Super Rugby
All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter will have surgery to remove bone spurs from his right ankle, which is a separate issue from his Achilles injury.
The proposed exhibition match between Super Rugby champions the Chiefs and European Cup champions Toulon will not take place this season.
The Chiefs released their pre-season schedule on Friday, which sees them face the Reds and the Blues and not Toulon after both teams failed to get clearance from their national bodies.
Springbok World Cup-winning prop CJ van der Linde has signed for Premiership club London Irish for the remainder of the season.
Five key members of the Springbok squad in 2013 will go head-to-head for the annual SA Rugby Player of the Year Award, while the Steval Pumas have been rewarded for their great form this season with nominations in four categories.
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers, the winner in 2008 who led South Africa to 10 victories in 12 Tests in 2013, will go up against Bismarck du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Willie le Roux and Duane Vermeulen for the most prestigious individual award in South African rugby.
Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver pulled no punches about what he thinks of Quade Cooper’s boxing career.
Super Rugby champions the Chiefs have been issued a seven year license by New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to run the organisation and the Taranaki Rugby Football Union have joined as investors.
The Chiefs licence holding entity is owned by a group of private investors and Provincial Unions and will be known as Chiefs Rugby Club Limited Partnership (CRC).
Crusaders Chairman Murray Ellis has announced that the Canterbury franchise achieved a break-even result for the 2013 financial year.
All Blacks hooker Hika Elliot has been ruled out of Super Rugby next year after undergoing neck surgery and may quit rugby altogether.
Wallabies loose forward Scott Higginbotham has been named as the Melbourne Rebels captain for the 2014 Super Rugby season.
Brumbies back Matt Toomua says that even though his selection for the Wallabies has boosted his bargaining power he will not shop around and will stick with the Canberra Super Rugby franchise.
However Toomua says that the Australian Super Rugby salary cap could complicate matters if the Brumbies hope to retain their current squad as the players start to look for new deals.
The Sharks will play a warm-up match against English Premiership club Saracens at Allianz Park in London on January 25 next year.
adidas ‘unlocked’ the DHL Stormers home and away kit for the 2014 season at a launch event held today (Thursday, December 5) at the adidas Performance store in the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.
Three teams of adidas Storm Chasers – made up of a DHL Stormers player, media personality and a Super Fan (selected from the adidas 3Stripes loyalty programme) – raced around Cape Town looking for clues to help them complete challenges akin to The Amazing Race, in order to reveal the 2014 kits.
The South African Rugby Union’s executive committee is set to hold a meeting here on Thursday to discuss the future structure of the Super Rugby competition.
More teams will to be added from 2016, when a new TV broadcast deal will come into effect.
Quade Cooper is set to meet with Reds CEO Jim Carmichael to discuss the future of the flyhalf’s budding boxing career.
In preparation of the 2014 Super Rugby season, the pre-season is underway before the Christmas / New Year break later in December.
So, what happens to the remaining Southern Kings players, who now have to sit out of Super Rugby again? Whilst a lot have already found franchises like the Bulls, Sharks, Cheetahs to sign for and others are available on loan to these other franchises, there is still a number of players who want to find a spot to play Super Rugby in 2014. Sergeal Petersen, young wing sensation of the EP Kings and Southern Kings is one such player.
Then we move over to up-and-coming youngsters who have now played Currie Cup rugby and questions are asked whether they will step up and rock Super Rugby the way they did the Currie Cup. We specifically look at Cheslin Kolbe, who set the world alight at Western Province in the Currie Cup.
Brumbies centre Christian Lealiifano will undergo ankle surgery that will rule him out of the start of next year’s Super Rugby season.
Despite being axed as Wallabies skipper, James Horwill will not reliquish captaincy of the Reds according to coach Richard Graham.
The New Zealand Rugby Union, via the All Blacks coaches, high performance unit and player’s association, look to have given the green light for the Chiefs to head to France in February to play Toulon.
The fixture, now looking increasingly likely to go ahead, will see for the first time the Super Rugby winners play the European Cup champions.
