HSBC Sevens World Series
If Currie Cup is your thing, then I have some bad news for you. You are about to witness the long, and painful death of the world’s oldest and most fierce domestic rugby competition. Continue reading
IT doesn’t get any more cruel than this. The Wallabies excel in all areas of play, except one – goalkicking – and they experience the pain and indignity of suffering their longest sequence of losses to the All Blacks.
Wallabies (14) 22 / All Blacks (6) 23 (Final Score)
The Wallabies hosted the All Blacks in Sydney, Australia at 12:00 SA Time in the last 2010 Tri-Nations match. This is the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1 on DSTV in SA.
The Wallabies led for most of the match and at one stage after halftime led by 19 / 6.
The All Blacks came from behind and ground out a penalty and 2 converted tries, thereafter closing out the win in the dying minutes.
All Blacks win 23 / 22 and are undefeated in the Tri-Nations. They are also now 10 in a row against Australia.
The Wallabies host the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday 11 September 2010 for the last Tri-Nations match of the year at 12:00 SA Time. Can the All Blacks do a complete 6 from 6 Tri-Nations whitewash and can they go 10 in a row against the Wallabies?
The Wallabies have been warned that disrespecting the All Blacks’ haka could result in a fine from the International Rugby Board.
The ARU was recently forced to pay a £1000 ($1677) fine to Rugby World Cup Limited after the Wallaroos, Australia’s women’s rugby team, advanced on the Black Ferns mid-haka before their World Cup pool match in England last month.
Aaron Cruden will start at flyhalf in place of Daniel Carter in one of five changes to the All Blacks team for Saturday’s final match of the Tri-Nations rugby series against Australia.
The Wallabies will be forced to play their final TriNations match against New Zealand this weekend without winger Drew Mitchell.
It was what one could call a winter of discontent for the Springboks as they lost their fifth Tri-Nations match from six in Bloemfontein on Saturday and set a new Tri-Nations record by conceding the most tries in the 15 years of the competition. The 41-39 loss meant the Springboks ended bottom of the log.
Springboks (13) 39 / Wallabies (31) 41 (Final Score)
The Springboks hosted the Wallabies at Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein at 17:00 SA Time in their last Tri-Nations and Mandela Cup encounter of 2010. This is the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, M-Net, SuperSport HD in SA.
Australia first squandered a 25-point lead, to clinch the game on full time with a successful long distance penalty by Kurtley Beale. Final score Wallabies 41 / 39.
We have read a lot and discussed a lot that our players are overplayed. The Tim Noakes’ and the Neels Liebel’s and other scientists all have their opinions and we have recently learned that the ideal is for a player to play no more than 1400 to 1600 minutes of Rugby per year.
I am of the view that these minutes are dependant on whether you are a backline, looseforward or tight forward player and also on your age and your proneness to injury. Guys like Bismarck get injured often, and its probably a challenge to even get him up to the 1600 minute mark! Continue reading
The Springboks host the Wallabies in thier last Tri-Nations and Mandela Plate encounter of 2010 against one another.
As far as Tri-Nations glory goes, this is a dead rubber apart from playing to avoid the wooden spoon.
We preview this game below.
The Wallaby coaching staff have replaced Saia Faingaa and Dean Mumm with the more experienced and hardened duo of Stephen Moore and Mark Chisholm. With some lineout wobbles in Pretoria and some less than perfect scrum work, a change here can’t be a bad thing.
The All Blacks have included uncapped flyhalf Colin Slade as cover for Dan Carter in the 26-man squad to face Australia in the TriNations.
Springboks coach Peter de Villiers’ mouth has gotten him in trouble again after he claimed that the Springboks were “100 per cent” in support of accused murderer and Bulls rugby prop Bees Roux.
A lot has been said about the way the Springboks seemed to have stagnated in their play. The most obvious direction to pass blame is towards PDV and his assistant coaches. They are the ones who must give direction to the team. They are also primarily responsible for selecting a group of players that can fit into a game plan that is required to win tests. Continue reading
The South African mentality is big on abrasive obstinacy as a dominant characteristic. We saw this in the determined manner in which the Springboks fought their way back into the Test at Pretoria after giving up 14 points in the opening minutes. And also in the way Victor Matfield played out the full 80 minutes of his 100th Test.
