Super Rugby
Force (17) 30 / 20 (10) Reds (Final Score)
The Western Force and Reds did battle in Super Rugby at
nib Stadium, Perth at 11:40 SA Time (19:40 AWST, 21:40 AEST, 09:40 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1 & SHD on TV in SA.
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Crusaders (11) 21 / 13 (13) Blues (Final Score)
The Crusaders and Blues did battle in Super Rugby at
AMI Stadium, Christchurch at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 07:35 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
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Lions (14) 34 / 17 (10) Rebels (Final Score)
The Lions and the Melbourne Rebels did battle in Super Rugby at
Ellis Park, Johannesburg at 19:10 SA Time (03:10 Saturday AEST, 17:10 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
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Chiefs (16) 24 / 16 (6) Hurricanes
The Chiefs and Hurricanes did battle in Super Rugby at
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 07:35 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
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It is Round 18 of Super Rugby 2014 this weekend, the first Round after the June Test break! We have 7 games in Round 18, with 2 game on Friday, 4 games on Saturday and 1 game on Sunday.
All the sides from South Africa are back in action this weekend, after sitting out last weekend when the Antipodian sides played a Round on their own to counter the fact that the South African Conference started a week early in February.
The Logs are finally reflecting the true position of the 15 sides relative to one another and in the process the Sharks have dropped 1 place on the standing after a rampant Waratahs side bullied the Brumbies to atke a 3-point lad on the Combined Log.
The Brumbies have a Bye weekend.
After this Round of games, there is only 1 Open Round left in Super Rugby in 2014, next weekend, after which the final 6 teams to continue into the Play-Off’s will have been decided. Teams who do not make the Play-Off’s will be done and dusted with this year’s competition.
With the June International Test Window now a thing of the past, the teams can once again throw their full weight into Super Rugby.
This is the stage where some results are becoming critical and where certain sides can open up doors for themselves, whilst burrying some of those teams around and in close proximity to them on the Logs.
Let the games continue….
Jean Deysel
The Cell C Sharks will field a team resting Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis and Willem Alberts (all on the bench)… and also still without Patrick Lambie, but with Jean Deysel captaining the side and Frans Steyn back in his favoured position of Inside Centre.
This of course means that Tim Swiel starts at Flyhalf, Dale Chadwick at loosehead prop, Kyle Cooper as starting hooker and Lourens Adriaanse as starting tighthead prop.
S’Bura Sithole is back at Outside centre and JP Pietersen moves back to Right wing, with SP Marais protecting the last vestage.
3 Other returning Springboks get starting positions, namely Marcell Coetzee, Stephan Lewies and Lwazi Mvovo.
Duane Vermeulen
DHL Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has conceded that there is an outside chance that his team may be without kingpin No 8 Duane Vermeulen in Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby derby against the Vodacom Bulls at Newlands.
Vermeulen normally sits out Monday training session as part of Coetzee’s way of managing the hard working Springbok, who has played every game he has been available for at both Super Rugby and international level this year. However when he was also absent from training when the team ran at Newlands on Wednesday, it did prompt speculation that perhaps it wasn’t quite business as usual with Vermeulen this time around.
Victor Matfield
Handré Pollard
Vodacom Bulls coach Frans Ludeke named Victor Matfield to lead the team to play the DHL Stormers at DHL Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.
Ludeke made four changes and a positional switch to the starting team that lost their last Vodacom Super Rugby outing, against the Lions in Johannesburg, with Matfield and Paul Willemse starting at lock and Handré Pollard at flyhalf. Werner Kruger also swop with Marcel van der Merwe in the regular rotation of the front row.
Grant Hattingh will vacate the lock position to make way for Matfield and again move to the back of the scrum in a positional switch that will also see Jacques Engelbrecht run out at flank.
Matfield was rested against the Lions and will lock the scrum with Willemse, who replaces injured captain, Flip van der Merwe, in the number four jersey. Engelbrecht’s move to the side of the scrum is a result of the injury to Jacques du Plessis.
