Player Movements
Juan Imhoff
Winger Juan Imhoff has injured his foot and will miss Argentina’s first two Rugby Championship matches against South Africa, the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) said on Tuesday.
The Racing Metro player fractured the second metatarsal of his right foot during the Pumas’ warm-up game against French Club Grenoble on Saturday.
Solomoni Rasolea
Utility back Solomoni Rasolea has become the latest player to commit to the Western Force by signing a two-year contract extension.
The 23-year-old’s re-signing continues the Force’s retention run that has already seen Nathan Charles, Dane Haylett-Petty, Rory Walton and Chris Alcock re-commit to the Western Australian club in the past 10 days.
Rasolea has been a regular face in the Force’s match 23 over the past two seasons since joining the Force from the Australian Sevens side.
Hawies Fourie
Griquas coach Hawies Fourie has rewarded the squad which earned Currie Cup qualification by retaining much of the team for the Sharks clash at GWK Park on Saturday.
The Kimberley-based side regained their status after ending the qualifying round undefeated.
“Now that we are once again part of the Currie Cup, we don’t just want to be a number. We want to be a real contender in the competition and we hope to use the momentum that we got form the qualifiers to achieve just that,” Fourie said.
Colin Slade, drafted into the All Blacks squad to replace Dan Carter, who is injured.
Colin Slade has been called into the All Blacks as injury cover for Dan Carter.
Carter fractured the fibula bone in his right leg during last weekend’s Super Rugby final loss to the Waratahs in Sydney and would be sidelined for one month. He would miss at least the first two Bledisloe Cup tests.
A new-look DHL Western Province team will head to Port Elizabeth to open their 2014 ABSA Currie Cup campaign against the Eastern Province Kings on Friday night (kick-off 19:10 SA Time).
Centre Juan de Jongh, in his first senior match as captain of DHL WP, will skipper a squad with eight ABSA Currie Cup debutants, but the 22-man group includes Springbok squad members Frans Malherbe and Eben Etzebeth.
Victor Matfield
Victor Matfield is suffering from a small tear in a cartilage after being sent for scans on Tuesday morning after feeling some discomfort in his knee at training on Monday.
He was seen by an orthopaedic specialist in Pretoria and will be unavailable for the Test against Argentina at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday 16 August.
Eben Etzebeth
Frans Malherbe
Two members of the Springboks’ Castle Lager Rugby Championship squad, Eben Etzebeth and Frans Malherbe, have been released to play in the opening round of the Absa Currie Cup Premier Division for DHL Western Province on Friday evening.
Both players are returning from long-term injuries and will be allowed some game time for WP to ease them back into the game.
Etzebeth’s last game was in November 2013, for the Springboks against France in Paris, where he picked up a foot injury. Malherbe has been out for more than three months with concussion.
“Following medical assessments and consultation between our medical team and those of the various provinces, it was decided to release Eben and Frans for this weekend,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
Caylib Oosthuizen
Coenie Oosthuizen
Coenie and Caylib Oosthuizen will not be available for the Cheetahs’ first Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Saturday in Nelspruit.
More scrum worries come in the form of Johannes Roux, who injured his arm against the EP Kings in a a warm match last Friday – he sat out of training on Monday.
It is hoped that Roux will be fit to play on Saturday, with the Free Staters looking thin in the front row.
With both Oosthuizens out and Trevor Nyakane with the Springboks, coach Rory Duncan looks set to blood some youngsters.
The Cell C Sharks will start the defence of the Absa Currie Cup title they won last year feeling the effects of having gone further than all the other teams in the recently completed Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Apart from the fact that they’ve lost more players to the Springboks than most, plus a few players have headed overseas, the Sharks arrived back in Durban after their Super Rugby semifinal loss to the Crusaders with injuries in areas they can ill afford it.
Both locks, Stephan Lewies and Etienne Oosthuizen, have injuries that make them doubtful starters for Saturday’s domestic competition opener against Griquas in Kimberley. Assistant coach Sean Everitt has given the pair’s chances of playing as 50 / 50, with the problem being that there isn’t too much available back-up now that the strong and abrasive Anton Bresler has headed overseas.
