daunting task to tour.
Carlos Spencer: Armed and Dangerous!
New Zealand rugby legend, Carlos Spencer has revealed that he has no immediate plans to return to his home town of Auckland in New Zealand.
The Bulls have turned down a request from former Springbok flyhalf Derick Hougaard to return to Pretoria to play for them.
President of the Free State Cheetahs, Harold Verster, says it is unlikely that the Cheetahs and the Southern Kings will merge at the start of the 2013 Super Rugby season.
Former Springbok centre Brendan Venter and Nazeem Adams, head coach of the Western Province Under-19 side, have been appointed as assistant coaches of the South African Under-20 side.
7 July 1956 – Carisbrook, Dunedin
South Africa 14 / Otago 9
Jan Pickard
Dunedin and Otago has to some extend been to New Zealand rugby what Stellenbosch and Western Province rugby were to South African rugby. Both University cities that lost their respective roles as gateways to the respective national sides due to the professional era and neither Stellenbosch nor Dunedin is today the rugby powerhouses or talent accumulators if not developers it used to be.
Former Springbok scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen, 40, has said he may be confined to a wheelchair within six months.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee says centre Adrian Jacobs is welcome to join his squad in their pre-season preparations.
Vodacom Bulls vice-captain for the 2012 season Wynand Olivier is encouraging his troops from the side lines at the moment.
In news hot off the press, reports from the WP / Stormers High Performance Institute is that Schalk Ferreira has come out of retirement to play for the Franchise.
IRB Sevens player of the year Cecil Afrika has been included in the final squad of 12 Springbok Sevens players for the first round of the Sevens World Series at the Gold Coast in Australia this weekend.
In news just in, Ex Bulls and Lions flyhalf, Burton Francis, is set to sign for the Stormers
South Africa ended the 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series by winning the final two tournaments in London and Edinburgh and finishing second overall behind champions New Zealand.
With only four days to go until the first leg of the 2011/12 Series, head coach Paul Treu is looking for his side to pick up where they left off, when the Series begins on 25 November on the Australian Gold Coast.
While rugby supporters in the Eastern Cape are eagerly awaiting the first SA Sevens tournament to be staged in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium next month, the South African Rugby Union has urged those fans without tickets to book their seats so that they don’t miss out on the most exciting rugby event to be staged in the region.
The Nelson Mandela Bay South Africa Sevens will take place on 9-10 December and fans can enjoy the action for as little as R80 on the first day and R100 on the final day.
It was too early to scrap quotas in South African sport, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Tuesday.
On the final day of the National Sport and Recreation Indaba in Midrand, during discussions on transformation in the plenary, it was decided that the quota system could not be scrapped while the transformation charter and the transformation scorecard would be adopted into the Nation Sports Plan.
News from Durban is that the Sharks are not offering the Springbok centre Adi Jacobs a contract for 2012.
Sonny Bill Williams has withdrawn from the Baa-Baas and is replaced by Richard Kahui.
Drew Mitchel is injured again and expected to miss the opening Rounds of Super Rugby.
Conrad Smith is named as Hurricanes Captain for 2012.
Derick Hougaard could be back at the Bulls.
Bolla Conradie, Elgar Watts & Clemen Lewis, all from Boland, as well as Burton Francis are included in Stormers plans for 2012.
Graham Henry rules out England coaching job.
With SA Ruby (SARU) in the throngs of considering the appointment of a new Rugby coach for the Springboks, when Peter de Villiers’ contract concludes in December 2011, it might be prudent to look at results in the last 4 years.
The first thing which emerges is that there has been a steady decline in winning percentages over the last 4 years.
During the first 2 years of the reign of Peter de Villiers the winning percentage was an average of 68 % but during the last 2 years of his reign it has dropped to an average of 56.5 % for those 2 years.
It has to be noted that Peter de Villiers inherited a World Cup winning squad, which has now slipped to No 4 in the IRB rankings, below France.
The Varsity Cup Rugby competition will – once again – lend itself to experimentation, with the importance of tries being the major focus ahead of the 2012 tournaments.
Varsity Cup Rugby, which now consists of the FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International, the Varsity Shield, the Varsity Young Guns and the Steinhoff Koshuisrugby Championships (four ‘properties’ in all), will be trialing a new points-scoring system in 2012 – an experiment which could revolutionalise rugby union.
Thanks to a special dispensation from the International Rugby Board, the Varsity Cup Rugby organisers have changed around the value of points for the four 2012 Varsity Cup Rugby competitions – conversions will be worth three points and penalties and drop-goals will be worth just two points.
The Springboks will return to Soweto for the final home Test of 2012 when they take on newly-crowned world champions New Zealand in the final encounter of the new Rugby Championship which replaced the Tri-Nations.
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) will approach a shortlist of preferred candidates in the process to appoint a Springbok coach, the Executive Council of SARU announced on Thursday.
Sport quotas are exhausted and have generally been counter-productive, Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Wednesday.
Read this on News 24, think it is hysterical!!!!!
Wellington – New Zealand rugby referee Bryce Lawrence on Wednesday said he won’t officiate in South Africa if he fears for his safety after his performance at last month’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final between the Springboks and Australia.
Lawrence’s control of the October 9 quarter-final, won 11-9 by Australia to end South Africa’ reign as world champion, was strongly criticized by Springboks players, coaching staff and fans.
GBS just contacted me from the Media Day at the Bulls with the following news:
The Bulls started their preparations for next season’s Super Rugby competition at Loftus Versfeld’s B-field in Pretoria on Monday. It is scary when you read the list of players that are not Bulls anymore. The 4 most used captains are all in that list.
South African prop Eugene Van Staden returned to French club rugby for a second spell on Tuesday when Top 14 tailenders Biarritz signed him as a replacement for the retired Eduard Coetzee.
South Africa 41 / Nelson Combined 3
The 1956 Springboks had two matches left to start playing as a team before the first test, it was not about notching up results anymore it was time for the forwards to start playing as a pack and for the backline to show some polish.