Jonathan Kaplan is not stopping refereeing, something he has done for 30 seasons and at which he has had magnificent achievements but he will no longer be refereeing Test or provincial matches. We are publishing tributes.
David Maidza, who coached the Eastern Province Kings’ Vodacom Cup and First Division Currie Cup teams this year, will officially join the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University rugby coaching staff from January.
Maidza has already been assisting with the training of the Varsity Cup Madibaz at NMMU since mid November, but will officially take up the position of head coach next year, replacing Brent Janse van Rensburg.
Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Jake White has given an enthusiastic thumbs-up to his team’s Super Rugby draw for 2014 as he looks to build on the Absa Currie Cup successes.
Whilst the euphoria of being crowned Absa Currie Cup Champs back in October may have died down, there is no denying the value that winning the trophy does for a team. Just like losing is a habit, so success breeds further success and White will be hoping that the players continue to enjoy the winning feeling as they chase a maiden Vodacom Super Rugby crown.
A big squad of players – including eight of the 2014 WP Rugby Institute intake – have been put through their paces in recent weeks under the watchful eyes of the senior coaching staff and, of course, Stephan du Toit (the DHL Stormers’ head of strength and conditioning).
Now, the players will take a deserved break – officially termed a “maintenance phase of conditioning” – before reconvening on Tuesday 7 January 2014.
Samoa rugby legend Brian Lima faces criminal charges after allegedly assaulting his ex-wife in public last week, leaving her with serious facial injuries, reports said on Thursday.
Wallabies lock Dean Mumm has admitted it was an “easy decision” to extend his stay with Exeter Chiefs for a further two years.
Signed from the Waratahs ahead of the 2011/12 season, the vastly experienced Australian international has proven an instant hit at Sandy Park, both on and off the field.
Northampton have been fined £60,000 by a Premiership Rugby disciplinary panel for letting wing George North play for Wales against Australia on 30 November. The match, which Wales lost 30-26, took place outside of the International Rugby Board’s autumn window.
In 2013 the whole Lions side did not take part in Super Rugby, however some of their frontline players were out on loan with other South African Super Rugby franchises. In addition a number of South African players were injured for most of, if not all, of Super Rugby in 2013, whereas some seasoned campaigners did not take part in the Currie Cup, due to injury.
Amongst the Stormers, we can look forward to seeing Schalk Burger, Peter Grant and Jaco Taute back in Super Rugby, whilst Demetri Catrakilis will be determined to make his switch from the Southern Kings to the Stormers, a memorable one.
Amongst the Sharks there will be a total rebirth in the coaching and administrative setup, with John Smit now the CEO of the Sharks, Jake White the Head Coach and Director Of Rugby and a totally changed coaching formula, having replaced John Plumtree. Then there is also the return to Super Rugby of Frans Steyn (who was in France in the 2013 Super Rugby season) and maybe Ryan Kankowski will be back as well. In addition there is the addition of some Southern Kings imports, like SP Marais and Justin Downey and if rumours could be believed, even the possible addition of Luke Watson.
At the Bulls we will see the return to the field of Pierre Spies, Arno Botha, Deon Stegmann, Francois Hougaard, Louis Fouché as well as a possibility that Victor Matfield and Derick Hougaard could make their return to Super Rugby. In addition Bandise Maku, Vleis Engelbrecht and David Bullbring were added with their migration from the Southern Kings.
The Cheetahs will have Johan Goosen back at pivot and the luxury of some astute buys from elsewhere in South Africa. They will have the services of Heinrich Brüssow back at openside and their whole squad will be richer for the experience they garnered in 2013.
Utility back Ronnie Cooke walked away with three top awards at the Eastern Province rugby year-end awards function.
Aside from being elected as the Player of the Year for 2013, Cooke was voted as the Players Player of the Year by his teammates, and was also elected the Most Valuable Player of the Year by team management.
The Blues’ Rugby League convert Benji Marshall is counting on the guidance of Graham Henry as he prepares for his first Super Rugby season.
The World Cup-winning All Blacks coach is now a technical adviser with the Blues, and Marshall said that he has been a valuable sounding board in pre-season.
French rugby is currently full of news regarding player movements and player contract offers and extentions.
Toulouse has offered South African prop, Schalk Ferreira a 3-Tear extention to his current deal after some outstanding performances by him. Toulon has extended Deon Armitage’s contract for 2 years whilst Maxime Mermoz has signed on till 2017. After some speculation about Jonny Wilkinson’s possible retirement, it appears he might want to continue on at Toulon for another year.
Tommaso Allan, Italian international flyhalf, has also won him a contract extention with Perpignan.
The IRFU and Ulster Rugby are pleased to announce that Rory Best has signed a new two-year Irish contract. The deal will run until June 2016.
It is mid December 2013, 14 days till we welcome the new year.
Tell us about your holiday plans and / or your plans for the Festive season, coming up!
