All Blacks
Super Rugby matches in the three-week playoffs which start this weekend will be decided by penalty shootouts if the teams remain deadlocked after extra time.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers probably started it with his cheeky reservations about midfield sensation Sonny Bill Williams a few weeks ago, but now New Zealanders appear to be firing back some verbal arrows of their own ahead of the World Cup.
Halfway through the first Super XV rugby season if you told me we would have three teams in the top half of the Combined Log, I wouldn’t have believed it.
The Stormers started the season well, The Bulls started off and narrowly beat the Lions and Cheetahs, the Sharks looked like they were trudging through thick mud, and well the Cheetahs and Lions looked like they were once gain going to fill the bottom of the Log.
Sitting and watching this match today under calmer circumstances, one sees so much more in how the match went and how the players responded to the situation.
Not much is available on the Australian leg of the 1956 tour. McLean in his book “Battle for the rugby crown” devout a chapter to this part of the tour but writes very little about the actual matches apart from the table below which is a summary or record of matches played in Aussie. Continue reading
Following the completion of Round 18 of the Super Rugby regular season, the confirmed fixtures for the 2011 Super Rugby Finals Series Qualifiers are:
Date: Friday 24 June 2011
Teams: Blues (4th) vs Waratahs (5th)
Date: Saturday 25 June 2011
Teams: Crusaders (3rd – NZ Conference winners) vs Sharks (6th)
Cheetahs (13) 34 / Stormers (19) 44 (Final Score)
The Toyota Cheetahs hosted the DHL Stormers at Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein at 19:10 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
The Stormers booked 2nd spot overall with this good win over the gutsy Cheetahs.
Bulls (13) 23 / Sharks (16) 26 (Final Score)
The Vodacom Bulls hosted the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria at 17:05 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
In a battle royal, the Sharks were victorious, snatching a place in the play-off’s with a 3-point win.
This match was an advertisement for rugby!
Herewith ALL the Super Rugby team sheets as they were announced for week 18 of Super Rugby 2011.
The Sharks play their final pool game this Saturday which should present to be a thrilling encounter between the 2 sides, this derby will no doubt be a match of huge proportions, with the result probably seeing one of the 2 sides not going through to the final stages of the series.
Lions flyhalf Butch James been suspended for four weeks after being found guilty of dangerous play.
The Stormers could suffer a massive blow ahead of their Super Rugby clash against the Cheetahs as Dewaldt Duvenhage is now in doubt for the match.
We are reaching the end of the line for nine of the 15 teams in the 2011 Super Rugby season. So many if’s and but’s happened this year and with the last week having so many permutations one can call the new format a success. Some teams made a mess of their draw and other exploited it better. Let me sum up what I enjoyed this year and what I did not.
Peter Bills wrote an article in the New Zealand Herald warning (or is he looking for excuses) that the New Zealand S15 Franchises are bashing each other to a pulp just in time for the World Cup.
He writes: “The pace and physicality of the Super 15 since it began in February has to be increasingly draining these guys. For the best, and that means most of the All Blacks, it will go on for the rest of this month. The Super 15 final isn’t until July 9. And then comes … the Tri-Nations. If a side like the Crusaders reach the final, it could be they’ll have to play it in South Africa.
Judgment has been reserved in the Butch James judicial hearing.
Bulls lock Bakkies Botha will play in his 100th Super Rugby match for his team when they take on the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Stormers have named their team to play the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein with Peter Grant named in the starting line up.
The Bulls have confirmed that scrum half and winger Francois Hougaard will not be leaving the Bulls before October 2012.
Baby Bokkies (27) 42 / Ireland (19) 26 (Final Score)
Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso
SANZAR have released the match officials for the 18th Round of the 2011 Super Rugby tournament with Jonathan Kaplan getting the big Bulls vs Sharks clash in SA.
I had to borrow this slogan from the Varsity Cup simply because it best describes why some teams seem to be on the up, and others going down.
The Sharks take on the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld this coming weekend, and having seen the Bulls resurgence it becomes more difficult than ever to see how the Sharks can win this one. I have no doubt as to the ability of the Sharks and that they have the players to beat the in-form Bulls.
The Springboks Rugby World Cup training camp had to be cancelled on Monday as the Springbok team management forgot to account for the busniess end of the Super Rugby competition.
The Sharks will be sweating over the fitness of several key players, as they start their build-up to the Super Rugby crunch match against the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Vodacom Bulls are set to bring back two of their big guns – Springboks Bakkies Botha and Fourie du Preez – to face the Sharks in their final Vodacom Super Rugby league match at Loftus on Saturday.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has said that Peter Grant will definitely play for the Stormers against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein this week.
With less than 90 days to go before the Springboks have to defend their title in New Zealand and the squad reduced to 37, the debates will start flowing towards which players are currently out of form and will really need to start showing some willingness and ability to appease the supporters on whether they deserve to go to the World Cup. Continue reading
The Lions’ Springbok flyhalf Butch James is to face a SANZAR judicial hearings after being cited for alleged foul play during his team’s 30-all draw with the Sharks at the weekend.
Have a good look, Butch’s feet are totally off the ground in a flying leap, an arm around Keegan Daniel’s neck… and the result
on the ground was that Daniel was arched on his back, with Butch trying to stretch Keegan Daniel’s neck to new lenghts.
Stormers (3) 16 / Bulls (6) 19 (Final Score)
The DHL Stormers hosted the Vodacom Bulls at Newlands, Cape Town at 18:10 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
This game cannot be described as rugby, it was rather trench warfare… and the Bulls won the brutal war, revenging the Stormers win of earlier in the season at Loftus.
The Bulls were just simply better in the set pieces, the rest was all equal.
Lions (20) 30 / Sharks (9) 30 (Final Score)
The MTN Lions hosted the Sharks at Coca-Cola Park, Johannesburg at 16:05 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
In a humdinger of a match the MTN Lions and the Sharks drew 30 / 30 but it took a momentous effort for the Sharks to pull back a 21-point deficit and they managed to pull 14 of those points back whilst Butch james was off in the sin bin, yellow carded for a head high flying tackle on Keegan Daniel.
Baby Bokkies (21) 33 / Scotties (0) 0 (Final Score)
South Africa took on Scotland in their first clash of 2011 in the Junior World Championships at the Stadio del Plebiscito, Padova, Italy at 20:00 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1 & CSN on TV in SA.
There was always only going to be one winner, but errors hampered the Baby Bokkies and many chances went a-begging. They still scored their 4 tries though and kept the sheet against them blemish free.
Herewith ALL the Super Rugby team sheets as they were announced for week 17 of Super Rugby 2011.
The Sharks have named their team to face the Lions at Coca Cola Park in Johannesburg on Saturday with John Smit being named at hooker.
The MTN Lions will be playing The Sharks this Saturday, 11 June 2011 at Coca-Cola Park. Kick off is at 16:05. The team was announced this morning and is:
Sanzar CEO Greg Peters has admitted that “disparities between penalties” remain a concern as the first season of conference style Super Rugby moves into the home stretch.