General
The quarter-final line-up for this season’s Heineken Cup is taking shape following the penultimate round of pool action.
Munster’s 12-year streak of reaching the Heineken Cup quarter-finals was brought to an end by a 32-16 defeat in Toulon on Sunday as the debutant French club secured their own place in the last eight.
If history is anything to go by, the South African challenge for the new Super 15 trophy will be a 3-horse race. Continue reading
With a little over 200 days to go until the IRB Junior World Championship 2011 kicks off in Italy, Pool C opponents South Africa and England are stepping up preparations in their quest to end New Zealand’s dominance of the prestigious Under 20 tournament.
Springbok rugby and South African rugby in general is coming to the end of an era, and it might be time to think about what the future holds. Continue reading
The time to feel sorry for the Freestate Cheetahs has to come to an end, they have no-one but themselves to blame for their ongoing problems. Continue reading
With focus on the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in September, former Springbok coach Jake White says incumbent Bok coach Peter de Villiers faces a difficult task in deciding when to rest his key players in this year’s Tri-Nations.
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London – Former Springbok coach Jake White will apply for the newly created position of Performance Director at the Rugby Football Union, a role which will see the current England coach Martin Johnson ultimately report to him.
Matt Giteau will wait to see if he needs “something fresh” before deciding where he will play beyond the end of 2011.
The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) have said that they will not negotiate for player release with England’s Premier Rugby Limited but only with England’s Rugby Football Union. This applies to Welsh internationals playing for Premiership clubs in England.
A New Zealand Herald and DigiPoll survey has revealed that precisely 70.4 percent of Kiwis believe that the All Blacks will win the Rugby World Cup on home soil in 2011.
All Blacks lock Ali Williams has been familiarising himself with his new temporary home in England, the Nottingham Rugby Club.
According to the allblacks.com website, Williams, who is recovering from a second Achilles tendon rupture, is to play up to four games for the side as he attempts his recovery ahead of the Super 15 season in New Zealand.
The fixtures for the fourth-ever FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International have been announced; with the 2011 tournament kicking-off in Bloemfontein in February when Shimlas play host to UCT in a repeat of one of last season’s semifinals.
Former All Black Doug Howlett was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly at the Munster Christmas party in the Irish city of Kilkenny.
Danré Gerber, son of the great Springbok centre Danie Gerber, is off to ambitious Bayonne as a ‘medical joker’ – a replacement allowed in a Top 14 squad, in France, in the case of injury.
Cardiff Blues eighthman Xavier Rush has beeen suspended for one week for a dangerous tackle on Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes.
Statistics are like a lamppost to a drunk man. It does not serve to illuminate but rather, to keep him upright. Continue reading
The Lions and Sharks have both upped the ante as the tug-of-war for the services of iconic Springbok prop Tendai Mtawarira drags on into the festive season.
Richie McCaw looks unlikely to join the expected exodus of top New Zealand players to cash-flush European clubs after next year’s World Cup on home soil.
Speaking to the Sunday Star Times, McCaw revealed that he is in talks with the New Zealand Rugby Union about extending his contract beyond 2011.
On a weekend when even the English Premiership’s headline fixture between Chelsea v Manchester United was postponed due to arctic conditions, it was perhaps no surprise that two Heineken Cup Round Four fixtures also fell victim to the incredibly cold weather.
The widespread adverse weather that has swept across Europe in recent days has played havoc with all sporting events and rugby union has suffered with the rest.
Frozen pitches, heavy snow storms and travel difficulties – for both club squads and their equipment – have all played significant parts in four ERC matches having to be rescheduled.
South Africa have been drawn against Fiji, France and Canada in the third leg of the 2010/11 IRB World Sevens Series in Wellington, New Zealand, in February, the International Rugby Board announced on Friday.
Rugby World Cup 2011 tournament organisers have confirmed that key match ticket sales and revenue targets have been achieved for 2010 and that international visitors will number at least 85,000.
New Zealand boss Jock Hobbs’ battle with cancer has taken a turn for the worse and he has stepped away from rugby to start a new, more aggressive, course of treatment.
It was announced on Friday that Hobbs has stepped down as chairman of both the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd (RNZ 2011) to focus on his health.
New Zealand retained their Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens title, beating England in the tightest of finals with a last-gasp penalty kick, 22-19.
Sponsors, development and loyalty are all factors that will play a role when the South African Rugby Union (Saru) decides which city will host the local leg of the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) World Sevens Series from next year.
Paul Delport returns to the Springbok Sevens squad in place of Renfred Dazel in one of three changes named by coach, Paul Treu for his team’s home leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series which starts on Friday in George.Dazel suffered concussion after receiving a blow to the head against the USA last Saturday in Dubai he was therefore not considered for selection. Jacques Engelbrecht replaces Lubabalo Mtembu and MJ Mentz makes way for Steven Hunt.
Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu has added four players to the squad ahead of the SA Sevens tournament in George on Friday and Saturday.
Paul Delport, Jacques Engelbrecht, Steven Hunt and Chris Dry were added to the squad which won the plate final in the first leg of the IRB World Sevens Series in Dubai at the weekend.
Another year gone by, another coach on the brink of extinction, so what’s new in South African Rugby? Well for one, the media conferences are infinitely more entertaining, instead of the old “Judge me at the World Cup” we haven’t got the foggiest idea what we will hear whenever a press conference is convened now. I love the anticipation.
Well, here’s something the English players might actually win….
Rugby Players’ Association chief executive Damian Hopley has suggested that England’s plan to select only players based in England could bring legal action on the Union.
Much has been made lately of the ‘style’ of rugby different nations play. It is a topic I always found interesting because this moves away from the general rugby analysis we are used to and touches on the very thing that makes us uniquely South African. Continue reading
The International Rugby Board has announced the Match Official appointments for the 2011 Six Nations Championship, which will be played between February 4 and March 19.
The HSBC Dubai Sevens is happening, this is the 1st event yearly in the IRB Sevens Calaendar.
English players who opt to play for foreign clubs after the 2011 World Cup will no longer be selectable for the national team, the Rugby Football Union announced Thursday.
The RFU’s move is designed to give England the best chance of winning the World Cup when it is staged on home soil in 2015.
Lionel Mapoe’s run of bad luck continues after he was ruled out of any action at this year’s Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens with an ankle injury.
For a player who was more in the headlines off the field following a contractual tussle between the Cheetahs and Sharks over his services, Mapoe was to use the return to the field as a boost after not playing since March.