Pollard missed the Lions clash due to his Junior Springbok commitments in New Zealand and returns to start at number 10. Jacques-Louis Potgieter moves to the bench in place of Louis Fouché.
Keven Mealamu will become the first player to reach the remarkable milestone of 150 games for the Blues when he runs out to face the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday night.
The talismanic hooker has already racked up 160 Super Rugby appearances including his season with the Chiefs in 2000, but will play his 150th game for the Blues against the Red and Blacks.
The All Blacks centurion is only two matches away from equalling the record held by Nathan Sharpe for the most Super Rugby appearances (162), and is second only to Colin Meads in first class games after playing his 350th match against the Force on Saturday.
Nick Cummins
The Force will be aiming to climb back into the top six when they take on the Reds in the final regular season match at nib Stadium on Saturday.
The Western Australians will welcome Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins back on to the left wing after he missed last weekend’s match with a neck complaint suffered during the Wallabies’ three-Test series against France.
Cummins will man the wings with Dane Haylett-Petty, while Jayden Hayward completes back three with the fullback scoring the match-winning try in the Force’s 32-29 win over the Reds in Brisbane in Round 8.
The Force will feature a new halves pairing of Ian Prior and Zack Holmes, while Alby Mathewson (hip) and Sias Ebersohn (bicep) have been ruled out through injury. Prior has already started in six of his 12 appearances for the Force this season, while Holmes earns his third opportunity in the run-on side.
Samu Kerevi
Reds centre Samu Kerevi will make his run-on debut in one of three changes to the starting team ahead of this weekend’s clash against the Force in Perth.
A continuation of the Reds’ horror run of injuries has forced all three changes, with last week’s starters Greg Holmes (knee), Dom Shipperley (ankle) and Anthony Fainga’a (calf) all ruled out of this week’s match.
Kerevi will start at outside centre, with Ben Tapuai shifting to inside. Ben Daley returns to the starting lineup at loosehead prop, with James Slipper shifting to tighthead, after Holmes was ruled out of this weekend’s match due to a knee complaint. Lachie Turner will start on the wing in place of Shipperley, who suffered a season-ending fracture-dislocation of his ankle last weekend.
The Reds are also without the services of Quade Cooper (shoulder/hip), Will Genia (ankle), Chris Feauai-Sautia (shoulder), Aidan Toua (pectoral), Eddie Quirk (knee) and Liam Gill (Australian Sevens duties). In all, there are currently seven players with Wallabies experience unavailable for selection.
Jamie Joseph
Highlanders’ head coach Jamie Joseph has named his team to take on the current Super Rugby leaders, the Waratahs in Sydney on Sunday afternoon.
The team is unchanged from the side that defeated the Chiefs 29-25 in an exhilarating match at Forsyth Barr Stadium last Friday.
With only two games to go in the regular season, the Highlanders currently sit fourth overall with the same points as the Crusaders in third (42).
Kieran Read
Dan Carter
Israel Dagg
Nemani Nadolo
Kieran Read, Dan Carter, Israel Dagg and Nemani Nadolo all return to the starting line-up for the Crusaders this weekend when they take on the Blues at AMI Stadium.
They are four of six new faces in the starting 15.
In the forwards, Ben Funnell and Owen Franks have taken starting spots in place of Corey Flynn and Nepo Laulala, who will be ready to inject some energy off the bench.
Hugh Pyle
Rebels head coach Tony McGahan has made four changes to the starting line-up from last weekend’s 36-20 loss to the Reds, as the Rebels look for the first win on foreign soil against the Lions in Johannesburg this weekend.
Foundation Rebel Hugh Pyle returns to the starting lineup as one of three changes to the forward pack, with the recently re-signed Shota Horie and Scott Fuglistaller also injected into the contest from the outset.
