Referees
Folks, friends and fuddy-duddies,
When one starts a web site, the first thing you do is to register a Domain… and through time it becomes your signature, brand name, the web site’s personal name and surname, much like a person has a name and surname. That is your Identity, that is how people know how to find you, and know what you look and sound like.
For a person to move house, or from Province to Province, or perhaps from Country to Country, is rightly seen as a massive decision and reknowned to be one off the most traumatic occurences in life, only beaten by death in the family or divorce from your spouse.
Rookie Springbok utility back Patrick Lambie will face an anxious 24 hours as he awaits a medical report on his injured shoulder.
Changes made around five key areas of play – the tackle, scrum, offside, ruck, and maul – over the past three seasons have begun to have an impact in shaping the game that SANZAR wants to see played in Super Rugby.
Sporting history is littered with tales of great teams and individuals who did not know when to quit and suffered humiliating exits.
Many South African supporters fear a similar fate awaits the ‘green and gold’ at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand as they try to become the first country to successfully defend the title.
What a classic Springbok / All Black test match.
It is games like these that keep the rivalry alive. Two opposing styles played almost to perfection with uncompromising defence and a bit of referee controversy into the mix.
What a game!
What a timely victory for the Springboks and congrats to the Springboks for not getting drawn into the capacious game so promoted and drooled over by the All Black ‘groupies’.
We want a contest not a flap-flap razzle and dazzle mismatch dominated by one team with a bunch of natural athletes suited to play a league hybrid gobbledygook.
Former Springbok wing Stefan Terblanche believes uncertainty in key selection areas is hampering the Springboks as they continue their stuttered build-up towards the defence of their World Cup title.
This may shed some light on what is going on behind the scenes at SARU. Source Parliamentary Monitoring Group. A delegation of SARU presented a report of the preparation of the Springboks for the RWC.
Smith has not sufficiently recovered from an injured Achilles and have therefore withdrawn himself from the South Africa’s World Cup squad.
“I am not 100%,” an emotional Smith told the Volksblad newspaper.
Can you believe it, it is our birthday here at Rugby-talk!
Rugby-Talk now stands a full 2 years old…. naughty as hell and more fiddly than the average 2-year old.
I think a hearty congratulations is in order!
It is often said class is permanent , but form is temporary.
In relationships we often find ourselves in a situation where we are hanging on to something we know has been over for a quite some time.
We’ve seen it a lot lately in the Rugby News brought to us… a player tweets this or says that on Facebook. Active News sites and Blogs now spread the news faster than word of mouth… we are up to date THE WHOLE TIME.
Have a good look at this YouTube video….
There is a bit of a public hysteria at the moment in South Africa after the first two Tri-Nations Tests this year, specifically because of the way the Springboks lost in both these games.
I don’t think any Springbok supporter will ever be happy with ‘throwing’ Test matches for the sake of a ‘larger/bigger’ objective. However, this is exactly what happened in 2007. Continue reading
A more efficient and streamlined South African Rugby Union (SARU) was unveiled to rugby stakeholders by Jurie Roux, the organisation’s CEO, at the announcement of a major operational overhaul in Johannesburg on Thursday.
SARU’s governance and operational departments have been radically re-engineered in the space of 18 months to complete the transformation of the organisation’s way of doing business, said Roux.
Callie Visagie, the 2011 Varsity Cup Player of the Tournament, will further his rugby career in Johannesburg after signing a two-year deal with the Golden Lions.
Visagie, who captained the FNB Maties in the 2011 Varsity Cup, is a highly-rated and hard-as-nails hooker and the Lions have done well to claim his signature ahead of next season.
Sonny Bill Williams has told his All Black team-mates that he will not play Super Rugby for the Crusaders next year and is expected to announce where he will play next year later this week.
Half a dozen players from the Soweto Rugby Club (SRC) were allegedly injured in an attack during a match on Saturday night, according to media reports.
The players were allegedly attacked by members of the opposition team, the Edenvale Panthers, as well as spectators towards the end of their President’s League game.
Following two Rugby World Cup victories and a uniting of a Rainbow Nation, rugby is now a universal sport, appealing to the masses, supported by millions and played by all walks of life.
As a move towards becoming one of the most effectively run rugby unions in the Southern Hemisphere, The Blue Bulls Company recently employed the experienced Richard Papo as Marketing Manager.
The Sharks are apparently without a Springbok hooker on their list of contracted players for the 2012 season.