Dan Carter
All Black flyhalf Dan Carter will be sidelined for at least half of New Zealand’s Rugby Championship campaign after cracking a fibula in last weekend’s Super Rugby Final.
Carter left the field during the Crusaders’ 32-33 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney after an injury to his lower leg, which the franchise said was a hairline crack to the bone which would need at least four weeks to heal.
“A scan has revealed a small crack in his upper fibula. The size of the crack meant it was not originally picked up by an X-ray and required a scan to locate it,” the Crusaders said.
Ryan Kankowski
Ryan Kankowski’s former agent has launched a lawsuit against the Sharks player for a claim of R 340 000.00 in commission allegedly due.
In 2010, Touch Sports Management launched a High Court action in Durban against the No 8 to recover the money it claimed he owed.
However, nothing came out of it with the matter being postponed indefinitely. Now it has come out that the parties have agreed to take the arbitration route, according to Touch Sports Management lawyer Riaan Venter.
Tatafu Polota-Nau
Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie will be sweating over the availability of Waratahs hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau.
The burly, all-action No 2 is the major casualty of the Tahs’ historic Super Rugby crown.
Polota-Nau limped off just after half-time in the Waratahs’ tense 33-32 win over the Crusaders in the Super Rugby Final in Sydney at the weekend.
Tahs coach Michael Cheika suspected the hooker had a medial ligament tear, which could rule him out of the Bledisloe Cup / Rugby Championship opener in a fortnight.
Jean de Villiers
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers has recovered from the knee injury which kept him out of the June Tests and is back in the national squad for the forthcoming Castle Lager Rugby Championship.
De Villiers is one of six players returning from injury after missing the entire or a part of the Castle Lager Incoming Series.
The others are Tendai Mtawarira (prop), Frans Malherbe (prop), Eben Etzebeth (lock), Patrick Lambie (flyhalf / fullback) and Damian de Allende (centre).
De Allende, who was forced to withdraw from the squad in June because of a knee ligament injury, and scrumhalf Cobus Reinach are the only two uncapped players in the 30-man Springbok squad.
Ripping in: Waratahs forward Jacques Potgieter crashes into a teammate at training during the week.
The day the Waratahs wrapped up the minor premiership was the day Jacques Potgieter decided to tell his old club he was not interested.
The Bulls were having a chronic case of the Joni Mitchells – “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone”. They had let Potgieter go after two seasons and watched him go from strength to damaging strength with a team that appreciated his skill set.
Now they wanted him back. Immediately. For three years.
Hennie Daniller & Andries Ferreira at Zebre, Italy.
Italian club Zebre have welcomed the arrival of Hennie Daniller and Andries Ferreira from the Cheetahs.
Fullback Daniller and lock Ferreira arrived in the northern Italian city of Parma this week ahead of the Northern Hemisphere season.
Juan ‘Brok’ Harris
Stormers and Western Province prop Brok Harris’s departure to Newport Gwent Dragons has been confirmed.
The Welsh club confirmed on their official website that the 29-year-old has penned a 3-year deal.
The experienced front row forward has made over 90 appearances for the Stormers since making his debut in 2007 and boasts more than 100 appearances for Western Province.
Bath Rugby are looking to sign Will Genia from Queensland Reds, having already snared Sam Burgess from National Rugby League club South Sydney Rabbitohs.
It was reported in June that Bath had been linked with Genia, but now the reporting is that the club has made “an audacious bid” to sign the Wallabies scrum-half and is “now in talks… to lure him to England after next year’s World Cup”.
Bath owner Bruce Craig said in June that he had “already signed some players for post-World Cup going into what we consider our 150th year, which is the 2015-16 season”, but he did not name names.
CJ van der Linde
Former Springbok prop CJ van der Linde may end off his career by joining the legion of South Africans at Heineken Cup champions Toulon.
While it was widely reported that Van der Linde had joined up with the EP Kings for the upcoming Absa Currie Cup season, French newspaper Midi Olympique now reports that the journeyman has signed a two-year contract with Toulon to play in the European season.
William Ambaka Ndayara
Powerhouse Kenyan wing William Ambaka Ndayara will join DHL Western Province ahead of the 2014 Absa Currie Cup competition.
