grootblousmile
Hooker Benjamin Kayser is to miss France’s three-test tour of Australia in June because of a neck injury, his club Clermont said on Wednesday.
Gavin Henson’s hopes of taking part in a Welsh trial match that could see him selected for next month’s two-Test tour of South Africa are set to be crushed.
The 32-year-old Bath centre, one of the most gifted players of his generation but with a chequered past off the field, has not played for Wales since being injured during a 2011 World Cup warm-up game against England in Cardiff.
However, he was included on Tuesday in a 26-man ‘Probables’ squad that will play the ‘Possibles’ at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium on May 30 in the kind of trial match that was a well-know fixture during rugby union’s amateur era but which Wales last used in 2000.
But it now appears unlikely that Henson, and other Wales players at Premiership clubs, will be released for the trial.
Peter Grant will start at flyhalf for the DHL Stormers – against the Force at DHL Newlands on Saturday (kick-off 17:05 SA Time) – in what will be his 100th match for the Vodacom Super Rugby franchise.
Grant moves from inside centre to the No 10 shirt in one of five changes to the starting line-up that went down 12-28 to the Bulls in Pretoria last weekend and will become just the third-ever DHL Stormers Super Rugby centurion.
Toyota Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske has made three changes to his team for Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby match against the Brumbies in Bloemfontein.
Two of the changes are in the backline, where Cornal Hendricks takes over from Raymond Rhule and Shaun Venter replaces the injured Sarel Pretorius.
Springbok flyhalf Johan Goosen is on the verge of announcing a move to France at the end of the current Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Goosen has been eyeing a move since early in the season, and is likely to sign for French club Racing Metro in the next few days, leaving his Toyota Cheetahs side with a massive dilemma.
Bye weekends can be a curse to teams with a bit of momentum, but perhaps the Bulls should be grateful for theirs in the next round of Super Rugby.
The optimistic view about an “off” week for Frans Ludeke’s charges, you see, is that it will refresh them for what shapes up as a pressure-cooker, make-or-break match against the Brumbies at Loftus on Friday 23 May.
Vodacom Bulls flyhalf Handré Pollard will captain the Junior Springboks at the 2014 IRB Junior World Championship during June in New Zealand, South Africa Under-20 coach Dawie Theron announced on Tuesday.
EP Kings number eight Aidon Davis and Vodacom Blue Bulls fullback Jesse Kriel were confirmed as the two vice-captains.
The Cheetahs have been dealt a blow with the news that scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius is ruled out with an ankle injury.
Henry Speight has recovered from a broken jaw making him available for the Brumbies against the Cheetahs clash in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Speight is also itching to stake his claim for a long-awaited Wallabies berth with only five rounds plus finals remaining to prove himself to Test coach Ewen McKenzie.
A move back to the Cheetahs may not be the wisest move for Western Force flyhalf Sias Ebersohn.
Ebersohn is having a stellar season for this year’s Super Rugby surprise packages, and last weekend returned to haunt his former team-mates by kicking 13 points in a 23-16 win in Bloemfontein.
He held his own against opposite number Johan Goosen – ironically the player who kept him out of the Cheetahs team a couple of seasons ago – which eventually led to Ebersohn’s move abroad.
South Africa’s Super Rugby teams may be struggling, but that doesn’t mean the Springboks will follow a similar trend in 2014, believes Western Force coach Michael Foley.
Foley said, after his side beat the Cheetahs 23-16 in Bloemfontein last weekend. They face the Stormers in Cape Town this Saturday.
Stormers backline coach Robbie Fleck believes utility back Damian de Allende is not far off from a Springbok call-up.
De Allende, 22, has been a rare shining light for the Stormers in a disastrous season which has seen them win only three of 11 games to sit bottom of the overall Super Rugby log.
English club Gloucester want Nick Mallett as their new Director of Rugby after unexpectedly sacking Nigel Davies, the Gloucester Citizen website reports.
Davies was sacked on Monday after the Cherry and Whites lost to relegated Worcester Warriors at the weekend.