Rugby-Talk’s holiday plans and Festive season plans include keeping you up to date on the doings and screwings in the rugby world, but we acknowledge that Southern Hemisphere rugby news is in short supply.
In light of the above we’ll also focus on a bit of cricket in the lean times and most importantly we’ll start this week with detailed discussions on the SQUAD MEMBERS of the different South African Super Rugby sides for 2014. For each player position we’ll have a seperate article for each franchise, for instance there will be 5 seperate articles discussing the props, same with hookers, locks, looseforwards, scrumhalves, flyhalves, midfield & back 3. That equates to 10 new Super Rugby articles a week for 4 weeks, thus 40 new Super Rugby articles in total to feast on.
Warren Gatland has extended his contract as Wales coach until the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
This is the second extension of the contract between the WRU and the New Zealander who was originally appointed as head coach of Wales in 2007.
Former Wallabies and Waratahs hooker John Ulugia has agreed to play Top 14 Rugby next season for Clermont.
Wales and British and Irish Lions hooker Richard Hibbard is the latest player to leave Wales after signing for Gloucester.
The British & Irish Lions of 2013 were named team of the year and Warren Gatland won the top coach honour at the 2013 BBC Sports Personality awards. Kiwi Gatland, 50, led the Lions to their first Test series win in Australia for 16 years.
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie is not concerned by the possibility that the Waratahs may play Israel Folau at centre next year.
Former All Black Sonny Bill Williams has been stripped of his professional boxing belts after the dual code rugby international failed to defend his world and New Zealand heavyweight titles.
Gloucester (7) 10 / 16 (9) Edinburgh (Final Score)
Gloucester and Edinburgh did battle in the Heineken Cup at
Kingsholm at 17:00 SA Time (15:00 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
*******************
Harlequins (14) 17 / 3 (0) Racing Metro (Final Score)
harlequins and Racing Metro did battle in the Heineken Cup at
Twickenham Stoop at 14:45 SA Time (12:45 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
*******************
Leinster (3) 9 / 18 (7) Northampton (Final Score)
Leinster and Northampton Saints did battle in the Heineken Cup at
Aviva Stadium, Dublin at 20:00 SA Time (18:00 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 8 on TV in SA.
*******************
Perpignan (9) 17 / 18 (3) Munster (Final Score)
Perpicnan and Munster did battle in the Heineken Cup at
Stade Aime Giral at 17:40 SA Time (15:40 GMT, 16:40 France Time).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
*******************
Toulon (15) 32 / 20 (10) Exeter (Final score)
Toulon and Exeter Chiefs did battle in the Heineken Cup at
Stade Felix Mayol, at 15:35 SA Time (14:35 France Time, 13:35 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 8, SH8 on TV in SA.
*******************
The exodus in Port Elizabeth continues with confirmation that Southern Kings coach Matt Sexton will leave the union and return to New Zealand this month.
Sexton, who joined the union in June 2012 to assist them in their preparations for their entry into Super Rugby, has decided to return home for personal reasons.
The Vodacom Bulls named a squad of 37 players to assemble in early January in Pretoria for a training camp to be held at Sun City during the weekend of 10-12 January 2014.
The squad was named after three weeks of pre-season training at Loftus Versfeld in preparation of next year’s Vodacom Super Rugby season.
SANZAR are hoping to finalise their plans for the restructuring of Super Rugby early in the new year, with local derbies shaping up as a bone of contention.
With the current broadcast deal expiring at the end of next season, speculation is rife about the form that Super Rugby will take in 2016 and beyond.
The partnership between the Golden Lions Rugby Union and MTN South Africa came to an end as of Friday 13 December 2013, with the company opting not to renew their sponsorship of the GLRU teams.
After a fruitful three-year relationship, the telecommunications giant have chosen to realign their sponsorship portfolio and will no longer sponsor a rugby outfit.
All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter will have surgery to remove bone spurs from his right ankle, which is a separate issue from his Achilles injury.
The proposed exhibition match between Super Rugby champions the Chiefs and European Cup champions Toulon will not take place this season.
The Chiefs released their pre-season schedule on Friday, which sees them face the Reds and the Blues and not Toulon after both teams failed to get clearance from their national bodies.
Ireland prop Cian Healy looks set to miss the start of next year’s Six Nations tournament after undergoing surgery on an ankle injury.
New Zealand international lock Ali Williams said on Thursday he is on the verge of prolonging his stay at European champions Toulon beyond the end of this season.
A Scottish international rugby player has appeared in court charged with assaulting another player in Glasgow’s west end.
The Irish teams will be looking to back up their clean sweep last week when the second half of the European Cup double-headers get underway this weekend.
All four Irish provinces were on the winning side last week, and the challenge now is for them to repeat the feat against the same opposition at different venues in Round Four.
Bryan Habana’s thigh strain has proved more serious than initially thought and will require surgery which will rule him out for two months.