In the backs, Tom Kingston comes in to the wing, while young fullback Jack Debreczeni and flyhalf Bryce Hegarty will share the initial place kicking duties with Jason Woodward on the bench.
Considering the amount of Toyota Cheetahs that are leaving for greener pastures, Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash against the Cell C Sharks may be the last time that their fans may see them in their orange and white strip before joining new teams.
And since it is their last home Super Rugby game of the season, coach Naka Drotske has included all his stars for the clash to try and score a win against in the local derby.
No less than eight Springboks are back in action for the team after spending the last month with the Springboks and Trevor Nyakane, captain Adriaan Strauss, prop Coenie Oosthuizen, lock Lood de Jager, utility forward Teboho Mohoke, flyhalf Johan Goosen, wing Cornal Hendricks and fullback Willie le Roux all return to the side for the clash.
The Chiefs have announced their team to play the Hurricanes at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton this Friday.
Friday’s encounter is expected to be the Chiefs last home game for the season and will mark the official farewell for Chiefs players, Tanerau Latimer, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Bundee Aki and Mils Muliaina who are all heading off-shore to continue their careers.
Changes to the side will see Jamie Mackintosh starting at prop, Tawera Kerr-Barlow at scrumhalf and Charlie Ngatai and Tim Nanai-Williams in the midfield.
Asaeli Tikoirotuma and James Lowe start on the wings with Tom Marshall at fullback.
An injury crisis at hooker means Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett was unable to finalise his team for their crunch encounter with the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday.
The men in black and yellow will be doing all they can to claim victory at the Waikato Stadium, as it will be the last round-robin match of the Super Rugby season for the fifth-placed franchise.
Who occupies the No.2 jersey remains to be seen – with team management continuing to monitor the injuries of Dane Coles, Ash Dixon and Motu Matu’u throughout the remainder of the week.
Injuries to Alapati Leiua and Victor Vito in last Saturday’s bruising win over the Crusaders means they have made way for Hadleigh Parkes to start at inside centre, while Brad Shields moves to the back of the scrum.
Handré Pollard
Handre Pollard is not your typical Bulls flyhalf and when he is in control, the Bulls become a different creature all together.
Pollard has enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom culminating in a starting No 10 spot for the Springboks against Scotland on the weekend.
Now, as he returns to Pretoria to get ready for his first senior match in his home province at Newlands, against the Stormers, Pollard is already causing a lot of head-scratching in the Cape.
The Bulls have always been a powerful yet predictable side, especially when it comes to the flyhalf’s role.
Burger Geldenhuys
Former Springbok and Bulls loose forward Burger Geldenhuys fears the Pretoria side may struggle at the breakdowns against the Stormers at Newlands this weekend.
With Jacques du Plessis out with a broken jaw, and Deon Stegmann still sidelined with a groin injury, the Bulls will tackle the Stormers with a slightly make-shift loose trio.
Grant Hattingh, Jacques Engelbrecht and Jono Ross are likely to have their hands full on the ground. None of them are renowned for being great ball fetchers.
Do the business in Bloemfontein on Saturday night … then warm up the Sunday morning coffee smartly and become temporary Highlanders enthusiasts for 80 minutes.
Those ought to be key items on the Sharks’ to-do list this weekend as Super Rugby 2014 enters its penultimate round of ordinary-season play.
Director of rugby Jake White will be aware of the potential hazard of putting the cart before the horse, and drum into his charges that victory against the Cheetahs in a domestic derby is very much the main target.
But if they manage that, their attention will undoubtedly turn pretty smartly to a Sunday morning cracker (in SA time-zone terms, at 08:05) between the log-leading Waratahs and New Zealand-based playoffs challengers the Highlanders in Sydney.
Johan Ackermann
With only two matches left in the round-robin stage of the 2014 Super Rugby competition, the Lions will be looking to finish with a flourish to complete one of their best seasons.
Coach Johan Ackermann said on Tuesday his team would be looking to bow out of this year’s edition with seven victories but they would first have to move past their first challenge against the Rebels in Johannesburg on Friday.