A year from the Rugby World Cup, defending champions the All Blacks face a depleted talent pool to select from, as a wealth of players opt for lucrative overseas contracts.
Although there is an overflow of quality among the loose forwards and outside backs, in other areas there are looming shortages – particularly at hooker, where there is a struggle to find three of international standard for next month’s tour by England.
Griquas have laid an official complaint against the Pumas who apparently fielded an ineligible player in their Vodacom Cup semi-final clash in Nelspruit last Friday.
Griquas are upset that the Pumas played Coenie van Wyk at fullback.
The reluctance of the Home Unions to come to the party is what is preventing a more acceptable global season to be implemented.
It has long been suggested that the selfish nature of Home Union officials – those from England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland – has been at the heart of the troubled and scattered international and domestic calendars.
The Stormers have been boosted by the news that Demetri Catrakilis and Kobus van Wyk have been cleared for selection ahead of their Super Rugby match against the Western Force at Newlands on Saturday.
Catrakilis has not played since breaking his nose against the Lions on 19 April, whilst Van Wyk’s wrist injury – suffered against the Highlanders on 3 May – has healed a lot quicker than initially anticipated.
They may not be the same vintage as the 2009 and 2010 Vodacom Super Rugby champion team, but the Vodacom Bulls are steadily starting to believe in themselves – and that makes them very dangerous as the competition starts winding down to its business end.
But the Bulls know their real test was not against the struggling DHL Stormers last Saturday, but rather in a fortnight’s time when they face the Australian conference leaders, and the side that put them out of the semifinals last year – the Brumbies.
It is quite amazing how the Cell C Sharks’ 2014 Vodacom Super Rugby campaign is starting to resemble that of the DHL Stormers two years ago.
In 2012, the Stormers topped the overall Super Rugby log, as the Sharks are now, but they gave the impression at times that they were clueless on attack and had to rely almost completely on their strong defensive system. The Stormers back then scored fewer tries than the Sharks have this season, and the Sharks did pick up a four try bonus point in their opening fixture. The table topping Stormers went the entire 2012 league phase without picking up a single four try bonus point.
Five uncapped players were included in the All Blacks 35-man training squad named Monday, ahead of the three-Test series against England in June.
The squad, which will be whittled down to 31 on 1 June, also marks the return of Jerome Kaino to All Blacks consideration – while flyhalf Dan Carter is a notable omission as he continues a sabbatical before returning to the game in August.
Blindside flank Kaino, now back in New Zealand with the Blues, last played for the All Blacks in the 2011 World Cup Final victory against France before moving to Japan.
Expect Morné Steyn to return to do duty in the Springbok No 10 jersey later this year.
It is felt that no South African flyhalf has done enough in Super Rugby this year to convince Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer to replace his favourite No 10 for the upcoming Incoming Tests and Rugby Championship shortly thereafter.
Scott Williams has become the latest player to rule himself out of Wales’s tour to South Africa in June.
The Scarlets’ centre had hoped he would have recovered from the shoulder injury he sustained playing for Wales against Ireland in the Six Nations.
New Zealander Chris Pollock will be the referee when the Stormers host the Western Force in a Super Rugby clash at Newlands this Saturday (17:05 SA Time).
Pollock will be assisted by South Africans Marius Jonker and Quinton Immelman, with Shaun Veldsman on television match official (TMO) duty.
Lopeti Timani has been declared fit to return to play following a knee injury which has seen him sidelined for nearly two months.
The powerful backrow-forward, who can also play at lock, will most likely return via the Dewar Shield before looking to add to his maiden Rebels cap against the Western Force in Round 2.
Having steered the Springbok Sevens to a credible second place on the HSBC Sevens World Series, Blitzboks coach Neil Powell admitted that he needs to improve the depth of his squad to make them more competitive next season.
Powell took over the reigns as head coach of the Springbok Sevens when the 2013/14 season started in October last year. His immediate aim was to install a good level of consistency, and to reach the semi-final of each of the nine World Series tournaments.
Rory Kockott was once again the star for Castres as the defending champions ended Clermont’s 77-game unbeaten run on home soil in a shock result in Saturday’s Top 14 play-off.
