All Black captain Richie McCaw may be moved around by the Crusaders this season, according to coach Todd Blackadder.
It appears Matt Todd is the preferred choice at No 7 for the Crusaders and when he returns from a chest injury next month, McCaw may well be wearing another number on his back.
All Black Brad Thorn is “helping” with the conditioning of the Highlanders and may turn to coaching.
Hurricanes head coach Mark Hammett has named his 27-man team to face the Blues in Masterton this Saturday.
Scotland have made four changes to their starting XV and a further positional switch in their team to open the 2014 RBS 6 Nations Championship away to Ireland on Sunday.
The Vodacom Bulls have announced both their sides to face the Golden Lions in the curtain raiser and the DHL Stormers in the main game on Saturday in Polokwane.
The DHL Stormers have also announced their side to face the Vodacom Bulls in the main game.
The Springboks are likely to play a game against a World XV at Cape Town Stadium later this year.
According to reports, the game is due to be played on 7 June 2014.
Former New Zealand international flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens has joined the Waratahs coaching staff as a specialist kicking coach, the team said on Wednesday.
The Super Rugby warm-up match between the Vodacom Bulls and DHL Stormers on Saturday in Polokwane won’t be broadcast on TV, as confirmed by SuperSport.
The Western Force will break new ground in Super Rugby sponsorship with the Western Australian club to feature individual partners on its playing jerseys for the 2014 season.
Ma’a Nonu admitted that the Blues fans may not embrace him after his highly publicised walk-out on the franchise in 2012.
The return to action of the veteran midfielder, who re-joined the Blues squad this week along with the rest of the All Blacks, will be delayed by an injury.
The 2014 RBS Six Nations tournament kicks off this weekend with current holders Wales hosting Italy on Saturday, while England travel to Paris to play France on the same day. The final fixture of the weekend sees Scotland playing against Ireland in Dublin.
The senior mens Six Nations tournament attracts most of the attention but let us not forget that the women and juniors (under 20s) also take part in their section of the competition. Ireland won the womens tournament last year while England are the current holders of the U20s title.
Wing Chris Ashton and scrum-half Ben Youngs have been left out of England’s opening Six Nations match in France. Uncapped Exeter wing Jack Nowell is in a 26-man squad along with Gloucester’s Jonny May, who has one cap.
Alun Wyn Jones will captain defending champions Wales in their Six Nations opener against Italy on Saturday, with Sam Warburton on the bench, the Welsh Rugby Union announced on Tuesday.
Southern Kings coach Robbi Kempson is hoping the experience and bulk of prop Charl du Plessis will help their scrumming performance when they take on the Lions in a Super Rugby warm-up match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday (kick-off 17:00).
In their opening friendly against the Cheetahs last week, which the Kings lost 36-21, Kempson was not impressed with the pressure placed on the home forwards and was planning for a better showing against the Lions.
Scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius is back and will play in the Cheetahs’ pre-season game against the Pumas in Parys on Saturday, according to reports.
A Special General Council Meeting to discuss the restructuring of the Currie Cup has been postponed, the SA Rugby Union (SARU) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The meeting, scheduled to be held in Cape Town on Friday, has been moved to 13 February.
Kurtley Beale is eager to prove a point against the Melbourne Rebels in a Super Rugby pre-season match on Saturday, but it has nothing to do with getting one over the club who released him.
With Israel Folau all but guaranteed to line up at fullback for the Waratahs in round one of Super Rugby, Beale and Bernard Foley have been left to fight it out for the flyhalf position.
Rebels centre Tom English says that the Melbourne Super Rugby franchise will be more focused on defence in 2014 instead of the “razzle dazzle”.
The Rebels have always had a good attacking game but their weakness has been in their defence which has let tries slip through.
This weekend sees the only Vodacom Bulls warm-up fixture in preparation for Super Rugby in 2014. The Bulls play the DHL Stormers in Polokwane.
