Player Movements
Jean de Villiers
Schalk Burger
Vice-captain Schalk Burger and captain Jean de Villiers are both back in the DHL Stormers team for Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash against the Cheetahs at DHL Newlands, kick-off 17:05 SA Time.
Tickets for this weekend can be bought online at TicketPros, or from selected Spar stores or PostNet outlets/stores. Ticket prices start at R50 for standing and R80 for seating.
Burger missed last weekend’s 24-8 win over the Force, whilst De Villiers returns after a two-week lay-off.
Luke Braid returns from injury to captain the Blues against the Sharks at QBE Stadium in North Harbour on Friday night.
The openside flanker missed the last two games against the Chiefs and Reds with a shoulder injury, but after another week off with the bye Braid is back to full fitness and raring to go.
“It was really important to make sure we gave Luke time to recover from his shoulder,” Blues head coach Sir John Kirwan said.
Pat Leafa
Rebels Hooker Pat Leafa has committed his future to the club, signing a deal which will see him remain in Melbourne until the end of the 2016 season.
Leafa was born in Auckland, however will qualify to represent Australia if selected as of January 2015. The popular hooker joined the Rebels from the Brumbies’ Academy and the Canberra club competition as a member of the Extended Playing Squad (EPS) in 2012, managing two appearances as he patiently waited behind Ged Robinson and Shota Horie in the pecking order.
James Hook
The Stormers and Sharks have reportedly shown interest in acquiring the services of Welsh flyhalf James Hook.
Hook, 28, is currently contracted with French club Perpignan but is expected to leave them after they were relegated from the Top 14. He has an opt-out clause in his contract which allows him the option to leave if they lose their top-flight status.
Talented young scrumhalf Augustine Pulu has committed to the Chiefs for at least the next two years.
The 24-year old has played 31 matches for the Chiefs, including seven so far this season, scoring two tries and assisting another.
Former Heineken Cup champions Leinster have announced that they have signed Wallabies and Waratahs lock Kane Douglas after his Australian Rugby Union contract expires later in the year.
The 24 year old, who made his Australian debut in 2012 against Argentina and has gone on to win 13 further caps since then, will join a roster that already includes Irish internationals Devin Toner and Mike McCarthy.
The Lions medical staff have released an injury update, following the Vodacom Super Rugby outfit’s 41-13 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney on Sunday.
Unfortunately utility backs Lionel Mapoe (MCL), Courtnall Skosan (Hamstring) and forward Derick Minnie (concussion) have returned to South Africa this morning. They will undergo further scans and tests upon their arrival.
Coenie van Wyk and Alwyn Hollenbach departs for Perth on Monday evening in order to provide cover.
The team is still extremely positive and will be hungry to get their first win while on tour, against the Force on Saturday.
The Toyota Cheetahs have lost their second player with the news that fullback Hennie Daniller will move to Italian club Zebre at the end of the current Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Daniller, who has just turned 30, has been released early by the Cheetahs to make the move, and the news comes a few days after French club Oyonnax confirmed they had signed utility back Riaan “True Blue” Smit.
England’s Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson announced on Monday that he will retire at the end of the season after Toulon’s Heineken Cup and French Top 14 finals.
“I would like to take this opportunity to formally announce my retirement from playing rugby,” the 34-year-old said in a statement on his club’s website.
“I have an enormous number of people to thank for their support from all around the world but especially here in France and in England,” Wilkinson said.
Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper faces a 16-week recovery after MRI scans confirmed he requires surgery to heal an AC joint injury suffered against the Melbourne Rebels.
Cooper will undergo surgery on his shoulder on Tuesday to repair a Grade Three AC joint injury in his left shoulder after he fell on it awkwardly in a tackle.
The Chiefs have been given a big boost for this week’s Super Rugby match against the Hurricanes as Aaron Cruden has been cleared to make his return this week.
Cruden’s return will be a big boost for the Chiefs as well as the All Blacks who face England in a three Test series next month.
First-five Cruden has been training with the All Blacks in Christchurch but has not featured for the Chiefs since the beginning of April.
The Melbourne Rebels face a crisis at scrumhalf as Luke Burgess has been ruled out for up to two months of Super Rugby with a knee injury.
Burgess was hoping to play against his former team the Waratahs this weekend but he injured his knee in the Club’s victory over the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday.
The injury is a blow to the side, who are already without the services of fellow scrumhalf Nic Stirzaker, leaving rookie Ben Meehan and experienced injury replacement Josh Holmes to battle for the nine jersey against the Waratahs.
England were left with an anxious wait to discover if full-back Mike Brown would be fit for next month’s tour of New Zealand after the full-back was injured in a gruelling Premiership semifinal on Saturday.
Harlequins star Brown, player of the tournament in this season’s Six Nations Championship, went off with a hamstring injury midway through the second half of his side’s 31-17 semifinal loss away to Saracens.
England coach Stuart Lancaster is already without regular full-back alternatives in Saracens’ Alex Goode and Northampton’s Ben Foden for the first of a three-test series against the world champion All Blacks in Auckland on June 7 as the pair will be required for the Premiership final at Twickenham seven days earlier.
Harlequins’ director of rugby Conor O’Shea, himself a former Ireland full-back, tried to still fears about the health of England’s first-choice No 15.
Versatile Vodacom Blue Bulls midfielder Rohan Janse van Rensburg has replaced his injured provincial team mate Duncan Matthews (wing) in the Junior Springboks squad for 2014 IRB Junior World Championship.
New Zealand will stage the 2014 JWC for the first time from 2 to 20 June in Auckland. Matthews was ruled out of action due to a back injury.
