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Frans Malherbe
Springbok tighthead prop Frans Malherbe is unlikely to make his return to the DHL Stormers team for Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby derby against the Toyota Cheetahs at Newlands.
While Jean de Villiers will definitely be back to lead the team and Schalk Burger and Sailosi Tagicakibau were both training on Monday, coach Allister Coetzee has confirmed that Malherbe was still showing symptoms of concussion the last time he was tested and will sit out the recommended full three weeks for concussion.
Scotland will be without key players when they play the one-off Test match against the Springboks in Port Elizabeth.
New Scotland coach Vern Cotter has announced a double squad in order to cope with an arduous travel schedule, leaving some of the bigger names to play the North American leg of their tour only.
Players such as Chris Cusiter, Greig Laidlaw, Sean Lamont, Tim Visser, Kelly Brown, Richie Gray, Jim Hamilton and Alasdair Strokosch will only find themselves involved in the first squad to take on the United States and Canada.
Cotter’s reason for this is that some of his players will still be duty bound to French and English clubs with the Springbok match falling outside the Test window.
Jean Deysel’s Red Card for stamping
Sharks flank Jean Deysel appeared before a SANZAR judicial hearing after he received a red card during their Super Rugby match against the Crusaders in Christchurch at the weekend.
Deysel received the red card for contravening Law 10.4 (b) – Stamping or trampling.
He received his marching orders from referee Rohan Hoffman for stamping on the face of Crusaders flank Jordan Taufua in the 16th minute on the game, which the Sharks remarkably won 30-25.
The judicial officer for the hearing is Jannie Lubbe and it was held via video conference on Tuesday (11:00 SA Time).
The Hearing took place but a decision regarding appropriate punishment could not be reached.
Following almost two hours of hearing evidence and submissions, the judicial officer, Jannie Lubbe, concluded matters and will release his judgment in the next 24 hours once he has given due consideration to the facts and evidence presented during the hearing.
SANZAR said no further comment will be made until this process has been completed.
Deysel will have to wait another day to hear if he will be suspended for stamping on the face of Crusaders flank Jordan Taufua.
Centre Jaque Fourie is unlikely to feature for the Springboks this year due to an ankle injury.
According to reports, Fourie will undergo an ankle operation on Tuesday which could keep him out of the game for up to six months.
The Brumbies have taken to the courts in an attempt to get A$25 000 (R 240 000.00) from Jake White for walking out on them half-way through his contract.
According to reports, White was served papers in Canberra the day before the Sharks clashed with the Brumbies on 10 May.
According to documents lodged in the ACT Magistrates Court, the amount is understood to be the final portion of an estimated A$200 000 (about R1.93m) White owed the Brumbies after violating a non-compete clause in his contract with them.
Talented young scrumhalf Augustine Pulu has committed to the Chiefs for at least the next two years.
The 24-year old has played 31 matches for the Chiefs, including seven so far this season, scoring two tries and assisting another.
Former Heineken Cup champions Leinster have announced that they have signed Wallabies and Waratahs lock Kane Douglas after his Australian Rugby Union contract expires later in the year.
The 24 year old, who made his Australian debut in 2012 against Argentina and has gone on to win 13 further caps since then, will join a roster that already includes Irish internationals Devin Toner and Mike McCarthy.
England head coach Stuart Lancaster has called up 18 players from Harlequins and Leicester Tigers to the England training squad that is preparing for the tour to New Zealand and the match against the Barbarians after the two clubs completed their domestic seasons.
The players will arrive at the Lensbury Club from Wednesday evening along with Sale Sharks’ James Gaskell and Ross Harrison. Bath Rugby’s Rob Webber joined the squad last night.
Further players will be added from Bath Rugby and London Wasps following the conclusion of the Amlin Challenge Cup final (23 May) and the European Rugby Champions Cup play-off second leg (May 24) with a further group from Saracens and Northampton Saints joining the tour party and the Aviva Premiership final (31 May).
By the time you read this, Rugby-Talk had already glided seemlessly past 10 MILLION PAGE IMPRESSIONS (10 Million CLICKS to open or refresh the different Articles or Pages of Rugby-Talk).
For a website which started as a little discussion website between friends, about rugby and as a break-away movement from another rugby website which had resorted to racism, political immaturity, trolling, endless insults and general abuse, it’s not shabby at all, would’nt you say!!