In an interesting twist, the Bulls will also use the curtain raiser game between the Vodacom Blue Bulls and Golden Lions as part of their Super Rugby preparations, with a strong side which closely resmbles their Currie Cup side, to face the 2nd string Golden Lions outfit. This Bulls side will include the likes of Piet van Zyl at scrumhalf, Handré Pollard at flyhalf and a number of Bulls players who will see enough Super Rugby time in 2014.
The Stormers have announced a 26-man squad which will travel up to Polokwane to face the Bulls in a Super Rugby warm-up fixture on the weekend.
In addition it appears that the Stormers are still open to contract a ‘Big Wing’ to alleviate their shortcomings and lack of size and stature of their current back three.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann will bring out most of his big guns for their second Super Rugby pre-season outing.
The Lions, who return to Super Rugby in 2014 after sitting out last year, head to Port Elizabeth where they will face the Southern Kings on Saturday.
The Boland Rugby Union and Western Province Rugby Football Union have announced a brand new club rugby competition, the Community Challenge Club Rugby Competition.
A total of eight clubs – four clubs each from the Boland and Western Province premier leagues – will form part of the inaugural Community Challenge, which kicks off on March 1, 2014. The finals will take place on March 29, 2014.
David Pocock will make his return from injury when he leads the Brumbies in their pre-season clash with the Highlanders in Queenstown this weekend.
Highlanders’ head coach, Jamie Joseph, has named an inexperienced starting XV to play the Brumbies at Queenstown Recreation Ground on Friday.
Seven players in the starting XV will pull on the Highlanders jersey for the first time, namely; Craig Millar, Gareth Evans, Lee Allan, Tom Franklin, Richard Buckman, Winston Stanley and Patrick Osborne.
He may have a long way to go, but former Rugby League star Benji Marshall has set his sights on eventually playing for the All Blacks.
The talented new Blues recruit is set to take his first steps on that journey when the Auckland franchise face the Hurricanes in a pre-season friendly this weekend, but he has made it clear that the ultimate goal is to play Test rugby for New Zealand.
French Top 14 club Perpignan are reportedly hunting the services of retired Springbok flyhalf Butch James and possibly Gary van Aswegen of the Stormers.
Is’nt this just special!
Took these photos yesterday (Sunday 26 January) of our visit to Jugomaro Predator Park a little distance out of Groblersdal, on the way to Marblehall.
Go into the article to view the pictures!
The DHL Stormers look set to play without a few of their players in the warm-up game in Polokwane (Pietersburg) this weekend, due to injury.
Brok Harris, Manuel Carizza, Jaco Taute and De Kock Steenkamp are not available to play on the weekend.
As the Super Rugby season draws nearer, the teams will be trying to get their injury lists as short as possible, to go into Super Rugby with real war machines.
At the Bulls it was last weak feared and speculated that the Bulls would go into the Stormers warm-up with 3 key players not available. That fear is now eased with the news that only one player, Morné Mellet, won’t be ready to play on the weekend.
The Bulls also expressed their confidence in their all-round props after last year’s Super Rugby season saw them struggle in the scrums at times.
Hurricanes wing and centre Alapati Leiua is believed to have signed a three year deal with London Wasps that will see him moving to England after the Super Rugby season.
The cash-strapped Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) on Monday sacked coach Inoke Male in a money-saving move less than a month before they start their defence of the Pacific Rugby Cup.
South Africa defended their Las Vegas Sevens successfully when they defeated New Zealand 14-7 in another dramatic and tense Cup final between the two rugby rivals in the early hours of Monday morning (SA time).
The teams were tied 7-all at halftime after Scott Curry had opened the scoring for New Zealand and Branco du Preez replied for the Springbok Sevens.
Sharks wing Lwazi Mvovo says the injury he sustained against Saracens is not as serious as initially feared.
Saracens lock Mouritz Botha praised his side’s “brilliant performance” after his man of the match performance in the 23-15 win over the Sharks in atrocious conditions at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
New Zealand were dealt a big blow ahead of their home leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.
The Kiwis, who lost to South Africa in the Cup Final at the Las Vegas leg at the weekend, will be without the services of Sam Dickson, who was handed a nine-game ban for eye-gouging in their final pool match against Fiji.