Conrad Hoffmann
Brumbies scrumhalf Conrad Hoffmann has returned to play for the Sharks in this year’s Currie Cup, the Durban team announced via their official website.
The 26-year-old played for the Sharks between 2011 and 2012 after joining from Western Province.
His career was hampered by injuries before getting a lifeline at the Brumbies this year. However, a lack of game time at the Australian side has seen Hoffmann return to the Sharks ahead of the Currie Cup season.
Chrysander Botha
English club Exeter Chiefs have signed Lions fullback Chrysander Botha ahead of the new Premiership season.
According to Exeter’s official website, the 26-year-old Namibian international touched down at Sandy Park on Wednesday and will join up with his new team-mates next week.
Botha has been tracked by the Chiefs coaching team for some time and assistant coach Ali Hepher believes his arrival will give the Devon club another attacking weapon in their arsenal.
The Brumbies believe they can be the first Super Rugby team to tap into the American market, with coach Stephen Larkham to go on a research mission to the US to evaluate untouched talent at universities.
The two-time champions are setting up a “USA Brumbies” academy system based at Arizona State University. Potential recruits will train in the US with the aim of earning a Super Rugby spot.
Larkham and commercial academy manager Nick Leah will fly to the US in September for camps in New Jersey, Minnesota and Arizona to find the best talent for the program.
It’s part of an academy relationship the Brumbies have set up with international teams, which already includes the Papua New Guinea national side and Japanese team Kubota.
OLD BOY: Nemani Nadolo taking part in a Waratahs training session back when he was on their books.
Nemani Nadolo’s thick Australian accent is just one tell-tale sign the New South Wales Waratahs’ decision to let the rampaging winger slip through their fingers could come back to haunt them on Saturday.
The Fiji international crossed the Tasman Sea with his Crusaders side today intent on clinching their eighth Super Rugby title in the final against the Waratahs, who cut him loose after a solitary season in 2009.
“When you are unwanted and have got to go elsewhere and find opportunities I guess when the door shut there you do feel a bit sad,” Nadolo told Television New Zealand of his dumping by the Waratahs before the Crusaders flew to Sydney.
Henry Immelman from Grey College, in action against Affies.
A schoolboy teenager is set to play in the 2014 Currie Cup – Henry Immelman, the Grey College fullback.
Thomas du Toit, who was at Paarl Boys’ High last year, has proved that a teenager can stand firm among the tough, gnarled men of the front row.
Frans Steyn was 19 when he was chosen for the Sharks and then for South Africa. That was 2007, the year he turned 20. Johan Goosen was 18 when first he played for the Cheetahs in 2011, the year he turned 19.
Now Henry Immelman has been chosen in the Free State squad to play in the Currie Cup. He turned 19 in May. Unlike Steyn and Goosen he is still at school – in matric at Grey College, the school that Steyn and Goosen attended. Like the other two he played for Free State at Craven Week. Goosen made SA schools; Steyn and Immelman did not. Steyn and Goosen were born east of Bloemfontein – in Aliwal North and Burgersdorp. Immelman was born, on 26 May 1995, in Upington.
Henry Speight
Winger Henry Speight will be sidelined for a month by a hamstring injury and has been replaced in the Wallabies squad for the Rugby Championship by Peter Betham.
Fijian-born Speight was included in the squad last week despite not becoming eligible to play for Australia on residency grounds until 11 September, halfway through the tournament.
The tackle-busting winger sustained the injury in the second half of the Brumbies’ Super Rugby semifinal defeat to the Waratahs last Saturday.
Seabelo Senatla
Western Province look likely to unleash Springbok Sevens star Seabelo Senatla at right wing in their opening Currie Cup encounter.
According to reports, the 21-year-old landed in Cape Town on Tuesday after helping the South African Sevens side claim gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow at the weekend.
Conrad Smith
Injured All Blacks centre Conrad Smith will make his return to the field after recovering from a broken thumb in a rare outing for his provincial side Wellington on Friday.
The 32-year-old injured the thumb during last month’s Test series against England and missed the third match, with rookie Malakai Fekitoa making his first start at centre in the 36-13 victory.