Away winners in France have been rarities all season, but there were upsets in both the weekend’s play-offs.
A push to move June internationals back and create an integrated global rugby season by 2016 remains a ‘long shot’, New Zealand Rugby Union chief Steve Tew has warned.
The International Rugby Players’ Association (IRPA) has campaigned for the June Test window to be pushed back to the end of July to allow southern hemisphere-based players to finish the Super Rugby tournament and have Europe-based players start their domestic campaigns later.
Jim Carmichael has led speculation that James O’Connor is poised for a controversial return to Australia via the Queensland Reds.
Reds boss Carmichael would not confirm whether O’Connor is set to join the Reds’ in the 2015 Super Rugby roster but admitted he was in the process of addressing their current deficiencies.
Corey Flynn has signed a two year contract with Toulouse in France starting after the current Crusaders season.
This announcement comes on the same day as the All Blacks training squad was released.
Samisoni Viriviri’s name was called out at a function following the London Sevens at Twickenham, the final Round of the 2013 / 2014 HSBC Sevens World Series won by New Zealand.
He becomes the first Fijian to win the award since it was first presented in 2004, having finished the season with 52 tries.
The Vodacom Bulls flew the South African flag in Vodacom Super Rugby this weekend as the other four teams all lost their matches on Saturday.
The team from Pretoria won their traditional North-South derby against the DHL Stormers by 28-12 on Saturday evening and had to dig deep early on when the Capetonians scored two very good tries in the first 20 minutes.
It was the Vodacom Bulls’ biggest victory over the DHL Stormers since round 11 in 2007, when they won by 49-12 in Pretoria.
Earlier on Saturday, the Lions almost caused a massive upset in Dunedin when they came back from 23-0 down at half-time to lose 23-22 after scoring four great second-half tries against the Highlanders.
Had their kicking been better – the visitors’ kickers missed three conversions – the Lions could easily have become the first South African team to win in New Zealand this year.
The Cell C Sharks went down by 16-9 to the Brumbies in a top-of-the-table clash in a very wet Canberra, but managed to hold on to their first position on the log thanks to a losing bonus-point.
And on Saturday afternoon, the Force won in South Africa for the first time since March 2011 and beat the Toyota Cheetahs for the first time in three years when they won by 23-16 in Bloemfontein, putting a dampener on Naka Drotské’s 100th match in charge of the team from Central South Africa.
The two most successful teams in Vodacom Cup history, GWK Griquas and the Golden Lions, will contest the 2014 final after both won their semi-finals away from home this weekend.
In both matches, the team that scored more tries were knocked out and the points’ difference in the semi-finals in Nelspruit and Pretoria was a single point.
On Friday evening in Nelspruit, the Steval Pumas lost their first match of the season when they went down by 14-15 to four-time champions, GWK Griquas, after a last-minute penalty goal by fullback Gouws Prinsloo.
The visitors to the Mbombela Stadium had the best possible start when flyhalf Francois Brummer put them ahead by 3-0 after only 20 seconds with a well-struck drop-goal.
Scarra Ntubeni fractured a metatarsal in his left foot as the DHL Stormers suffered a 12-28 away defeat to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening.
The Springbok tourist – who was out of action for a few weeks with a calf-muscle injury earlier in the tournament – is now set for a minimum lay-off of at least eight weeks.
Former South African Schools flyhalf Sias Ebersohn left his country of birth under a cloud, seemingly unable to convert his potential into form at Super Rugby level.
However, the 25-year-old made a triumphant return to Bloemfontein at the weekend – producing a mature performance and played a key role in the Western Force’s 23-16 Super Rugby Round 13 win over his former team, the Cheetahs.
Force coach Michael Foley commended the No 10, who left Bloemfontein for Perth two years ago after being overlooked – with Springbok Johan Goosen the preferred choice.
Western Force coach Michael Foley has lauded his team’s efforts in the scrums and at the break down area following their 23-16 Super Rugby victory over the Cheetahs at the Free State stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The Force dominated the scrums and break downs while also using turnover possession optimally to gain valuable momentum for their next game on their South African tour.