Rugby-Talk is, according to my reconing now the prime Rugby discussion forum in the world, carrying impressive rugby news and information and has become the benchmark for rugby blogging in the known universe and has become the best rugby community on the Internet.
At around 21:38 SA Time on Sunday 18 May 2014, we went over the magic 10 Million mark.
Let me give you some facts and figures to ponder, about Rugby-Talk:
William Small-Smith will not train on Monday due to a stomach ailment, but both Piet van Zyl and Flip van der Merwe reported for training duty and will be considered for the Vodacom Bulls match against the Brumbies on Friday.
According to the Vodacom Bulls team doctor, Org Strauss, all of the squad are in good health and ready to take on the Australian conference leaders.
The Lions medical staff have released an injury update, following the Vodacom Super Rugby outfit’s 41-13 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney on Sunday.
Unfortunately utility backs Lionel Mapoe (MCL), Courtnall Skosan (Hamstring) and forward Derick Minnie (concussion) have returned to South Africa this morning. They will undergo further scans and tests upon their arrival.
Coenie van Wyk and Alwyn Hollenbach departs for Perth on Monday evening in order to provide cover.
The team is still extremely positive and will be hungry to get their first win while on tour, against the Force on Saturday.
The DHL Stormers, fresh off their 24-8 win over the Force at the weekend, were further boosted on Monday with some good news in the injury department.
The Men from the Cape will host the Cheetahs in Cape Town this coming Saturday and the likes of Oli Kebble, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers and Sailosi Tagicakibau will be considered for selection once again.
The Toyota Cheetahs have lost their second player with the news that fullback Hennie Daniller will move to Italian club Zebre at the end of the current Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Daniller, who has just turned 30, has been released early by the Cheetahs to make the move, and the news comes a few days after French club Oyonnax confirmed they had signed utility back Riaan “True Blue” Smit.
Reds lock Ed O’Donoghue has been found not guilty of alleged eye-gouging in his side’s Super Rugby loss to the Rebels at the weekend.
O’Donoghue was sent off following the intervention of the television match official (TMO) for an incident with Rebels skipper Scott Higginbotham.
Television replays appeared to show O’Donoghue running his fingers over Higginbotham’s eyes as both players wrestled with each other on the ground.
England’s Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson announced on Monday that he will retire at the end of the season after Toulon’s Heineken Cup and French Top 14 finals.
“I would like to take this opportunity to formally announce my retirement from playing rugby,” the 34-year-old said in a statement on his club’s website.
“I have an enormous number of people to thank for their support from all around the world but especially here in France and in England,” Wilkinson said.
Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper faces a 16-week recovery after MRI scans confirmed he requires surgery to heal an AC joint injury suffered against the Melbourne Rebels.
Cooper will undergo surgery on his shoulder on Tuesday to repair a Grade Three AC joint injury in his left shoulder after he fell on it awkwardly in a tackle.
Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder said that his team need to take a hard look at themselves after losing at home to a 13-man Sharks side.
The Sharks were reduced to 14 players early in the game when flank Jean Deysel was shown a red card for stomping on Jordan Taufua and they were down to 13 when No.8 Willem Alberts was shown a late yellow card for taking a player out off the ball.
However, the Sharks somehow managed to hang on to record a gritty 30-25 victory – their first-ever in Christchurch – and Blackadder admitted that they have some serious thinking to do with the play-offs looming.
World champion Springboks Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger as well as two former Blitzbok stars, Cornal Hendricks and S’bura Sithole, are included in a 36-man squad to attend a national training camp in Durban from 25 to 28 May, the South African Rugby Union announced on Monday.
Cell C Sharks back Sithole and Hendricks, the SA Sevens Player of the Year in 2013, are two of eight uncapped players in the squad. The others are the Toyota Cheetahs duo of Lood de Jager (lock) and Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje (loose forward); Marcel van der Merwe (prop) and Jacques du Plessis (flank/lock) of the Vodacom Bulls; Marnitz Boshoff (flyhalf) of the Lions and the DHL Stormers’ Damian De Allende (centre/wing).
They will join Matfield, Burger and Toyota Cheetahs flanker Heinrich Brüssow – who are back in the national set up for the first time since the last Rugby World Cup in 2011 – in a training squad that is missing a number of players due to injury.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said he was happy with the form of a number of the country’s top players and the uncapped players who have grabbed their chance this season, as well as the re-appearance from retirement and long-term injury of Matfield and Burger.