Mercurial Wallabies fly-half Quade Cooper looks likely to miss his side’s June Tests against France due to a shoulder injury.
The Cheetahs have been forced into a late change ahead of their Super Rugby clash with the Brumbies in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Danny Cipriani was named in an England squad for the first time in six years on Thursday as coach Stuart Lancaster has decided the mercurial Sale flyhalf is no longer a risk to his team’s esprit de corps.
Cipriani won all seven of his caps under Brian Ashton in 2008 – having been dropped from what would have been his debut against Scotland after being seen outside a nightclub days before a match.
His career then stalled and after he left Wasps for an ill-starred spell in Australia he has been involved in a series of off-field incidents – including being run over by a bus.
The Cheetahs remain in the dark over the future of Springbok flyhalf Johan Goosen, amidst escalating rumours that he is to depart from the Cheetahs.
The most recent dispatches from the Bloemfontein media suggest Goosen will make an announcement in the “next few days” – having been linked to French clubs Racing Metro and Toulon, as well as the Stormers.
The Vodacom Bulls may well add Springbok prop Trevor Nyakane to their ranks as their next acquisition when his contract expires at the end of the season.
Nyakane, who became a Springbok last season but was dropped because of disciplinary issues, is known to be on the target list of the Bulls as they look to strengthen their squad ahead of the 2015 season.
Perth-born inside back Luke Burton will make his Super Rugby debut at inside centre when the Western Force take on the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday.
The 20-year-old re-joined the Force squad for their South African tour after being a part of the Australian Under-20’s side that defeated Samoa U20s, 34-5, late last month. Burton has been selected in the Australian squad for his second IRB Junior World Championship in June.
Henry Speight returns to the wing for his first appearance since fracturing his jaw in Round 5 when the Brumbies take on the Cheetahs at the Free State Stadium on Saturday, the Brumbies’ official website reports.
There was welcome news for the Stormers and Springboks on Wednesday when lock Eben Etzebeth was spotted training at Newlands.
Etzebeth, 22, has been out of action since injuring his ankle playing for the Springboks against France in Paris last November.
Scott Fardy and Jesse Mogg remain committed to representing Australia at the Rugby World Cup after re-signing new deals to the end of 2015.
The Brumbies have had a busy week or two retaining players, the likes of Wallabies Nic White, Christian Lealiifano and Matt Toomua have all resigned for the Canberra club.
Tim Bateman has announced he will head to Japan at the end of the Super Rugby season to take up a two-year deal with the West Red Sparks.
Bateman’s decision to leave New Zealand has nothing to do with rugby and everything to do with family.
Sadly, Bateman’s second stint in the Fukuoka region, is because his wife Laura was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last year.
Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett was forced to make changes to his starting line-up for Friday’s all-New Zealand Super Rugby derby against the Highlanders.
Injured All Black hooker Dane Coles will miss his first Hurricanes match of the season.
Coles injured his lower back against the Rebels and the status of the injury is unclear.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is impressed by the form Stormers flank Schalk Burger has displayed in this year’s Super Rugby competition and said he would come into consideration for the national team.
Burger, 31, returned to Super Rugby this year after missing most of the past two seasons due to injury and illness.
In an interview, Meyer said Burger’s play this year has really impressed him.
Springbok prop CJ van der Linde could feature for the Eastern Province Kings in the Currie Cup Premier Division later this year.
The 33-year-old pitched up at the Kings practice on Tuesday.
The Rebels have signed experienced scrumhalf Josh Holmes as an injury replacement for Nic Stirzaker, who suffered his second ankle injury of the season during the club’s 22-16 defeat to the Sharks in Round 12.
Holmes, the younger brother of foundation Rebel Luke, has no shortage of Super Rugby experience and brings with him a strong passing and running game.
Hooker Benjamin Kayser is to miss France’s three-test tour of Australia in June because of a neck injury, his club Clermont said on Wednesday.
Springbok flyhalf Johan Goosen is on the verge of announcing a move to France at the end of the current Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Goosen has been eyeing a move since early in the season, and is likely to sign for French club Racing Metro in the next few days, leaving his Toyota Cheetahs side with a massive dilemma.
The Cheetahs have been dealt a blow with the news that scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius is ruled out with an ankle injury.
Henry Speight has recovered from a broken jaw making him available for the Brumbies against the Cheetahs clash in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Speight is also itching to stake his claim for a long-awaited Wallabies berth with only five rounds plus finals remaining to prove himself to Test coach Ewen McKenzie.
A move back to the Cheetahs may not be the wisest move for Western Force flyhalf Sias Ebersohn.
Ebersohn is having a stellar season for this year’s Super Rugby surprise packages, and last weekend returned to haunt his former team-mates by kicking 13 points in a 23-16 win in Bloemfontein.
He held his own against opposite number Johan Goosen – ironically the player who kept him out of the Cheetahs team a couple of seasons ago – which eventually led to Ebersohn’s move abroad.
A year from the Rugby World Cup, defending champions the All Blacks face a depleted talent pool to select from, as a wealth of players opt for lucrative overseas contracts.
Although there is an overflow of quality among the loose forwards and outside backs, in other areas there are looming shortages – particularly at hooker, where there is a struggle to find three of international standard for next month’s tour by England.
Edinburgh Rugby have confirmed that nine players will leave the club at the end of the season, at the conclusion of their current contracts.
Among the nine are capped internationalists Lee Jones (Scotland), centre Ben Atiga (All Blacks) and back-row Dimitri Basilaia (Georgia).