Monthly Archives: January 2010
The Varsity Cup kicks off tomorrow, Monday 1 February 2010, with 4 games to be played, 2 of them at Port Elizabeth (Xerox NMMU Stadium) and 2 of them at Pretoria (Tuks Rugby Stadium). All 4 matches will be broadcast on TV in South Africa, starting at 14:30 Local Time.
Oh, and remember to join our Varsity Cup SuperBru Pool and make your first picks in time before kick-off!!
Sanzar referees and assistant referees will be focusing on freeing up the ball and creating clarity around rulings at the tackle area and at scrum-time in this year’s Super 14 competition.
The Springboks will play all four of the ‘Home Unions’ in November as part of their end-of-year tour, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) announced on Friday following confirmation of the fixture programme by the International Rugby Board (IRB).
With both sides taking the ball wide from the outset, the Bulls’ Blue team – in effect their A-side – beat a plucky Lions Red team 42-12 on Saturday, scoring five tries to two in a warm-up match ahead of the Super 14 competition.
The Bulls and Lions went head to head in 2 warm-up matches today at Polokwane (Pietersburg). The Bulls Teams won both encounters, the 1st match ending in the Bulls favour at 25 / 3 and the 2nd match between the better sides ending in the Bulls favour at 42 / 12.
I brought this article back for discussion after the first week of warm up games. Did the refereeing change your minds? Give us your opinions. I know we did not see all the games but from reports you can form a good idea how the Referees are blowing this year.
The Stormers took on the Sharks tonight in Cape Town in a warm-up game in preparation for the Super 14, which starts in 2 short weeks. This is the match thread for discussion of the game.
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A minute of silence will be observed on Saturday before the kick-off of the Vodacom Super 14 warm-up match between the Vodacom Bulls and the Auto & General Lions in the new Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, in honour of the former Blue Bulls and Springbok player, Ruben Kruger who passed away during the past week.
Ireland’s Grand Slam winning captain Brian O’Driscoll insists that last years great success has only added to his sides ambition ahead of the upcoming Six Nations campaign. Continue reading
Former referee Freek Burger was appointed as South African Rugby Union (SARU) only citing officer in this year’s Super14.
The sharks have named their side to meet the stormers fpr Friday night’s match.
This team again is a good one yet begs for many questions to be asked, forwards to me would seem fine but again the backline leaves a lot of scary questions and could cost the Sharks dearly.
One would have hoped for the best possible lineup to be starting as the Super 14 is just around the corner, It does however seem that the heavier pack is chosen with more mobile reserves in waiting as the game could open upa loy as is probably expected.
The article below is thanks to Jan De koning of Rugby365 site
Ruben Kruger passed away after a long fight with brain cancer. More details will follow. Ruben Kruger was only 39 years old.
The GLRU does very little to cover themselves with glory in recent times, and Manie Reynecke is fast becoming notorious as a moaning myrtle. The GLRU has lodged an official complaint with SARU regarding the Sharks making use of Willem Alberts in the game they so spectacularly lost against the Force on Tuesday evening.
The Stormers have selected what appears to be close to their absolute best starting 15 for the match against the Sharks at Newlands on Friday.
South African rugby referees now have a “glass eye” to keep them at the forefront of their profession.
Convenor of selectors Mike Procter, on Wednesday confirmed Cricket South Africa has sacked the Proteas’ selection team.
The coach of the Vodacom Bulls, Frans Ludeke, has selected his strongest available team for Saturday’s warm-up fixture in Polokwane.
The Sharks took on the Western Force in a warm-up match at Newlands, Cape Town tonight. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. See match summary below.
The Bulls play the Lions in Polokwane this weekend in both their 1st warm-up games for the Super 14 this year. This thread looks at the Lions Squads and gives a bit of insight into how the Lions feel about the upcoming game.
Remember folks, we’ll have the Sharks playing the Western Force tonight in Cape Town in a Super 14 warm-up match. This is not the match thread for discussion of the game, the actual game thread will come later…
Springbok number 8 Pierre Spies has been ruled out of the Vodacom Bulls Super 14 squad for Saturday’s warm-up match against the Lions in Polokwane. Continue reading
Sometimes it is hard to tell which is worse? Finding out that the cute chick that you just played tonsil hockey with, is actually a dude, or coming to the end of yet another rugby season, with no trophies, no honour and still maintaining that the Stormers is the best team in SA. Continue reading
In a shock move the Protea’s Head Coach has resigned 4 days before the team leaves for India. Continue reading
The Sharks are going into a game with may questions to which I am sure they will find some answers after the following to matches being played at Newlands in Cape Town.
Hi there friends, muppits, moepels and mopkoppe… and fellow rugby mad freaks,
We have updated a number of things here on the Blog this weekend, namely…..
Ewen McKenzie got his stint as Reds coach off to a winning start, by getting one over on his former franchise, the Waratahs – the Queensland outfit edging their New South Wales rivals 26-24 in a Super 14 pre-season trial Oakes Oval, Lismore, on Saturday.
Eastern Province gave the Cheetahs a hefty scare as they held them to a 13-9 scoreline in their pre-season friendly at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
See what the referees watch, who watches the referees and what happens when they have been watched. It may help to understand refereeing and its systems.
The Stormers played the Western Force at Newlands today in their 1st warm-up match for the 2010 Super 14. This is the thread for discussion of the game and gives you the match summary and some photo’s from the event.
Highlanders vs Chiefs and Blues against Hurricanes played their first games earlier this morning. Although the reports are short here it is. Seems like everyone is playing 4 quarters and no real urgency is showed. Will wait and see how the Stormers approach their game later today.
According to Die Beeld Newspaper the brothers DuP are looking to move to a team where they would actually be in the starting 15. Continue reading
Habana gave an interview to Supersport’s Gavin Rich. This is the man, Habana, I know. You took one of our best in his prime, WP. Good luck with your health Habs. Let us see what difference you can make there. Respect for not badmouthing your old team. What a difference to the whole argy bargy way the Lion players left their old team. The dirty washing where one name is the common denominator , Lions.
Sharks coach John Plumtree has named a 28-man traveling squad who will make the trip down to Cape Town this weekend ahead of the Neo Africa Tri Series.
There were smiles all round Loftus Versfeld on Thursday when the injury cloud hanging over the Vodacom Bulls finally started to lift.
Over the last few weeks i followed SARugby.com articles where they anounced a player every day. They had a panel who picked their top 50 Springboks since readmission. We debated some of them earlier. Tomorrow they will announce their number 1 player.