Bullscot
With the end of year tours just over six weeks away there is some bad news for two of the top centres who would have been looking forward for turning out for their countries against Southern Hemisphere opponents. England’s Manu Tuilagi joins team mate Brad Barritt on the sidelines while Lions and Wales centre Jamie Roberts also looks set to miss out on the action due to injury.
Wayne Madsen, the Derbyshire captain, [*and nephew of former Natal wicketkeeper Trevor Madsen], has been awarded the inaugural Christopher Martin-Jenkins Spirit of Cricket Elite Award, created by MCC and the BBC to acknowledge exceptional sportsmanship, for walking during a crucial County Championship match.
The body that organises the Heineken Cup (ERC) has appointed an independent mediator in an attempt to resolve the row surrounding the event’s future. Canadian barrister Graeme Mew will help negotiate a new structure from 2014-15.
Edinburgh Rugby front-row forwards Geoff Cross and Aleki Lutui will start their first match of the season against Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium this Saturday (kick-off 7.30pm South African Time)
Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend has named his line-up to take on PRO12 champions Leinster at Scotstoun on Friday night (kick off 8.30pm South African Time). In total Gregor Townsend has made five changes and one positional switch to the side that defeated Ulster at Ravenhill last Friday.
Scottish rugby has its first positive steroid test – but the problem could run deeper, says former international John Beattie.
Scottish rugby suffered two body blows this week and, rather like boxer Ricky Burns who “drew” with his opponent after getting one heck of a hiding from opponent Raymundo Beltran, it’s a little battered, a little broken and in need of time off the canvas.
In what can surely only be described as a moment of madness Gloucester’s loose head prop Nick Wood looked down lifted his right leg and brought it down on former Bulls flanker Jacques Burger’s head as he lay prone at the bottom of a ruck. This meant Wood’s participation in Gloucester’s Premiership match away to Saracens on Saturday ended within a minute and a half of it starting as the referee quite rightly brandished the red card.
Leinster and Munster will look to solidify themselves as early pace-setters in Round Two of the Pro12 this weekend. These two teams were the only sides who collected maximum points from their first-round Pro12 games, between them running in ten of the 22 tries that were scored last weekend.
Leicester Tigers may have started the new Premiership season with a bonus-point victory but flank Julian Salvi insists the reigning champions are gunning for an even more ruthless performance next time out.
Stuart Hogg, Ryan Grant, DTH van der Merwe and Josh Strauss all return to the Glasgow Warriors starting line-up for the game against Ulster at Ravenhill tonight, Friday 13 Septemeber, kick-off 8.05pm South African Time.
Gregor Townsend’s squad kicked off their new season with a 22-15 win over Cardiff Blues at Scotstoun Stadium last Friday and now face last season’s RaboDirect PRO12 finalists in Belfast. The Warriors were the last Scottish team to win at Ravenhill back in December 2009.
Wingers Tim Visser and Nikki Walker will bookend the back division when Edinburgh Rugby face Dragons at Murrayfield Stadium tonight, Friday 13 September, kick-off 8.45pm South African Time.
The outing will double as Walker’s debut for the club since signing in the summer; with the club hoping the pair, currently second and fourth in the league’s all-time top try-scoring chart, will add firepower to the side.
There have been a few amusing pieces published on our site this week. It seems that spirits are generally high after last weekend’s rugby results which appear to have left many folk Bulle and/or Bok bef.. (crazy). It is in this light hearted backdrop that we bring this article about the Championship which we heard about earlier this week.
England and Australia meet on Wednesday at Edgebaston, Birmingham, in the third One Day International (ODI) of the current five match series. The match will be a day night affair with play scheduled to start at 15.00 South African Time.
Newcastle Falcons will be keen to prove they are worthy when they get the 2013/14 Premiership season underway against Bath at Kingston Park tonight. While the opening round has a number of intriguing fixtures – London Irish v Saracens, Gloucester v Sale Sharks, Northampton Saints v Exeter Chiefs, London Wasps v Harlequins and Leicester Tigers v Worcester Warriors – it is the Falcons that will hog most of the early limelight.
Scotland will be seeking a clean sweep of its Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Championship double-header against Ireland to stay in contention for automatic qualification to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 when the two sides face-off on 6 and 8 September in Stormont, Belfast.