Saturday’s three Vodacom Super Rugby matches involving the Cell C Sharks, DHL Stormers and Toyota Cheetahs ended in a whitewash for the South African teams as they all recorded good victories.
The Cell C Sharks consolidated their spot at the top of the Vodacom Super Rugby log with a superb 30-25 victory over the in-form Crusaders in Christchurch – the first defeat for the team from Canterbury in New Zealand since 2001 against South African opposition and also the maiden victory for a team from the Republic in the Land of the Long White Cloud this season.
The Durbanites became the first South African team to ever in Christchurch since the franchise system was put in place in 1998.
It was only the second time a SA team managed to beat the Crusaders in Christchurch, when Northern Transvaal won there in 1996, and the third time out of 46 matches that the seven-time Vodacom Super Rugby champions lost at home to a team from the Republic – the Cats beat the Crusaders in Nelson in 2001.
The Crusaders also drew twice at home to teams from South Africa in the early years of Super 12, in 1996 against Western Province and in 1997 against the Sharks.
Later on Saturday afternoon, the DHL Stormers won their third successive home game of 2014 when they easily beat the high-flying Force by 24-8 in Cape Town, outscoring their visitors by three tries to one – ironically the same try count as in the Sharks/Crusaders match.
Saturday ended in ecstasy for the Toyota Cheetahs as they managed to beat the Brumbies for the first time since 2011 when they won this replay of their 2013 qualifier by 27-21, thanks mainly to a very good second half performance.
On Sunday morning, the Lions started very well against the Waratahs in Sydney, but the home team had too much left in the second half and eventually won this match by 41-13.
The Vodacom Bulls, currently second in the South African Conference behind the Cell C Sharks, had a bye this weekend.
Saracens booked a place in the Aviva Premiership final at Twickenham when they beat Harlequins 31-17 in the Premiership Semi-final at Allianz Park.
Saracens gradually saw off Harlequins to keep their dreams of winning the double alive.
The lead was evenly shared up until the 60-minute mark, with the league’s best side stretching away in the late May sunshine as Harlequins faded in a bruising encounter. Saracens scored 20 unanswered points in the second half.
A total of 14 possible points went begging as kickers Owen Farrell and Marcelo Bosch toiled with the conditions and their accuracy, but they were not made to pay in the end.
Millennium Stadium with the roof closed
Heineken Cup organisers have announced that the roof of the Millennium Stadium will be closed for next Saturday’s Heineken Cup final between holders, RC Toulon, and Saracens.
The decision is in keeping with previous European club rugby deciders at the famous Cardiff venue. While the atmosphere surrounding a Heineken Cup final is inevitably a special one, the sheer sense of occasion generated when the Millennium Stadium roof is shut adds an extra dimension for players and supporters alike.
Defending champions Castres will play European champions Toulon in a repeat of the 2013 French championship Final, after they edged Montpellier 22-19 after extra-time in an engrossing encounter in Lille on Saturday.
For Castres it was the third successive time they had beaten Fabien Galthie’s Montpellier in the play-offs, after their opponents had got the better of them on their way to the Final in 2011.
While Castres’ South African scrumhalf Rory Kockott scored 14 of their points, it was 35-year-old Fijian centre Seremaia Bai who dropped a rare goal on the stroke of half-time of extra-time that made the difference in the end.
The Chiefs have been given a big boost for this week’s Super Rugby match against the Hurricanes as Aaron Cruden has been cleared to make his return this week.
Cruden’s return will be a big boost for the Chiefs as well as the All Blacks who face England in a three Test series next month.
First-five Cruden has been training with the All Blacks in Christchurch but has not featured for the Chiefs since the beginning of April.
The Melbourne Rebels face a crisis at scrumhalf as Luke Burgess has been ruled out for up to two months of Super Rugby with a knee injury.
Burgess was hoping to play against his former team the Waratahs this weekend but he injured his knee in the Club’s victory over the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday.
The injury is a blow to the side, who are already without the services of fellow scrumhalf Nic Stirzaker, leaving rookie Ben Meehan and experienced injury replacement Josh Holmes to battle for the nine jersey against the Waratahs.
England were left with an anxious wait to discover if full-back Mike Brown would be fit for next month’s tour of New Zealand after the full-back was injured in a gruelling Premiership semifinal on Saturday.