The Blue Bulls have hauled out the chequebook to increase the depth at the union for 2012 and onwards.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers believes that he deserves a medal after his four years as the helm of a job that produces the most hostile environment imaginable.
De Villiers, together with SA Rugby Union (SARU) CEO Jurie Roux addressed the portfolio committee on sport and recreation about the World Cup plans in parliament on Tuesday.
Tim Noakes, foremost Sports Scientist in South Africa has something to share with us…
This follows a request by Ashley, a blogger on our web site, regarding the resting senior Springboks.
Joost van der Westhuizen does indeed suffer from a deadly motor neuron disease (MNS) and has an 80% chance to live for two to five years.
This was confirmed earlier this week by Dr Jody Pearl, a neurologist at the Sunninghill hospital in Sandton.
“Joost was examined by Dr (Erik) Pioro, a leading expert on motor neuron disease at the neuromuscular unit of the Cleveland hospital,” said Pearl.
Joost van der Westhuizen ly aan ’n dodelike motor- neuronsiekte (MNS) en het ’n 80%-kans om twee tot vyf jaar te lewe.
Afrikaanse berig heel onder
The Tri-Nations tournament will feature two Test matches every weekend from next season onwards.
This is due to Argentina joining the competition in 2012 – with the tournament then effectively becoming the Four-Nations.
JEROME KAINO: “Some people don’t rate the players they’ve picked to play over here, but in my mind I still see them as threats and I see that team as a good team
Jerome Kaino was doing his best to talk up the Baby Boks yesterday as a genuine threat to the All Blacks in Wellington this Saturday, but it’s a tough sell on the evidence of their 39-20 loss on Saturday night.
Talk about adding injury to insult. The Springboks are in disarray on Sunday as they turn their attention to the All Blacks with their stock of second row forwards wiped out in the 39-20 defeat to the Wallabies.
Saturday’s starting pair, Alistair Hargreaves (abdominal muscle tear) and Flip van der Merwe (ribs) are likely to join Johann Muller (hamstring) on a flight home while only former Sharks lock Gerhard Mostert has been confirmed as a replacement.
Springbok lock, Andries Bekker has been ruled out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup with an ankle injury. Team Doctor, Craig Roberts, said that Bekker will undergo surgery in Cape Town on Tuesday.
This is relatively SHORT NOTICE but Ashley, our friend and fellow blogger has set up a Pool for us on testrugby.com for the Tri-Nations.
We have just more than a week to get registrations in and get raring to go, so please, all Rugby-Talkers, join up… and all Non-Rugby-Talkers, join up as a registered Rugby-Talker and then join up for this Competition as well.
This works diferently from SuperBru, here you have to select your players, do transfers of players and score according to your player performances. It still seems easy enough, nothing too fancy… and it did not take long for me to understand the Interface.
Come on, give it a go!
Go to www.testrugby.com and join!
Team name: rugbytalk
Password: blerriestormers
The President of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and the Springboks have sent messages of congratulations to Mr Nelson Mandela who celebrates his 93rd birthday today.
The Springboks’ scheduled arrival in Sydney on Saturday has been postponed.
New Brumbies Head Coach Jake White arrived in Canberra on Friday and has already started working on the 2012 Super Rugby season.
Auckland 3 / South Africa 6
The third tour match against Auckland at Eden Park was disastrous for many reasons and had in many ways a lasting negative impact on the tour. This match changed the perception the New Zealand public had about the Springboks essentially leaving the kiwis very negative about the touring side. Warwick Roger recalls how -as he walked home after having watched the match as an 11 year old- the realisation dawned on him that the Springboks were not gods at all and how in the ensuing weeks they started kicking each other on the rugby field like the Springboks did against Auckland. An Article in the Star stated on the Monday after the match that: ‘It was a rubbishy, unintelligent game… rugby at its most depressing… exactly the sort of game that makes league fans out of rugby supporters.’
All accounts of this fixture assert to the fact that is was an awful match with both teams being incredibly, humiliatingly bad and more concerned to brawl, kick, punch and shoulder charge than to play rugby.
The 2011 edition of the Coca-Cola Craven Week for high schools (Under 18) is currently taking place in Kimberley.
Check here daily for all the results.
Springbok and Sharks captain John Smit has confirmed that he will join Aviva Premiership team Saracens on a two year deal after the rugby world cup this year.