Monthly Archives: July 2013
Top 14 Rugby Club Toulon’s president Mourad Boudjellal has revealed that he is trying to set up a clash between the winners of the Heineken Cup and Super Rugby tournaments.
Both the Vodacom Bulls as well as the Brumbies have announced their teams and squads for the Super Rugby semi-final clash at Loftus Versfeld at 17:05 SA Time on Saturday. Both team sheets were dispatched to the media via Bulls media releases.
Here are the gladiators who will do business on the weekend:
The Chiefs have not forgotten the hammering they received at the hands of the Crusaders earlier this month and they are looking for revenge.
A shared vision and his high regard for John Smit as a person and a leader who breeds success and inspires people around him is what prompted Brendan Venter to take on the challenge of being the first man to fill the newly created position of Director of Rugby at the Sharks.
Venter will link up with the Sharks for the first time on Sunday at the start of a training camp that will mark the beginning of the build-up to a Currie Cup season that will see last year’s beaten finalists going into the competition with a completely revamped coaching team.
The Toyota Cheetahs have moved swiftly to replace the departing Cheetahs star centre, Robert Ebersohn, who is off to further his career in France with Montpellier. Junior Bok and one of the Bulls form centre’s for the past two years, Francois Venter, has signed a contract with the Cheetahs for the next two years. Venter will still play for the Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup in 2013 but will then join the Cheetahs.
The Chiefs are having to keep an eye on their loose forwards ahead of this weekend’s Super Rugby semi-final against the Crusaders.
Loftus Versfeld is the Vodacom Bulls’ house. It is time to make it count.
This was the message from Bulls assistant coach Victor Matfield, a man who has led the team to their three Vodacom Super Rugby titles, as he prepares for a different role in getting the next generation to write their name in history.
The FIRST of two Promotion / Relegation matches, to decide wo of the MTN Lions or the Southern Kings will take part in Super Rugby 2014 will be played on Friday 26 July 2013 at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth.
This follows after the Southern Kings ended last in the South African Super Rugby Conference, in fact ended stone last in the whole of 2013’s Super Rugby competition. SARU’s determination was that the team who ended last in the South African Conference will play a series of two Promotion / Relegation matches against the MTN Lions, who had to make way at the end of 2012 in favour of the Southern Kings, in rather unfortunate and bumbling circumstances engineered by SARU.
Demetri Catrakilis will almost certainly be playing Absa Currie Cup Premier Division rugby during the forthcoming domestic season, but there is still no clarity on which team he will be playing for.
Two of the Stormers regular wings of the last few seasons have confirmed their moves to go play overseas. They are Bryan Habana, who will move to Toulon and Gerhard van den Heever (Shadow), who will be playing for Munster.
Waratahs centre Tom Carter has announced his retirement from playing rugby after ten seasons with the Waratahs, the New South Wales Rugby Franchise.
John Smit, the new Sharks CEO, has succeeded in luring English giants Saracens to Durban for an exhibition match.
The Word Cup-winning former Springbok captain, Smit, played for Sarries after he retired from international competition after the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat against South Africa. After a 30-minute delay due to a wet outfield, Dinesh Chandimal chose to bat in cloudy Colombo at the R Premadasa Stadium.
Rain interrupted play again with the Sri Lankan score on 223 / 9 after 49.2 overs.
South Africa eventually came in to bat, with the game reduced to 29 overs and needing 176 to win.
From about 11 overs gone, South Africa started falling behind the par score in terms of a Duckworth / Lewis calculation and eventually the rain stopped play again after 21 overs, with the covers coming on.
All further play was called off and Sri Lanka was declared the winner by 17 runs.
It was impossible not to admire the clinical way Todd Blackadder’s Crusaders destroyed the Reds in their Super Rugby showdown over the weekend.
The IRB in conjunction with the SARU’s Referees Departmant have translated Laws of the Game – Rugby Union 2013 into Afrikaans and Xhosa and it is now available for download, in an effort to extend the reach and understanding of the game. Various other languages are also available.
Die Vodacom Bulls se spandokter, Org Strauss, het Maandag bevestig dat die Bulls op verskeie staatmakers kan reken as die span Saterdag in Pretoria teen die Brumbies in die halfeindstryd van die Vodacom Super Rugby-reeks speel.
