Player Movements
The Lions will face a stern examination of their Super Rugby pedigree when they face the Sharks in Johannesburg on Friday.
And the biggest test will be in the scrums, where they will come up against the all-Springbok front row of Jannie and Bismarck du Plessis, as well as Tendai Mtawarira.
Highlanders wing Buxton Popoalii will miss the entire Super Rugby season to focus on recovering from surgery planned for later this month.
Scotland wing Sean Maitland is to miss the remainder of the Six Nations Championship, officials have announced on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old New Zealand-born back limped off midway through the first half of Scotland’s tournament opening 28 / 6 defeat by Ireland in Dublin on Sunday, suffering both concussion and leg injuries.
The DHL Stormers have announced that Juan de Jongh has injured his knee and will miss 6 weeks of rugby.
In addition, Schalk Burger makes double news, being named the Captain of the side who will take on the Southern Kings on the weekend and with the further news that he wants to stay put in the Cape, at least till after the next World Cup.
A somewhat changed Southern Kings team will take to the field against the DHL Stormers under the leadership of Steven Sykes on Friday evening, says caretaker coach, Robbie Kempson.
Announcing the team at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Kempson said Sykes would take the role of captain this week, following an injury to Darron Nell’s elbow that has resulted in him being excluded from selection.
The Cell C Sharks, through their very vocal Director of Rugby / Coach, Jake White, certainly bombards us with news on their endeavours!
It is reported that Tonderai Chavanga now trains with the Sharks squad, in an attempt to revive his Super Rugby aspirations.
In other news, Jake White describes Ryan Kankowski (Kanko) as a player with X-Factor.
Whilst the Cell C Sharks take on the Lions in a double-header of clashes at Ellis Park on Friday, the Sharks website have declared that the Cell C Sharks are ready for the season of Super Rugby.
The Highlanders, Crusaders and Blues have named their squads for this weekend’s warm-up games in preparation for Super Rugby 2014.
The Highlanders have added Clarke Dermody to boost their prop stocks.
The Crusaders coach, Todd Blackadder, has named a new-look 30-=man squad to face the Highlanders on the weekend, including some players who have never played Super Rugby.
Sir John Kirwan has named his squad to face the Waratahs, once again Benji Marshall gets the nod at flyhalf.
South African forward Gerrit-Jan van Velze is to join Worcester from rival English Premiership side Northampton in the European off-season.
Following the pre-season hit-out against Saracens on 25 January, the next challenge on the Cell C Sharks schedule is a double-header set of matches against the Lions at Ellis Park next Friday night.
Their preparations for Vodacom Super Rugby – aside from what they do on the training pitch and in the gym – involve just two warm-up games before the competition gets going. Their first match will be against the Bulls at Growthpoint KINGS PARK in two weeks’ time, and by the time the match kicks off, they would have had the two warm-ups to prepare.
Auckland teenager Akira Ioane is set to make his international debut in the Wellington leg of the IRB Sevens World Series this weekend.
Maori lock Hayden Triggs has been called into the Blues squad to replace the injured Culum Retallick.
The Southern Kings will have to appoint a new captain for the game on Friday when they take on the DHL Stormers (in a pre-season Super Rugby warm-up game for the Stormers) at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Round 2 of the RBS Six Nations tournament follows this weekend, after an eventfull Round 1 this past weekend.
Out of the England camp, it appears that winger Jonny May, who broke his nose against France hs been passed fit to play on the weekend.
France news is that Antoine Burban will miss Sunday’s Test against Italy with a hamstring injury and is replaced in the squad by Ibrahim Diarra.
Scotland’s Sean Maitland will miss the clash against England, suffering from concussion and a right leg injury.
Ireland’s inspirational captain, Paul O’Connell, is set to return against Wales after he withdrew from the team last weekend due to a chest infection.
Double Super Rugby champions the Chiefs have announced that they will continue to use a co-captaincy system in 2014 with Liam Messam and Aaron Cruden acting as co-captains.
The Vodacom Bulls loose forward Arno Botha has been ruled out of rugby for at least six months after picking up an ACL injury against the DHL Stormers in Saturday’s season opening friendly in Polokwane, team doctor Org Strauss confirmed on Monday.
The injury, which will see Botha miss most of the 2014 Vodacom Super Rugby season, came in his first match back after injuring the same knee in June last year, which ruled him out of the rest of the 2013 season.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann will be sweating over the fitness of two key players, following his team’s 19-12 win over the Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth at the weekend.
With their final pre-season outing, before their return to Super Rugby in a fortnight, against the Sharks at Ellis Park on Friday, the last thing Ackermann needed was serious injuries.
However, both fullback Andries Coetzee and lock Rudi Matthee looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The headlines were all about Benji Marshall, but the real winners were the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes spoiled Marshall’s party, his debut in Rugby Union after his conversion from Rugby League, as they came from behind to beat the Blues 38-35 in their pre-season outing in Masterton on Saturday.
The former Kiwi League captain, Marshall, played in the first half and some of the New Zealand media reports raved about his performance.
Australia international James O’Connor will leave London Irish after completing his six-month contract at the end of the season, the English Premiership club announced.
Victor Matfield, one of the most decorated players in the history of South African rugby, will make his return to the playing field for the Vodacom Bulls in Vodacom Super, the Blue Bulls Company (Pty) Ltd confirmed on Friday.