The possibility of further misery or a likely last chance in 2010 to get his Test-level act back together?
What a performance! The hoodoo of the 100th test has been broken, and no more fitting than being that of the great Victor Matfield at the stronghold of Bulls rugby, Loftus Versfeld.
Article written by Met Uysh Continue reading
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers had a simple statement for all those critical of the national team even though they had won this weekend: Either you’re for us or you’re against us.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has a few tough calls to make after Bryan Habana and John Smit struggled through Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld.
Australia’s Drew Mitchell (R) breaks past South Africa’s JP Pietersen to score a try only to be denied by the TMO. Photo: Reuters
The Wallabies, the masters of ruining green and golden opportunities, uncovered another way to lose the unlosable Test on the highveld on Saturday night.
Recordings of both After Match Press Conferences were made by me, both on Audio Format as well as seperately on Video Format.
The Audio Recordings:
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The Video Recordings: The Videos are long, so they’ll take long to buffer before playing, hope you have proper broadband
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Springboks (24) 44 / Wallabies (28) 31 (Final Score)
The Springboks hosted the Wallabies in their penultimate encounter against one another this year in the Tri-Nations at Loftus, Pretoria, South Africa at 17:00 SA Time. This is the match thread for discussion of the game. The game was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SuperSport HD and M-Net with previews from 16:00 SA Time.
In a very strange match, the Springboks proved too tough for the Wallabies, running in 5 tries to 4.
What was apparent to me of this match was how severely off form Bryan Habana was the whole match and what a positive impact Chiliboy Ralepelle made as a substitute for a lacklustre John Smit.
Francois Hougaard is my Man Of The Match!
Victor Matfield did a lap of honour after the match to celebrate his 100th Test Cap.
Time for some tough decisions for Peter de Villiers….. put Bryan Habana and John Smit out to pasture, their time has come and gone!
Former Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer on Friday presented the Springbok jerseys to the Test team playing the Wallabies in a Tri-Nations Test at Loftus on Saturday.
For lock Victor Matfield this was a special occasion on the eve of his 100th Test match.
The Springboks host the Wallabies at Loftus, Pretoria at 17:00 on Saturday 28 August in the 2nd last Tri-Nations encounter between the 2 teams for 2010.
We see the match like this:
Schalk Burger is a ‘world-class’ fetcher, and highly rated by the Australians, even though he is regarded as just another ‘brute basher’ in his own country.
A few little tit-bits regarding the rest of the Tri-Nations of 2010.
Ex Test prop Toks van der Linde, now part-time TV presenter, will become the first Ex-Springbok to sing the National Anthem on-field ahead of the Tri-Nations clash between the Springboks and Wallabies at Loftus on Saturday.
The return of Quade Cooper to the flyhalf position represents one of just two changes to the Wallabies starting XV for Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against South Africa in Pretoria.
The Wallabies have called on one of South Africa’s best known goalkickers to help improve their technique before the Pretoria Test on Saturday. Continue reading
Francois Steyn, who has been called up for South Africa’s Tri-Nations match against Australia, is “not ready” for Test rugby, according to his Racing-Metro coach Pierre Berbizier.
The Springboks have made two changes to their starting line-up for the Vodacom Tri-Nations Test against Australia at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday.
Despite the closeness of the scoreline and the fact that the All Blacks scored 12 points in the last five minutes of play, the home side was really thrashed all over the field. The Springboks scrum was under pressure most of the game, even though it won a penalty when Smit went up early. The famed lineout dominance has gone with penalties conceded for crooked throws and taking too long to throw in. The All Blacks missed five chances of scoring tries and scored three while the Springboks took their only chance which came from a couple of barging runs near the try line following a tap kick.
The New Zealand media wasted no time in getting another dig in at South African head coach Peter de Villiers.
The World Cup holders, the Springboks, are not in good health and the South African Rugby Union will be bonkers if Peter de Villiers, the fake coach, should remain in charge.
Flanker Juan Smith is the only injury concern in the Springbok camp following the weekend’s 22-29 loss to the All Blacks at the FNB Stadium.