“After the break, these two games are almost a campaign on its own and in rugby you only get remembered for the last game you played,” Ackermann said at the team announcement on Tuesday.
“And if we don’t do well in the last two games, the Super Rugby season will be remembered as not being too good. The opposite side of the coin is that if we win the games, we can look back on a good season with a few mistakes.”
Anton Bresler
Sharks lock Anton Bresler has signed a three-year deal with Scottish side, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, who are coached by South African Alan Solomons, announced the news via their official website on Wednesday.
Bresler, who has played 39 Super Rugby games for the Sharks, will join his new team after the completion of this year’s Super Rugby competition.
Angus Cottrell
The Force has received a boost in the lead-in to Saturday’s match against the Reds with flanker Angus Cottrell re-committing to the club for another two years.
The gritty back-rower started in all but one match for the Force this season before suffering a broken ankle against the Crusaders last month.
The 24-year-old has formed a powerful back-row combination with Wallabies Matt Hodgson and Ben McCalman this season, both of whom are signed until the end of 2015.
Beauden Barrett
All Black Beauden Barrett may be in the market, but he is definitely not on the Blues’ wishlist.
Barrett revealed that he is likely to resolves the issues around his future next week, when the Hurricanes have a bye.
However, he should be expecting a call from Blues coach John Kirwan, who said he would be looking internally for a flyhalf.
It followed speculation the Hurricanes playmaker, Barrett, could be moving to Auckland.
Shota Horie
Japanese hooker Shota Horie has signed a new one-year deal with Super Rugby side Melbourne Rebels that will take him through to the Rugby World Cup next year, the club said on Wednesday.
Horie, the first Japanese player to play Super Rugby in Australia, has made 17 appearances for the team and scored his first try in April.
The 28-year-old, aiming to play his second Rugby World Cup in England in 2015, said he was happy to remain in Melbourne after welcoming baby Yoshino to his family a month ago.
Schalk Burger
Schalk Burger returns to the DHL Stormers line up as captain for this weekend’s match against the Bulls in Cape Town.
Burger who was in fine form for the Springboks in the June test series returns after missing the Stormers last game through injury. Springbok Sevens star Seabelo Senatla comes into the match day 22 for what looks to be his Super Rugby debut for the Cape based franchise. Senatla gets the nod due to Kobus Van Wyk not being available through injury.
Injuries have necessitated some positional shifts with Sailosi Tagicakibau lining up in the 13 jersey and Juan De Jongh will play at 12 in the absence of injured Bok newcomer Damian De Allende.
The South African Conference resumes this weekend in Round 18, after watching the Australian and New Zealand franchises in action which ensured that there is likely to be only one team from the Republic in the finals.
The Sharks, long guaranteed the South African Conference, will finish in the top three while two more victories will ensure that Jake White’s team finish in the top two position and lock up a home Semi Final.
The Bulls still have an outside chance of reaching the Finals Series, but their hopes were dealt a blow with a 32-21 loss to the Lions before the June break.
The Stormers have become one of the premier spoilers in Super Rugby so far, while the Lions and Cheetahs have likely already begun planning for the Currie Cup and 2015 season.
Stephen Hoiles
Waratahs coach Michael Cheika named experienced loose forward Stephen Hoiles in the place of injured flank Dave Dennis for this Sunday’s Super Rugby crunch encounter with the Highlanders.
It is the Waratahs’ final home match of the season and they head into home stretch without their regular captain, Dennis, who was ruled out for the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Michael Hooper takes over the captaincy armband.
After the Waratahs dominated the set piece against the Brumbies, there are no other changes up front.
Allister Coetzee
DHL Stormers coach Allister Coetzee adopted a different approach to his former Springbok management colleague Jake White during the break from Vodacom Super Rugby for the June internationals.