SANZAR has announced the names of the match officials for the 2 games in the Semi-Final Round of Super Rugby 2013. The 2 games are both played on Saturday 27 July 2013.
The Chiefs will host the Crusaders in Hamilton with Steve Walsh in charge of that match and the Bulls will host the Brumbies with Craig Joubert taking charge.
The Toyota Cheetahs’ fairytale season came to an agonising end as they lost their maiden Vodacom Super Rugby play-off match against the Brumbies in Canberra Stadium on Sunday morning (SA time).
Despite being outscored by two tries to nil, the Brumbies’ nail-biting 15-13 victory in the second Qualifier in Australia’s capital means they now have to travel to Pretoria to take on the Vodacom Bulls in one of the two semi-finals, on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld.
Australia took on England at the home of cricket, Lords, in the 2nd of 5 Test matches. England won the first Test and therefore were 1 / 0 up in the series at the start of the game.
England demolished the Australians in the 2nd Test, winning by 347 runs, one full day early.
The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has confirmed it will have to borrow €25 million to fund the professional game over the next six years.
Brumbies (6) 15 / 13 (5) Cheetahs (Final Score)
The Brumbies and Toyota Cheetahs did battle in Super Rugby at Canberra Stadium, Canberra at 08:10 SA Time (16:10 AEST, 06:10 GMT) on Sunday.
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
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Sri Lanka and South Africa’s Proteas met at the R Premadasa Stadium in Columbo for a Day / Night match.
South Africa won the toss and elected to field.
Sri Lanka and Kumar Sangakkara specifically (169) batted well and amassed a total of 320 in their 50 overs. South Africa was bowled out after 31.5 overs, for 140.
Sri Lanka wins by 180 runs.
Crusaders (21) 38 / 9 (6) Reds (Final Score)
The Crusaders and Reds did battle in Super Rugby at AMI Stadium, Christchurch at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 07:35 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
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The Sharks announced on Friday that Pieter-Steph du Toit has reaffirmed his commitment to the team by re-signing for a further two years.
The announcement brings to an end weeks of speculation about the 20-year-old’s future – with both the Bulls and Stormers having shown interest in his services.
The Southern Kings suffered a crippling blow ahead of their Super Rugby promotion-relegation series against the Lions.
Wales and British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton will miss the next four month of rugby because of his left hamstring injury.
Here are the Super Rugby team sheets for teams 3 to 6 on the Combined Super Rugby Log, who have to compete in the Play Off weekend of Super Rugby 2013, as they were announded.
South Africa 17 / 6 Bay of plenty-Thames Valley-Counties
It was the last midweek match of the tour with only the 4th test remaining. The opposition was a combination of 3 relatively weak sides namely Bay of Plenty (who won only 1 of 5 matches played in the 1956 season); Thames Valley (who won only 3 of 8) and Counties (a team founded as South Auckland in 1926 and who won only 2 of 13 season games in 1956). These three teams combined for the first time in 1956 and played 2 warm-up games namely against Auckland (7th of August 1956 losing 6-7) and Waikato (11th of August 1956 losing 6-24) in preparation for the Springboks.
Rumours doing the rounds that the Cheetahs are set to lose some of their stars have been correct. Star centre, Robert Ebersohn has signed with French Club Montpellier. He will reportedly still play in this year’s Currie Cup, before furthering his career overseas.
The DHL Stormers continue to be trend-setters under the now three-year-old conference system for economy in try-concession in Super Rugby.
Brad Macleod-Henderson was on Tuesday confirmed as Sharks coach for the upcoming Currie Cup season.
Stormers flank Don Armand has become the latest player to leave the Cape side after he confirmed a move to English Premiership club Exeter Chiefs.
Loftus Versveld and Waikato Stadium in Hamilton will be the venues for the two Super Rugby semifinals after details were confirmed by SANZAR.
The Stormers plan to lodge a complaint with Super Rugby organisers SANZAR about the provisional 2014 Super Rugby draw.
A provisional list of Super Rugby fixtures have been released to the Stormers for 2014 and revealed a a tour from hell for the Stormers.
The Vodacom Bulls will be able to use Jan Serfontein, Francois Hougaard and Flip van der Merwe for their Vodacom Super Rugby semi-final in two weeks’ time.