Loose forward Warren Whiteley has been named as Lions captain for next year’s Super Rugby competition, reports indicate.
Australia’s overseas-based rugby players will have to put country over money if they want to play in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie said he would not consider for World Cup duties any player who was not signed with a Super Rugby club from the start of the 2015 season.
Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth is unlikely to feature much for the Stormers next year.
The young star revealed on Thursday that he will undergo surgery for an ankle injury sustained in South Africa’s 19-10 win over France last weekend.
“Going for operation on Monday,” Etzebeth tweeted, adding: “Plus-minus six months out of action.”
Another new innovation from the Bulls, South Africa’s most successful Super Rugby franchise!
InvisBull becomes visible as PUMA launches the new Vodacom Bulls Super Rugby kit for 2104. Playing on the fact that Camo is designed to make you invisible, PUMA has launched a Camo Home shirt which stays true to the traditional Bulls’ blue, while the Away shirt is khaki green and brown.
Record-breaking wing Bjorn Basson has extended his contract with the Bulls and will be available for the Pretoria franchise until the end of October 2016.
Basson, who holds the national and Currie Cup record for tries in a season and the Bulls’ record for tries in a Super Rugby season, was also part of the Springbok squad in 2013.
Veteran All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore confirmed his international retirement on Wednesday after 83 Test appearances for New Zealand.
The 35-year-old could not find a Super Rugby team for next season and said he planned to concentrate on working on his South Island farm.
Back Cheslin Kolbe, who is currently on SA Sevens duty, and flanker Schalk Burger, who will play for the Barbarians in London this weekend, will join the WP Rugby training squad at a later stage.
Springbok tourists Jean de Villiers, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, Duane Vermeulen and Gio Aplon will join the squad in January 2014 only. However, hooker Scarra Ntubeni, flanker Siya Kolisi and scrumhalf Louis Schreuder – all of whom also toured Europe with the Boks this month – will join squad training on Monday 2 December.
The Stormers’ Bok trio of Jean de Villiers, Eben Etzebeth and Duane Vermuelen will only be required to join pre-season training in January.
The Lions have finalised their warm-up matches ahead of next year’s Super Rugby tournament, however there are rumours of demands and coaching demands by the Pumas, who form part of the Lions Super Rugby franchise.
These rumours want us to believe that the Pumas are insisting that their coach, Jimmy Stonehouse, has to be involved in coaching at the MTN Lions. With Golden Lions coach Johan Ackermann’s coaching contract already extended and with him the designated figure to take the head coach role for the MTN Lions, this spat could easily turn ugly if the parties do not reach some compromise and consensus.
News out of the Stormers camp is that coach Allister Coetzee says Wallaby wing Cooper Vuna has not signed and will not join them for the 2014 Super Rugby season.
Wallaby wing Cooper Vuna has reportedly agreed to join the Stormers for next year’s Super Rugby competition.
Eastern Province Kings players Lizo Gqoboka (prop) and George Whitehead (flyhalf) have both been called up to take part in the Sharks wider training camp ahead of the 2014 Super Rugby Season.
South African Rugby Union (SARU) president Oregan Hoskins wants to see a 17-team Super Rugby competition in future with fewer local derbies and an Argentine team in the mix.
The Super Rugby format is set to change from 2016 when a new broadcast deal takes effect and Hoskins would like to see a change from the current 15-team format.
Auckland based Super Rugby franchise the Blues have made two new key appointments to their management team ahead of the 2014 Super Rugby season.
Richard Fry has been appointed manager of rugby, while former Blues star Isa Nacewa will assume the role of mental skills coach.
The home and away Super Rugby derby matches could be dropped in favour of playing every team when the tournament format is restructured in 2016.
The current Super Rugby format has split teams into three conference of five teams each and the teams in the conferences play opposition teams on a home and away basis.
Kings duo Rynier Bernardo and Shane Gates have both been called up to the Cheetahs wider training camp ahead of next year’s Super Rugby season.
It is not exactly a state secret, but the Stormers confirmed on Saturday that Argentinean lock Manuel Carizza will move to Cape Town after his country’s November tour.