While White had his Cell C Sharks players play club rugby in the last weeks of the break so they don’t hit the remaining phase of the season cold, Coetzee’s players haven’t played in any matches since the win over the Sharks in Durban on the last day of May. The only players to see action in June were the Springboks.
However, the Stormers shouldn’t expect to take any cobwebs into Saturday’s big derby match against the Vodacom Bulls at Newlands as in the two weeks back in training after the taking the first two weeks off, the Stormers have been steadily upping the intensity in training.
Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg
Roelof Smit
The Vodacom Bulls are set to hand Super Rugby debuts to two young players this weekend when they head to Cape Town for their Vodacom Super Rugby match against the DHL Stormers at Newlands.
Both SA Under 20 lock Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg and Tuks flank Roelof Smit are likely to be among the reserves as the Bulls look to patch up the cracks left by injuries after a long and arduos Super Rugby season.
And there will be no rest for the weary. As predicted the Bulls will use all their Springboks for the game which they need to win with a bonus point to continue their mathematical hope of making the playoffs.
Heinrich Brussow
The Cheetahs will not able to call on the services of Heinrich Brüssow for their Super Rugby clash against the Sharks in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Coach Naka Drotské said that the loose forward is still struggling with a groin injury and won’t be risked for the game.
Philip van der Walt (hand) and Jean Cook (shoulder) are ready for action again, while Oupa Mohoje has also returned from the Springboks.
Patrick Lambie
The Cell C Sharks will return to Vodacom Super Rugby action this coming weekend one position lower on the log than they were when they went into the June break, but there is plenty of reason for them to be optimistic about their chances of going all the way to the title.
While the Sharks were out on their feet when the June international window arrived, as evidenced by their lame performance in the narrow home loss to the DHL Stormers, the break may have come at just the right time for them. During the off period they have welcomed Patrick Lambie and Anton Bresler back to training, while Jean Deysel is now over his suspension that was incurred for the stomping incident that saw him being sent off against the Crusaders in Christchurch.
Willem Alberts, one of the players who was looking tired before the break, had the week off from international duty last weekend because of the concussion that forced him off the field in the second test against Wales. He should be relatively refreshed when he does return, be it this week against the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein or next week against the Stormers in Cape Town.
From bidding for an unprecedented hat-trick of Super Rugby titles to merely keeping their dwindling playoffs hopes alive, the once-mighty Waikato Chiefs’ decline has been as rapid as it has been puzzling.
Bottom of the New Zealand conference and ninth overall, the Chiefs could see their title defence end in front of home fans in Hamilton on Friday when they take on a ravenous Hurricanes side who humiliated them 45-8 in May.
Having lost four of their last six games, the Chiefs’ struggles have underlined the strength of New Zealand rugby, with all five of the conference’s teams still in contention for the post-season with two rounds to play.
The Rebels have departed for South Africa, home for the final two weeks of their 2014 Super Rugby campaign.
Clashes against the Lions in Johannesburg, and the Bulls in Pretoria, will bring the curtain down on the Rebels season.
The Rebels have never won in South Africa, coming agonisingly close in bonus point defeats to the Lions and Stormers in 2012, and are determined to finish the season on a high following three consecutive disappointing defeats.
Adriaan Strauss
The Vodacom Bulls could have snapped up the signing of the year locally as Springbok hooker and Toyota Cheetahs captain Adriaan Strauss looks set to be heading back to Pretoria.
Strauss is yet to sign the contract, and the Bulls could only open negotiations with him today – 1 July – but sources close to the Cheetahs camp have confirmed that Strauss has already said no to a contract extension with his province and now seems set on returning to Pretoria.
The Grey College graduate, who played his junior rugby in Pretoria and made his Vodacom Super Rugby debut there as well, before returning to the Cheetahs is being chased as well by the Stormers, who also have made a big money offer to sign him.
But it seems the Bulls have won the race, with indications that the deal could be finalised this week already and that Strauss will be a possible captain for the Bulls in next year’s Super Rugby series.