Springbok Rugby
Springbok rugby legend Naas Botha on Monday said he saw no reason why current coach Peter de Villiers could not remain part of the Bok set up.
As we reach the magical, mystical and unfathomable date of January 27th for the announcement of our new Springbok coach, and as the excitement builds, the media hacks go into overdrive. This comes second only to the general election results in terms of hype. Who’s in, who’s out, the circus continues, SARU aren’t helping, but here’s the latest.
Canterbury 9 / South Africa 6
This match was a turning point in terms of the media and public’s (in both countries) relationship with Craven and the 1956 Springbok team.
Terry McLean writes: This was the day that Canterbury, for the second time in three encounters, defeated South Africa, this was the night that Danie Craven, after telling me that he was not a happy man, said a critical piece about refereeing in New Zealand, this was the week-end in which he made an official complaint about the quality of New Zealand refereeing and this was the succeeding week in which angry passions were stirred in the backrooms of newspaper offices, both South African and New Zealand, that the Grey River Argus felt impelled to say, “Sour grapes, Dr Craven –very sour grapes indeed!”
The 1956 team was not a particularly happy touring group and struggled to find their feet right from the start of the New Zealand leg of the tour after losing the first match against Waikato. The Springboks had a hard time adjusting to the wet playing surfaces, the rainy/muddy conditions, the flat lying and rush-up defensive style of the New Zealand teams but in particularly with the kick and charge/marauding foot rush tactics of the New Zealand teams. The rucks were a nightmare for the Springboks and they were at loss how to counter the locals’ aggression, structure and ascendency at the tackle ball.
The leader of the Stormers, Schalk Burger, is the right man to take over the captaincy of the Springboks.
The afternoon of the same morning they arrived from South Africa the Springboks played in their first game against a combined team of Western Australia in PERTH.
Charles Blunt the President of Australian rugby formally welcomed every Springbok with a handshake before the first match (see Picture below).
This picture shows Charles Blunt president of Australia rugby being introduced to the players by Hannes Marais before the first match. Here he shakes hands with Dirk de Vos.
From left to right: Robbie Barnard; Piet Visagie; Johan Spies and Joggie Jansen
One of the brightest stints in the history of Springbok rugby was in 1970 and 1971. In 1970 South Africa of course won the 4 test series against Brain Lochore super All Black team at home. The 1971 international season started off with two tests at home against a French touring side. The Springboks won the first one on 12 June 1971 in Bloemfontein 22-9 and drew the second one 8 all on 19 June 1971 in Durban.
Springbok flank Francois Louw has been praised by rugby legend Sir Ian McGeechan for his contribution for Bath over the past two months, and hailed “a Test match animal.”
A really fascinating day at the Beyond Sport Summit – highlighted by an entertaining panel discussion including Michael Johnson and Oscar Pistorius, and chaired by Bob Skinstad – was interrupted slightly upon getting three bits of truly bizarre sporting news …
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Saracens boss Edward Griffiths says the South African Rugby Union (SARU) should consider playing its international rugby in the Northern Hemisphere in future.
The Springboks will kick-off the new format competition against the Pumas when the all-new “The Castle Rugby Championship” launches in 2012 – the replacement for the Tri-Nations series, SANZAR announced on Tuesday.
An agreement confirming Argentina’s participation was signed in Auckland recently by the SANZAR Joint Venture partners after several months of negotiations with the Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) and the International Rugby Board (IRB).
AUSTRALIA will defend their southern hemisphere title next year in an expanded competition called The Rugby Championship – and will meet new boys Argentina on the Gold Coast.
South African Rugby coach Peter de Villiers says that he will re-apply for the Springbok coaching position after his contract expires next month.
The appearance of the World Cup-winning All Black team in Soweto and the process to appoint a new Springbok coach appear to be the main bullet points on the agenda this week.
Springboks 22 / Poverty Bay-East Coast Combined 0
The Springboks travelled by plane -for the first time on tour- from Wellington to Gisborne to play a combined Poverty Bay-East Coach team.
Gisborne was a lovely town (now a city) nestling amid the hills and woods which fringe Poverty Bay, where Captain Cook made his first landing in Aotearoa. Continue reading
As the most capped Springbok ever, Victor Matfield is a national hero who transcends rugby provincialism and has fans across the world. His rugby exploits and achievements are numerous: he was an instrumental part of the team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he helped win two Tri Nations tournaments for the Boks, he has lifted the Super 14 trophy three times with the Bulls and he has enjoyed Currie Cup glory.
John Smit and Victor Matfield have been vital cogs in the engine room of the Springbok team for more than a decade; will their contributions in the Green and Gold jersey ever be matched?
Ian Jones made an interesting remark the other night on TV during pre-match run-up to the RWC final. The panel were debating Graham Henry’s tenure as All Black coach and what makes him so successful. Jake White over emphasized –for understandable reasons- the fact that NZRU stuck with Henry and gave him another change, which brought that experience of having been there and knowing what it’s all about into the team environment. Jake has a good point to which I’ll return a little later in my dialogue, but Ian Jones took a different angle.
The Western Province duo of Rassie Erasmus and Allister Coetzee have declared themselves unavailable for the Springbok coaching job and have no interest in the position at this time.
Springbok and Western Province centre Jaque Fourie has announced that he will be joining Japanese club Panasonic Wild Knights.
Five members of the Springboks’ World Cup squad have been nominated for the SA Rugby Player of the Year Award, with the winner due to be announced at a function at Gold Reef City on November 3.
It may be New Zealand’s moment in the limelight, but the Springbok victories in 1995 and 2007 will be honoured as the captains and coaches of World Cup winning teams are inducted into the International Rugby Board’s Hall of Fame tonight.
So the world cup is over, and what have we learnt?There were some controversial issues, some very close matches and some really angry fans.
The concept of the X-factor actually comes from racehorses, specifically from a horse called Eclipse. An extremely large heart is a trait that occasionally occurs in Thoroughbreds, linked to a genetic condition passed down via the dam line, known as the “x-factor”.
Eclipse, the horse, was necropsied after his death in 1789. Because Eclipse’s heart appeared to be much larger than other horses, it was weighed, and found to be 14 pounds (6.4 kg), almost twice the normal weight. Eclipse is believed to have passed the trait on via his daughters, and pedigree research verified that arguably the best racehorse ever, namely Secretariat can trace in his dam line to a daughter of Eclipse.
In the 20th century, the heart of Phar Lap was weighed and also documented to be 6.35 kilograms (14.0 lb), or essentially the same size as that of Eclipse.
Now you might ask what this has got to do with the All Blacks and the Rugby World Cup final.
I still just can’t get over that quarter final loss.
The more I think about it the more I feel we were robbed. Yes, the referee was bad and wrong and yes we contributed to our demise with how we approached the game and by the appointment of a puppet as Springbok coach 4 years ago. However, all of that (poor referee, game plan, coach selection) and the Pool construction process at this year’s Rugby World Cup is part of an insidious virus, in my opinion, which is destroying Rugby Union as we know it. It is this virus which orchestrated our demise in the Rugby World Cup quarter final match against Australia.
Western Province have revealed that they are in the process of finalising Springbok centre Jaque Fourie’s contract and the move to Japan is off.