The RaboDirect PRO12 is back and so is our weekly PRO12 preview, which takes the spotlight off the capital club and pans across the division.
Leicester boss Richard Cockerill has criticised the British and Irish Lions management over their handling of injuries to centre Manu Tuilagi and scrum-half Ben Youngs.
Ahead of the start of the RaboDirect PRO12 season on September 6, we preview the fortunes of each side.
They strode down the Grand Stairway into the Titanic Suite one by one, the captains of the RaboDirect PRO12 all kitted out in battledress and ready for action stations.
Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar welcomes back a fit-again Francois Venter to his midfield ahead of their Absa Currie Cup clash against Toyota Free State Cheetahs and will give Jacques Engelbrecht a first start in the blue jersey.
Cricket Scotland and the Scottish Rugby Union welcomed the Australian cricket team to Edinburgh on Tuesday ahead of the One Day International which is taking place at the Grange today.
England face one of their most condensed home Test series after next year’s schedule for India’s visit was confirmed with five Tests to be held over just 42 days. It will be the first time since 1959 that India will have played five Tests on an England tour while the trip, which runs from June 23 to September 8, also includes five ODIs and one T20.
The new season of RaboDirect PRO12 rugby is nearly upon us and despite seeing several top players leave the league and opt to take up a contract in the Top 14, the 12 sides in the Celtic competition have had a busy summer as they look to bolster their resources. Several top internationals have decided to give the PRO12 a shot and we have picked out a selection of eye-catching transfers in the latest Scrum Sevens.
PRO12 chief executive John Feehan has shrugged off the loss of title sponsor RaboDirect and insists the competition is thriving. Dutch banking group RaboDirect announced earlier this month that they would not be extending their support of the Celtic and Italian league beyond this season – their third as the main title sponsor having succeeded Magners in 2010.
Stade Francais marked their return to the refurbished Jean Bouin stadium with a crushing 38-3 victory over Biarritz on Friday, as they provisionally moved to the summit of the fledgling Top 14 table.
Edinburgh Rugby recorded their first win under new coach, Alan Solomons with a 15-5 victory over Newcastle Falcons in their final warm-up game before the 2013/14 RaboDirect PRO12 season gets under way.
Glasgow Warriors have named their team to take on Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park this afternoon (kick off 4.00pm South African Time). Josh Strauss will skipper the Warriors for what is their final pre-season game before opening the PRO12 against Cardiff at Scotstoun next Friday.
There was much annoyance among Springbok fans when it was announced not long before South Africa’s test match against Argentina in the Rugby Championship that the release of Bryan Habana was required by his new club Toulon. This increased even more when it came to light that five of the players in the current Springbok Squad for the Rugby Championship were being ‘released’ to go back to their clubs in France while the rest of the players would return for a break to South Africa.
Scotland Women’s international squad will have an all-new coaching team as the season prepares to kick off later this week. Taking over the reins as head coach is Jules Maxton who has held a similar position, for the last few seasons, with Scotland Women under-20 while the assistant coaching roles are taken by rugby development officer and specialist skills coach Derek O’Riordan and former Scotland internationalist Roland Reid.
2013 Will end with a sad farewell to dedicated current Team Manager Wynie Strydom. But with farewells, come promotions and so Blue Bulls Company would like to welcome new Super Rugby and Currie Cup Team Manager come 2014, Tim Dlulane.
Marketing men rub their hands as Sevens format quickly gains ground around the world. “Get on the train and see where it takes you,” is how Mark McCafferty of the Aviva Premiership described this past weekend’s inaugural World Club Sevens.
DHL Western Province and the Vodacom Blue Bulls are scheduled to face each other today at Twickenham on day two of the World Club 7s tournament. Both teams will be looking forward to improve on what was a disappointing first day for them at the inaugural tournament. Western Province lost all three of their games while the Blue Bulls lost two and drew one game.
Edinburgh Rugby players will turn out in black and red hoops for the first time in club’s history with this season’s playing kit, branded ‘old town, new look’.
Edinburgh Rugby back-row Stuart McInally has set his sights on the career path travelled by fellow club player, Scotland and British & Irish Lions internationalist Ross Ford – to make the positional switch from back-row to hooker.
Edinburgh Rugby have been very busy on the recruitment front in the closed season following a very disappointing 2012 / 13 season. Numerous players of varying experience have been brought in, with Australasia proving a particularly attractive source region to the club.