Monthly Archives: December 2013
SANZAR are hoping to finalise their plans for the restructuring of Super Rugby early in the new year, with local derbies shaping up as a bone of contention.
With the current broadcast deal expiring at the end of next season, speculation is rife about the form that Super Rugby will take in 2016 and beyond.
The partnership between the Golden Lions Rugby Union and MTN South Africa came to an end as of Friday 13 December 2013, with the company opting not to renew their sponsorship of the GLRU teams.
After a fruitful three-year relationship, the telecommunications giant have chosen to realign their sponsorship portfolio and will no longer sponsor a rugby outfit.
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.
Ireland prop Cian Healy looks set to miss the start of next year’s Six Nations tournament after undergoing surgery on an ankle injury.
New Zealand international lock Ali Williams said on Thursday he is on the verge of prolonging his stay at European champions Toulon beyond the end of this season.
A Scottish international rugby player has appeared in court charged with assaulting another player in Glasgow’s west end.
The Irish teams will be looking to back up their clean sweep last week when the second half of the European Cup double-headers get underway this weekend.
All four Irish provinces were on the winning side last week, and the challenge now is for them to repeat the feat against the same opposition at different venues in Round Four.
Bryan Habana’s thigh strain has proved more serious than initially thought and will require surgery which will rule him out for two months.
Former Springbok prop Etienne Fynn has been appointed as the new head of the Sharks Academy, reports Sharks website editor Michael Marnewick.
Fynn, himself a former Shark and current Sharks Under-21 coach, takes over as Academy MD from Hans Scriba, who has taken up a position with the SA Rugby Union (SARU).
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.
When Heyneke Meyer’s second season as Springbok coach came to an end a few weeks ago, it represented the halfway point between World Cup cycles, with less than two years remaining until the kick-off of the next global showpiece event in September 2015.
After a year which saw the Boks end with a success rate for the season of more than 80 per cent, only the third time it had happened in the post-isolation era, Meyer should have been well pleased with the progress his team has made since the nervous beginnings against England at home in June 2012.
English Rugby Football Union (RFU) CEO Ian Ritchie is confident that the game has not been affected by spot-fixing.
Ritchie was speaking at a conference where ministers and MPs were discussing corruption in sport.
London Irish are set to announce a takeover of the club by a group of Irish businessmen on Thursday. The club have called a news conference at their training ground in Sunbury for 10:30 GMT, where they will announce further details of the takeover.
South Africa and India did battle in the 3rd ODI at SuperSport Park, Centurion, Pretoria.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first on on overcast day always with chances of rain interupting the match.
South Africa were looking at making it 3 / 0 in the ODI Series.
The match was eventually called off after the South African Innings, due to rain. No result follows and South Africa wins the ODI Series against Indie 2 / 0.
Former Junior Springbok wing Wandile Mjekevu is hoping to represent the French national team in future.
South Africans Craig Joubert and Jaco Peyper have been appointed by the International Rugby Board (IRB) to referee in next year’s Six Nations.
Leigh Halfpenny’s stunning 12 months continues after he was named Wales Sports Personality of the Year on Monday night.
Struggling Racing-Metro have been given a boost with news that Welsh centre Jamie Roberts is finally ready to play again after a 12-week injury absence.
The barn-storming back sustained a ligament tear in his left ankle, and has had to watch as his team has struggled despite a raft of big-name signings including Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton and Welsh teammates Dan Lydiate and, more recently, Mike Phillips.
Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver pulled no punches about what he thinks of Quade Cooper’s boxing career.
Former Reds and Wallabies scrumhalf Sam Cordingley will join the Queensland Rugby Union in 2014 as Queensland Reds Rugby Operations Manager.
EP Rugby CEO Charl Crous has confirmed that former New Zealand flyhalf, Carlos Spencer, has joined the EP Kings coaching ranks for the 2014 season on a five year contract.
The possibility of eight teams playing in next year’s Currie Cup Premier Division still exists, a report indicates.
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.
The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) will launch a new domestic rugby competition in 2014, the National Rugby Championship.
All Blacks hooker Hika Elliot has been ruled out of Super Rugby next year after undergoing neck surgery and may quit rugby altogether.
Bath director of rugby Gary Gold has left the Premiership club. The 46-year-old South African took over at the Rec in May 2012, replacing Sir Ian McGeechan.
The Wallabies have agreed to play the Great Britain rugby league team in a $10 million hybrid-game spectacular at Wembley Stadium next year. London’s most famous football venue has been booked for December 6, a week after the Wallabies’ last game on their 2014 spring tour.
Racing Metro’s dire performance in Saturday’s 8-32 Heineken Cup thrashing by English side Harlequins prompted the directors to announce that they had switched the mouthwatering Top 14 clash with European champions Toulon away from Stade de France to its own more modest stadium.
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.
Former Sharks Director of Rugby, Brendan Venter, will help out with the coaching at Stellenbosch schools side, Paul Roos, next year.
The South African leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series, was held at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth, takes place on 7 and 8 December 2013.
The tournament was played in emotionally charged circumstances after the death of beloved South African and world statesman, Nelson Mandela, who passed away in the night of 5 December 2013.
In these circumstances the open question was whether South Africa’s Blitzbokke could go one better than the previous tournament when they were beaten in the final by Fiji.
The question was answered… the South African Blitzbokke are the winners and title holders at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth!
Here are the Fixtures and Results: