The disharmony between Springbok coach Peter de Villiers and his assistants Dick Muir and Gary Gold has reached a crescendo with De Villiers seemingly in a desperate search for new assistants before the Springboks embark on their end-of-year Grand Slam tour.
“Intense, close, physical”.
Western Province captain Anton van Zyl could hardly produce a more apt description of the challenge awaiting his side in Saturday’s Currie Cup match against the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.
Van Zyl and Co won a titanic battle in the trenches against the Bulls 15-12 at Newlands in the first round, but the challenge in Pretoria will no doubt be tougher.
The Sharks may shortly experience a wing crisis similar to the one that was a major headache for Free State in this year’s Currie Cup.
Six armed police officers on Saturday apparently stormed into a restaurant here during a concert by Louise Carver – because of a police cap worn by Schalk Burger.
Sharks No 8 Ryan Kankowski has been suspended from all forms of rugby for one week, after he was found guilty of foul play in last weekend’s Absa Currie Cup loss to the Lions in Johannesburg, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) said on Thursday.
Is Bok rugby heading towards a crisis? Well given that De Villiers is seemingly scrambling to get experts on-board and all of them are turning him down, it seems we are getting pretty close. Continue reading
The Sharks have included Andre Pretorius in their run on 15 for the weekends clash against the Leopards. Continue reading
Glory be to the All Blacks, hallowed be their name, who with a year to go to a Rugby World Cup tournament are once again considered to be the best team on the planet.
It’s familiar territory for the All Blacks being all-conquering in the years between the World Cups only to come a cropper when they tournament takes place.
If YOU were made the consultant to assist Peter de Villiers what would you do? Lets see what Rugby-Talk bloggers have up their sleeve. A few rules apply.
Result of Survey Pending
Too few responses on the Survey to get a trend. We are certainly not blaming the same things for our poor Tri Nation performance.
Auckland – The All Blacks have topped a list of the greatest chokers in sport, beating the likes of golfer Greg Norman and the Proteas cricket team.
World Cup winning Springbok prop Gurthrö Steenkamp will make a first start for the Vodacom Blue Bulls in the Absa Currie Cup competition when they take on Western Province at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The loss of Springbok wing Jongi Nokwe has forced Free State Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské to name four centres in his backline for Saturday’s Currie Cup crunch match against the Lions.
Sharks coach John Plumtree is considering making a number of changes to his team for Friday’s Currie Cup encounter with the Leopards.
However, he first has to find a new captain now that Stefan Terblanché has been ruled out.
Western Province are looking to call up the experience of JD Moller for what they anticipate will be a concerted Blue Bulls forward onslaught in Saturday’s key Absa Currie Cup match at Loftus.
Free State Cheetahs wing Lionel Mapoe, was on Wednesday ordered by a Bloemfontein Court to report at the Cheetahs by Thursday 15:00.
Counties Manukau loose forward Fritz Lee will appear at a judicial hearing Wednesday for an alleged dangerous tackle during his team’s NPC match against Northland at Pukekohe on Sunday.
Italian Magners League side Benetton Treviso have captured the signature of Western Province’s experienced flyhalf Willem de Waal to add to their growing South African contingent of players.
I understand there are certain sensitive user’s on this forum, I have therefore censored my original image but feel free to view the uncensored version on http://blogs.sport24.co.za/uysh/i-shaved-my-balls-for-this
Balls…that’s what we want! SARU has failed to show any by just allowing things to deteriorate in the Springbok camp. The ANC fails to show any to shut the trap of that idiotic Julius Malema. Afriforum tries their best to dangle theirs around in public, only to be kicked in it by the likes of Andre Venter. Oregan Hoskins failed to show any when their sponsor told them they are too slow on transformation in the Currie Cup, so he jumped on the Union bosses and told them to get the numbers up. Continue reading
One of the biggest myths in sport is that players are born with exceptional talent, and that it cannot be coached. Continue reading
After the umpteenth “review” on Pieter de Villiers it is clear the coaching panel is now cast in stone for the upcoming World Cup in New Zealand. It is therefor imperative that we now find within ourselves the passion and patriotism in our character to support our Springbok team and the coaching staff. Our personal feelings in this matter must be set aside as we look towards next year as the Springboks will need our positivity more than ever before and any negativity towards either Pieter de Villiers or anyone else involved will only deter them on focusing on the job at hand. Continue reading
First-five Matt Berquist will play for the Crusaders in next season’s inaugural Investec Super Rugby competition.
SARU on Monday completed an extensive review of the international season to date in conjunction with Springbok coach Peter de Villiers.
The All Blacks coaches are to increase their involvement in New Zealand’s five Super Rugby franchises next season, helping them with strategy and also player management in the crucial World Cup year.
“Over a million spectators attend the games. They are at 100 per cent capacity. It attracts the biggest TV audience in world rugby, bar the World Cup. It makes more money than any other annual competition. It gets more media attention. On any level you choose to measure it against, it works.”
The Vodacom Blue Bulls were dealt a double blow after hearing they will not have the services of utility forward Juandré Kruger and flanker Deon Stegmann until at least the semi-finals of the Absa Currie Cup.
It’s Monday and I feel less than productive at work… so why don’t we design a few INNOVATIVE ways how WE would have handled Peter de Villiers’ review procedure…
After watching yet another week of Currie Cup action (round 12), the dissimilarities between our domestic competition and our current Springbok game plan has once again left me wondering. Continue reading
Ambitious Western Province paid a dear price for their win over Griquas at the weekend, with a major injury blow ahead of their crucial north-south derby against the Blue Bulls this coming Saturday.
While the 48-32 won over Griquas took WP a giant leap closer to a spot in the play-offs, the hamstring injury of star prop Wikus Blaauw could not have come at a worse time.
Phokeng – Earl Rose has done it again.
The Lions player and his younger brother Jody deserted the Lions camp at the Platinum International Sevens Tournament here and returned to Johannesburg without permission.
The Chiefs announced today that Canterbury lock and 2010 Crusader Isaac Ross will be joining the Chiefs playing squad for the 2011 Super Rugby competition.
The heads of Springbok coach Peter de Villiers and his two assistants, Dick Muir and Gary Gold, may all roll Today when their performance reviews are done.
Andy Leslie –the 1976 All Black Captain- said after the tour: “South Africa is a country at war”. The tour was a disturbing experience for the New Zealanders in many ways and is without a doubt the reason for the title of Terry McLean’s book on this tour.
Terry McLean entitled his book “goodbye to glory”. An interesting title and a choice based on the fact that this tour was in many ways an end. It was a goodbye to innocence in terms of separating rugby and politics for New Zealand rugby players because there is no glory in playing rugby against a country that treats more than half of his population as substandard humans. This tour was an eye opener for the New Zealand rugby people (players and administrators). As the teams prepared for the first test, in Durban, it was announced that Egypt had become the 29th country to boycott the Olympic Games in Montreal –a direct protest against the All Black tour. Continue reading
The Blue Bulls grabbed five valuable Currie Cup points in Potchefstroom on Saturday, but struggled to beat a game Leopards side 39-26.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) moved swiftly to shift blame, following Springbok utility back Frans Steyn’s claims that Bok coach Peter de Villiers has been disrespectful.
Lions (10) 22 / Sharks (10) 20 (Final Score)
The Xerox Lions hosted the Sharks at 17:05 SA Time at Coca-Cola Park, Johannesburg. This is the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1 & HD and on M-Net on TV in SA.
In a nail-biter till the end the Lions came back at the death to score a try through captain Franco van der Merwe and with the sucessful conversion from Elton Jantjies sealingthe win by only 2 points…. final score Lions 22 / 20.