Smith was named in Steve Hansen’s All Blacks squad for the Rugby Championship on Monday, indicating he would be available for the first clash against Australia in Sydney on 16 August.
GETTING READY: Corey Flynn, who leaves for French club Toulouse after the Super Rugby season, hopes to collect his fourth title before he departs Christchurch.
Corey Flynn concedes there’s nothing like a jolt of electricity to help determine a career path.
Things are trucking along pretty nicely for the 33-year-old these days but if he wasn’t a professional rugby player he isn’t certain what occupation he would have chosen after leaving Southland Boys’ High School.
Well, he is sure about one thing: He wasn’t going to work in an industry where he risked getting zapped from bare wires.
“I was looking at an electrical apprenticeship but that wasn’t my forte,” Flynn reflects. “Electricity scares the hell out of me because you can’t see it and I took a couple of boots.”
Adriaan Strauss
Springbok hooker Adriaan Strauss has broken his silence, saying he is excited at the prospect of moving to the Bulls at the end of the season.
The Bulls officially announced the move on Monday, but Strauss revealed exclusively to the supersport.com website that his decision was taken to further his career.
Strauss signed a two-year contract to move to the Bulls, following fellow Cheetahs players Trevor Nyakane and Lappies Labuschagné who will also line up for the Pretoria franchise in next year’s Super Rugby competition.
Nathan Charles: Extended his deal with Western Force
Australia hooker Nathan Charles has signed a new deal to stay with the Western Force until the end of 2016.
Charles started every game for the Perth side this season and was rewarded for his club form with a first call into the Wallabies squad, making his debut against France in Melbourne earlier this summer.
Adriaan Strauss
Trevor Nyakane
Lappies Labuschagne
Jamba Ulengo
The Blue Bulls Company (Pty) Ltd is pleased to announce the signings of Adriaan Strauss, Trevor Nyakane, Pieter Labuschagne and Jamba Ulengo. All three forwards will join the Vodacom Bulls on November 1st, 2014, while Ulengo has already started training with the Vodacom Blue Bulls.
Springbok hooker Strauss, who captained the Toyota Cheetahs in recent seasons, was South Africa’s Vodacom Super Rugby Player of the Year in 2013 and returns to Loftus Versfeld, where he made his Vodacom Super Rugby career in 2006 after a seven year absence. He has signed a two year deal.
Lionel Cronjé
The Sharks have landed the services of former Baby Bok Lionel Cronjé.
Cronjé, 25, represented the Brumbies this past season but according to the Sydney Morning Herald’s website, the utility back has signed a two-year deal with the Durban-based Sharks.
He will join them before the start of this year’s Currie Cup competition.
Several ex-New Zealand and Australia internationals have confirmed that they will lodge an application to switch allegiances to a Pacific Island nation with whom they hold a passport, with a view to participating at the Rugby World Cup in England next year.
With the inclusion of rugby 7s at the Olympics in 2016, there has been a change in eligibility laws that will see players who have represented one nation now eligible to play for another, if they hold a passport from that country.
If they have not played international rugby in the past 18 months, they will be eligible for their new country in the Sevens World Series or designated Regional Olympic Qualification Tournaments and would thus be able to play for that country in all forms of rugby.
Toulon Celebrates
Transfer season in rugby may not create the same kind of wide-eyed, frothing-at-the-mouth fervour that it does in its round-balled cousin, but there are nonetheless always intriguing movements as players come to the end of their contracts. Here’s our countdown of the top 10 transfers ahead of the 2014/2015 season.
Beast Mtawarira: Feels privileged to play with the Du Plessis brothers
Sharks prop Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira has revealed that he will leave the Durban-based franchise at the end of 2015.
Mtawarira confirmed that he will further his career outside of South Africa after next year’s World Cup in England.
The veteran of 55 Tests with the Springboks, who has played for the Sharks since 2007, said he hopes to get a fresh challenge in Europe.
“My goals for 2015 is to help the Sharks do well in Super Rugby and to help the Springboks win the World Cup,” he told the MyPlayers website.
That would be a dream come true.