Matfield is a former Springbok captain with 110 Test caps behind his name – only John Smit, with 111 caps, has played more Tests for South Africa. He also lead the Vodacom Bulls to all three their Vodacom Super Rugby titles, in 2007, 2009 and 2010.
It could not have been a worse start to the year for the Brumbies – losing their opening trial match and seeing star back Pat McCabe go down again.
McCabe, who has already overcome a neck fracture twice, was returning to action when he suffered a head knock as the Brumbies were overrun 15-11 by the Highlanders in a trial match in Queenstown on Friday.
The Bulls are expected to provide a stern pre-season test for the relatively young Stormers tight five in Polokwane on Saturday.
The versatile Rynhardt Elstadt is the oldest in the Stormers engine room at just 24, although he and loosehead prop Steven Kitshoff have three years of Super Rugby experience whilst Frans Malherbe and Scarra Ntubeni both toured with the Springboks at the end of last year.
The Highlanders kicked off their Super Rugby pre-season warm-up games with a 15-11 victory over Australian rivals the Brumbies at the Queenstown Recreation Ground in Queenstown.
Treviso winger Angelo Esposito will make his international debut when Italy begins their Six Nations campaign with a daunting trip to Cardiff to take on holders Wales on Saturday.
The injured Springbok Sevens duo of Seabelo Senatla and Rosko Specman will return to South Africa and will be replaced by Jamba Ulengo and Kwagga Smith for the Wellington Sevens on 7 – 8 February, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) confirmed on Thursday.
The two wings sustained ankle injuries during last weekend’s Las Vegas Sevens, where the Bok Sevens team won the tournament title for a second successive year. Smith and Ulengo will join the squad on Saturday.
England will take on France in Paris on Saturday with a backline featuring two debutants and a one-cap winger after coach Stuart Lancaster named his starting line-up for the Six Nations opener.
As expected, 20-year-old Jack Nowell has been rewarded for his promising displays for Exeter with the starting berth on the right wing – with regular No 14 Chris Ashton dropped from the squad – with Jonny May winning his second cap on the left.
Luther Burrell is the latest in a long line of centres and will link up with Billy Twelvetrees outside Owen Farrell and recalled scrumhalf Danny Care.
Flyhalf Jules Plisson was named to start against England in France’s Six Nations opening game on Saturday as manager Philippe Saint-Andre continues his experiment with the Les Bleus’ halfback pairing.
The 22-year-old Stade Francais player will be alongside scrumhalf Jean-Marc Doussain as Saint-Andre will try out his 10th different halfback pairing since he took over from Marc Lievremont after the 2011 World Cup.
Lions coaches, Johan Ackermann and Russel Winter, have named the 2 sides which will face the Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth and Polokwane respectively, to take on the Southern Kings and Vodacom Blue Bulls.
Sharks coach Jake White has confirmed that he left London after his team’s friendly match against Saracens last weekend feeling that most of the questions that he was asking had been answered.
Although the team considered by most to be the likely South African flag-bearer in this year’s Vodacom Super Rugby competition lost 23-15 on an inclement northern hemisphere day, White said in his post trip wash-out that he had always told the players to be realistic about what they could expect against the inform English side so early in the new year.
Former Bulls flank CJ Stander has committed to a long-term goal of playing Test rugby for Ireland by signing a two-year contract extension with Munster that will see them stay with the province until June 2016.
Stander joined Munster in October 2012 from Super Rugby side the Bulls and made his debut as a substitute against Scarlets that November at Musgrave Park.
Rebels coach Tony McGahan has named four trial teams to play against the Waratahs in a Super Rugby warm up match to be held in Albury.
The match is the Rebels first trial match of the 2014 pre-season and with temperatures predicted to soar over 40 degrees, the match will be played in quarters and will feature nearly the entire Rebels squad, as well as two trialists.
Kurtley Beale, back in the Waratahs light blue for the first time since 2011, will pull on the No. 10 jersey when he lines up against his old team mates the Melbourne Rebels in a warm-up game in Albury on Saturday.
Also starting are fellow newcomers Jono Lance, who joins the Waratahs from the Reds, and Australian U20s and sevens player Tala Gray.
Star recruit Benji Marshall has been handed the No 10 jersey for the Blues’ opening pre-season match against the Hurricanes in Masterton on Saturday.
The 28-year-old Marshall will play the first 40 minutes at flyhalf, with head coach Sir John Kirwan confirming he had been impressed with the way in which the former Rugby League Wests Tiger player had taken to the playmaker role.
The competition for starting berths for the 2014 Super 15 is hotting up. It is reported that coach Naka Drotské has selected Caylib Oosthuizen to start in the loosehead position ahead of Bok Trevor Nyakane, based on form shown in the prior warm-up matches played.
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers is expecting another long Super Rugby season with the Stormers without much rest or rotation.
The experienced centre has recently returned from a month’s break after a 2013 season which saw him play almost every possible fixture for the Springboks, Stormers and Western Province, and he expects more of the same this year.
Victor Matfield, who became a father for the third time on Wednesday, is expected to confirm his return to the playing field later this week.
Matfield’s name was omitted from the Bulls’ team ahead of their warm-up match against the Stormers at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday, when coach Frans Ludeke unveiled two teams for the trip to Polokwane.