France (16) 26 / 24 (8) England (Final Score)
France and England did battle in the Six Nations tournamnt at
Stade de France, Paris at 19:00 SA Time (18:00 France Time, 17:00 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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Wales (17) 23 / 15 (3) Italy (Final Score)
Wales and Italy did battle in the Six Nations tournament at
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff at 16:30 SA Time (14:30 GMT, 15:30 Italian Time).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1 & SHD on TV in SA.
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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.
Springbok wing JP Pietersen made a big impact when he came on as a substitute for the Panasonic Wild Knights in their Japanese league semi-final on Saturday.
Panasonic thrashed the Toshiba Brave Lupus 55-15 to book their spot in the final.
The 2014 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International kicks off on Monday, giving fans their first taste of the new double referee system.
With the new prop jerseys and the ‘Free Catch’ rule enjoying successful debuts in the opening round of Varsity Shield action last week; all eyes will be on the innovation of having two whistlemen on the pitch in the Varsity Cup this season.
Aside from the new law innovations five of the eight teams are being guided by new coaches this season, giving the tournament an even ‘fresher’ feel this year.
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.
Three games are played on the weekend of 1 & 2 February 2014 in the start of the 2014 RBS Six Nations tournament.
On Saturday it’s Wales vs Italy at 16:30 SA Time (14:30 GMT) at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and thereafter it’s France vs England at 19:00 SA Time (18:00 Fr Time, 17:00 GMT) at Stade de France, Paris.
On Sunday it’s Ireland vs Scotland at 17:00 SA Time (15:00 GMT) at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.
ALL THREE MATCHES are broadcast on TV in South Africa and ALL THREE matches will have their LIVE GAME ARTICLES here on Rugby-Talk.
The Six Nations is the prime International Test tournament in the Northern Hemisphere and is a short and powerful competition where each team plays the other 5 sides only once. The winner of the tournament is decided on Log Points at the end of the tournament.
Wales are defending champions, in fact they are double defending champions and will try to make 2014 their hat trick season.
In 2013 France had a nighmare season, ending with the wooden spoon.
It is 2 weeks prior to the kick off of 2 brand new Rugby Tournaments and just less than a month away from kick off of the 3rd Tournament – Super Rugby.
We will have SuperBru Widgets up in the Righthand sidebar for these 3 Pools, for easy access to make your PICKS, go to the POOLS and see an abbreviated version of the LOG in each pool (Top 10).
Rugby-Talk SuperBru pools are open to all REGISTERED RUGBY-TALK SUBSCRIBERS, so if you are not yet registered, get clicking man!
As is the custom and the excitement, Rugby-Talk will be taking part in rugby competitions on SuperBru in 2014 again, but at the end of last year we took it a step further, we also formed our own SuperBru Club, the Rugby-Talk.com Club. The Club gives us an added and combined interface, where messages are posted in the “Social Room”, where the current Rugby-Talk Bru Pools are detailed in the “Games Room”, where members are tabled in the “Members Wall” and where medal standings and tables are displayed in the “Trophy Room”.
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The details are as follows:
England team director Andy Flower has left his role following the 5-0 Ashes whitewash by Australia.
Appointed in 2009, Flower led England to three successive Ashes series victories but has paid the price for their disastrous showing down under.
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.
It may be the newest rivalry in Super Rugby, but they don’t get much more appetizing and entertaining than the Southern Kings against the Lions.
We can thank the South African Rugby Union and its bungling for creating this delectable showdown for us.
South African referees boss André Watson says two referees on the field is the way forward for world rugby.
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.
Scotland A are scheduled to play against England Saxons on Friday night (31 January) at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow and will be looking at getting their third victory in a row against the Saxons. Kick off is at 21:30 SA Time (19:30 GMT). The game will be broadcast live on Scottish Rugby’s Youtube channel.
International Rugby Board (IRB) chairman Bernard Lapasset has spoken out against the “increase” in public criticism of referees ahead of the start of this season’s Six Nations.
Rugby Union, in common with many sports, has long set great store by respect for match officials.
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.
Dr. Sherylle Calder, the world-renowned Visual Skills and Performance Specialist joins the Cell C Sharks as a consultant, on a two-year contract, effective immediately.
Corné Steenkamp has put his retirement on hold and will lead the Pumas in a pre-season friendly against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Steenkamp initially announced last year that he would call it a day after almost 150 first class game for the Pumas.
Mention of the fact France have won the Five or Six Nations every year after a British and Irish Lions tour in the professional era can elicit deep consideration, confusion or shrugs, depending on who you mention it to.
That’s the thing about history, it can be interpreted in different ways. Or ignored. Or forgotten. Or remembered and its significance disregarded.
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.
Jake White has, repeatedly in the past, taken teams from the doldrums to the top of their game.
He took the South African Under-21 from being no-hopers to winning a world title, the Springboks from ranked sixth in the world to No.1 and winning a World Cup, and more recently he took the Brumbies from finishing 13th out of 15 teams in 2011 to finalists last year.
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.
Reds and Wallabies flyhalf, Quade Cooper has done it, he has won his 2nd boxing fight by defeating former cage fighter, Warren Tressider, on Wednesday with a TKO in the 4th and last round of their fight.