Harlequins star Brown, player of the tournament in this season’s Six Nations Championship, went off with a hamstring injury midway through the second half of his side’s 31-17 semifinal loss away to Saracens.
England coach Stuart Lancaster is already without regular full-back alternatives in Saracens’ Alex Goode and Northampton’s Ben Foden for the first of a three-test series against the world champion All Blacks in Auckland on June 7 as the pair will be required for the Premiership final at Twickenham seven days earlier.
Harlequins’ director of rugby Conor O’Shea, himself a former Ireland full-back, tried to still fears about the health of England’s first-choice No 15.
GWK Griquas dethroned the defending champions to clinch the Vodacom Cup for the 5th time when they beat the Golden Lions by 30-6 in the final at GWK Park in Kimberley on Friday evening.
These 2 teams are now the undoubted kings of Vodacom Cup rugby, both with 5 titles out of the 17 on offer since the inception of the competition in 1998.
It was GWK Griquas’ first Vodacom Cup title since 2009 and also avenged their home defeat in the in the final seconds of the 2012 final against DHL Western Province. They won their other Vodacom Cup titles in 1998, when they also beat the Golden Lions in the final, as well as 2005 and 2007.
Versatile Vodacom Blue Bulls midfielder Rohan Janse van Rensburg has replaced his injured provincial team mate Duncan Matthews (wing) in the Junior Springboks squad for 2014 IRB Junior World Championship.
New Zealand will stage the 2014 JWC for the first time from 2 to 20 June in Auckland. Matthews was ruled out of action due to a back injury.
Jean Deysel of the Sharks received a red card for foul play during a Super Rugby match at the weekend.
He was cited following the game.
Deysel is alleged to have contravened Law 10.4 (b) Stamping or trampling. The incident occurred during the match between the Crusaders and Sharks at AMI Stadium, Addington in Christchurch on Saturday 17 May 2014. The referee for the match, Rohan Hoffman, issued a red card for the incident which occurred in the 16th minute.
Ed O’Donoghue of the Reds received a red card for foul play during a Super Rugby match at the weekend.
He was cited foollowing the match.
O’Donoghue is alleged to have contravened Law 10.4 (m) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship. The incident occurred during the match between the Reds and Rebels at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday 17 May 2014. The referee for the match, Steve Walsh, issued a red card for the incident which occurred in the 79th minute.
Mercurial Wallabies fly-half Quade Cooper looks likely to miss his side’s June Tests against France due to a shoulder injury.
Sharks captain Bismarck du Plessis praised the character of his team, after overcoming an early red card to beat the Crusaders on New Zealand soil for the first time.
Replacement Kyle Cooper scored a 75th-minute try to lift a Sharks team – reduced to 14 men for 63 minutes and to 13 during the second half – to a 30-25 win – the first win by South African team over the Crusaders in New Zealand since the Cats last did so in Nelson in 2001.
Cooper’s try forced the fifth and final lead change of the second half, clinching the Shark’s ninth win in 12 matches.
Flank Jean Deysel was shown a red card in the 17th minute for a vicious, off-the-ball stomp on the face of Crusaders back row forward Jordan Taufua – who, at the time was holding back the Sharks player, a tactic that went unpunished, despite continuously being employed by the Kiwi players throughout the match.
Jean Deysel stomping Jordan Taufua
Queensland Reds captain James Horwill has criticised the growing influence of television officials on the game after a controversial decision ensured his side lost their sixth successive Super Rugby match on Saturday.
Reds forward Ed O’Donoghue was sent off for eye gouging in the last minute of his side’s 30-27 loss to the Melbourne Rebels, but only after television official Steve Lescinski told referee Steve Walsh to review the incident after play had moved downfield.
Waratahs (17) 41 / 13 (13) Lions (Final Score)
The Waratahs and Lions did battle in Super Rugby at
Allianz Stadium, Sydney at 08:05 SA Time (16:05 AEST, 06:05 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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Cheetahs (9) 27 / 21 (11) Brumbies (Final Score)
The Toyota Cheetahs and Brumbies did battle in Super Rugby at
Free Sate Stadium, Bloemfontein at 19:10 SA Time (17:10 GMT, 03:10 Sunday AEST).
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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Stormers (17) 24 / 8 (3) Force (Final Score)
The DHL Stormers and Western Force did battle in Super Rugby at
Newlands, Cape Town at 17:05 SA Time (23:05 AWST, 15:05 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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