Referees
Arguably the first significant curse of the still-sweltering “silly season” in South African rugby has struck last season’s Super Rugby runners-up, the Stormers.
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“Unlike in previous years, there is no limit on the size of the squad. Franchises can nominate as many names as they like,” said regional tournament director Johan Botes.
Pumped and ready to rumble. How the South African Super rugby coaches feel before the start of the season.
The warm-up game between the Stormers and Boland Kavalliers took place early this evening… we only had opportunity to give you score updates, from time to time because the 2 Six Nations matches overlapped this game.
Stormers (12) 34 / Boland (3) 6 (Final Score)
Mitchell is the man to turn pussycats into Lions. This article is the red flag the Lions needed.
It seems the powers that be in Rugby just can’t let sleeping dogs lie. New interpretations, definitions, and clarifications on the Rules of the game were recently distributed by IRB via the South African Rugby Referees Association.
Some you may have previously seen or been aware of, some not. The full list is under. Continue reading
Experienced South African sports and rugby communications consultant Anthony Mackaiser has been appointed Communications and Marketing Manager of the recently established SANZAR (South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia Rugby) organisation.
Melbourne Rebels coach Rod Macqueen says that his new Super rugby team must be a competitive franchise from day one.
The Rebels are Super rugby’s newest franchise and they will need to build support and a fan base quickly as he most gruelling provincial rugby competition will quickly any weaknesses.
The Crusaders ended their pre-season trial matches with a 40-21 victory over the Highlanders at Whitestone Contracting Stadium in Oamaru.
The Stormers have revealed that winger Gio Aplon will miss the next three weeks of rugby due to injury.
In exactly 1 week from this morning, the Super Rugby Competition of 2011 kicks off.
SANZAR has released the match officials for Week 1 of the new Vodacom Super Rugby tournament with Bryce Lawrence taking charge of the first ever Super Rugby match in a tournament with 15 teams.
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The Bulls will not only be fighting to keep their title as the best team in Super Rugby, they will also be fighting to keep their players. Continue reading
Three tries and a 19-3 lead after only 13 minutes tell the general story of the match between the Lions and the Argentine champions Tucuman at Coca-Cola Park on Wednesday night.
South African concerns that the expanded Super Rugby tournament will lead to players suffering from exhaustion at this year’s World Cup have been laughed off by their Australian counterparts.
With their preparation for their defence of their Vodacom Super Rugby crown complete, the Vodacom Bulls gave their players the best news they could receive ahead of the long season ahead – a five-day holiday to rest.
The annual Boland Cavaliers vs DHL Stormers warm-up match, hosted by Boland Rugby, will take place at the DHL Newlands Rugby Stadium on 12 February 2011, with Kurt Darren & Friends taking care of the pre-match entertainment.
The Lions will be playing Tucuman from Argentina on Wednesday, 9 February 2011 in their second last warm up match ahead of the 2011 Super Rugby competition.
The Lions face the EP Kings on Friday and the team will be announced on Thursday.
All Blacks and Crusaders captain Richie McCaw will miss the first month of the Super Rugby season after fracturing a bone in his foot.
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The dark clouds did not hang over Loftus Versfeld for very long before Zane Kirchner delivered the silver lining with a broad smile.
28 August 1976 – All Blacks 42 / Natal 13
The All Blacks have resonated well with Natal rugby over the years maybe because of it being predominantly an English community -the last outpost of the British Empire as Tommy Bedford described it in 1970- but the friendships was renewed and McLean writes in general very positively about Natal rugby as he did in his book about the 1970 tour. The feeling I get it that he had a bit of soft spot for the Banana-boys and was just a little to elaborate with his praise and appreciation of players and province.
The match against Natal was, however, interesting in many ways. Natal -not one of the top provinces in SA in 1976- was playing reasonably good rugby and was certainly no walkover having beaten Transvaal 7-6 just a fortnight ago. Continue reading
Following a directive to all referees from the IRB issued on 21st January 2011, Rugby followers can expect to see dangerous (high) tackles penalised more severely than previously.
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It is not often that the losing coach is the happier one in the post-match press conference. Continue reading
A rib injury to Vodacom Bulls fullback, Zane Kirchner, blotted a perfect evening for his team’s 68-5 victory over the Pumas in Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday.
The executive council of the SA Rugby Union apparently became concerned at the amount of freelancing the Springbok management team did last year, and asked president Oregan Hoskins to convey the message that it was time the World Cup became their priority.
Melbourne’s eminent entry into the Super Rugby club took another step in the right direction when the Rebels showed they truly belong.
Although the Rebels lost 14-19 to the seven-time champion Crusaders, they attracted a crowd of 13,013 for the first ever Rugby Union game at the new state of the art stadium in Melbourne.
Very nominally, the Stormers have something to place in the cobwebbed trophy cabinet at Newlands, as it were, after their clean-sweep performance in the Neo Africa Tri-Series.
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In direct contrast to some of South Africa’s other Super Rugby franchises, the Bulls showed very few signs of rust when they raced to an impressive 68-5 victory over an invitational Premier XV side at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday evening.
Stormers (3) 17 / Sharks (10) 16 (Final Score)
The Stormers hosted the Sharks in the last of the Tri-Series warm-up games in preparation for the Super Rugby Tournament at 17:00 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 2 & M-Net on TV in SA.
In an error-ridden game the Sharks took the iniative and controlled most of the game till too many substitutions, to key players, derailed their game and allowed the Stormers to fight back and steal a win near the end.
I would not read too much into this game or the result, except maybe that Patrick Lambie’s goal kicking is still shoddy, that Meyer Bosman and Stefan Terblanche make a fine center combination and that the Stormers do not lie down to be defeated….
The Waratahs won their first trial match of the season against the Fiji Warriors 41-13 at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The Reds enjoyed another succesful pre-Super Rugby season victory when they beat the Brumbies by 38 points to 5.
Sharks coach John Plumtree has scoffed at suggestions that Springbok captain John Smit is no longer a viable option as a prop.
Speaking ahead of the pre-season Tri-Series finale, against the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday, Plumtree said he will continue to “rotate” the Bok skipper in all three front row positions.
The Blues beat the Hurricanes 33-22 at Kerikeri in a Super Rugby warm up match making it two wins from two in their pre-season.
The Blues beat the Highlanders last weekend in a similar warm up match and have started the year strongly while the Hurricanes beat the Chiefs last week.
The Sharks have named a formidable line up for Saturdays game against the Stormers. Continue reading
Well folks, the serious rugby is upon us again, with the Six Nations kicking off tonight, the HSBC Sevens World Series in Wellington already under way, as well as some Super Rugby warm-up matches to be played.
Here’s the schedule for this weekend: