The 3rd Article in the set discussing the Vodacom Bulls.
In this Article we look at the contenders for LOCKS in the Vodacom Bulls 2013 Super Rugby group, and what their worth will be in Super Rugby terms.
South Africa and New Zealand did battle in the 3rd T20 International at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth at 14:30 SA Time on Wednesday 26 December 2012.
This was the Live Game Article for the match.
South Africa posted a mighty 179 / 6 in their allotted 20 overs.
New Zealand started the chase well but after Martin Guptill and Brendan McCullum departed, it was all over bar the shouting.
South Africa won comfortably, by 33 runs and with only 1 New Zealand wicket left standing.
In this Article we look at the contenders for LOCKS at the Sharks 2013 Super Rugby group.
At Lock the Sharks have had their fair share of worries this past year, none more so than the semi-final and final of the Currie Cup 2012.
Anton Bresler and Jandre Marais along with Steven Sykes were the frontline jumpers but there always seemed to be something missing, and although the Sharks made both the Super Rugby and Currie Cup Finals, one glaring aspect of their play that at times was very troublesome was the poor line-outs.
This was due, one can assume, to various issues such as injuries to key players at critical stages of the season as well as just poor play.
The season of 2013 will see the Sharks with the same young locks accept for two changes – Steven Sykes has signed for the Kings and is returning to his family farm (Steven was a great servant to Natal rugby and will no doubt be sorely missed) and on loan to the Sharks for the Super Rugby season 2013 is Franco van der Merwe, who no doubt with his experience can help fill that void and add some much needed experience.
Looking at the tall timber, in what has been a troublesome position for the Cheetahs in seasons past. With stalwarts like Barend Pieterse, Rory Duncan, Corniel van Zyl, Flip van der Merwe, David de Villiers , Nico Breedt, and Wilhelm Steenkamp all leaving a void, so a new generation of locks has to be nurtured. With the more recent departures of George Earle, and Izak van der Westhuizens’s departure for colder pastures, a perception could exist, that the Cheetah class of 2013 could struggle in the second row. Well, maybe not!
South Africa and New Zealand did battle in the 2nd T20 International at Buffalo Park, East London at 18:00 SA Time on Sunday 23 December 2012.
This was the Live Game Article for the match.
After New Zealand won the toss again, they decided to field first.
South Africa set a wonderful total of 165 / 5 after 19 overs (match was reuced to 19 overs due to a power outage in the flodd lights). bad fielding by South Africa, shoddy bowling with a wet ball and a marvelous innings of 101 not out by Martin Guptill saw New zealand home off a 4 on the last ball.
Today we had 2 Aviva Premiership games on TV, and we had this Live Game Article… but with a difference.
We were more casual, giving updates whilst talking nonsense inbetween.
How’s that for a nice mix?
South Africa and New Zealand did battle in the 1st T20 International at Kingsmead, Durban at 18:00 SA Time on Friday 21 December 2012.
This was the Live Game Article for the match.
South Africa won with ease, with 7.5 overs to spare (47 balls). The South African bowlers did the trick, bowling the New Zealanders out for a poultry 86 runs in 18.2 overs. New Zealand took the 1st South African wicket without a single run on the board for South Africa, but Faf du Plessis and Davids steadied the ship, untill Davids perished on 20, leaving it to young Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis to finish the New Zealanders off in style.
The world’s best player, All Black flyhalf Dan Carter, is the latest target of the cash-flush French clubs.
Wallabies flanker and captain David Pocock has signed a new contract with the Australian Rugby Union for another three years ensuring that he will be available for Australia in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The wait is finally over for Sonny Bill Williams, with the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) informing the Sydney Roosters that the code-hopping superstar’s 2013 playing contract has been registered.
After their forays into Europe, this weekend sees the start of the festive derby fixtures for the Pro12 teams.
Ulster still lead the way with a perfect 10 out of 10 in this competition, a full nine points clear of their nearest rivals, Scarlets, and are one of three Irish Provinces currently in the play-off zone. They welcome Leinster to Ravenhill on Friday, a victory for the visitors would close the gap between themselves and the leaders to single figures, a loss could, put their own top four place into jeopardy.
The battle between the four frontrunners for pole position on the Premiership standings will heat up in this weekend’s Round 11 action.
So close is the title hunt that any of the Harlequins (33), Saracens (32), Northampton Saints (31) or Leicester Tigers (30) could top the standings at the conclusion of the weekend’s play.
The Sharks have launched their official Super Rugby jerseys for the 2013 season.
After a few weeks of Heineken Cup rugby this weekend seems the return to action in the major leagues in the form of the Aviva Premiership and the Rabbo Direct Pro12 as well as the French Top 14. Of particular interest in Scotland is the big derby match between Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh on Friday night in Glasgow.
The 2nd Article in the set discussing the Southern Kings.
In this Article we look at the contenders for HOOKERS in the Southern Kings 2013 Super Rugby group, and what their worth will be in Super Rugby terms.
The 2nd Article in the set discussing the Vodacom Bulls.
In this Article we look at the contenders for HOOKERS in the Vodacom Bulls 2013 Super Rugby group, and what their worth will be in Super Rugby terms.
Scott Johnson, Scotland’s senior assistant coach, will take on the role of interim head coach for the 2013 RBS 6 Nations Championship and the summer tour of South Africa.
In this Article we look at the contenders for HOOKER at the Sharks 2013 Super Rugby group.
The Sharks have pretty decent depth at Hooker where they would start with the Hooker that probably tops the world ratings in his position, and although he has just gone through major knee surgery is seems according to some reports that he should be ready to take his place in the starting line-up come mid March 2013.
This means he would miss the first two to three weeks of Super Rugby thus leaving a huge hole in the Sharks front row, but now open chance for either Craig Burden or Kyle Cooper to show their skills and if they can handle the pressures of Super Rugby as a starting Hooker.
AB de Villiers has pulled out of South Africa’s Twenty20 internationals at home against New Zealand in December, citing the need for extra rest before the Tests in January. Justin Ontong, the Cape Cobras captain, has been called into the squad.
Time to talk about the men in the middle. Although there is heaps of talent, and plenty of experience, they seem to be very thin on the ground, especially if Fourie does decide to migrate to the side of the scrum… or perhaps even further!
In this Article we look at the contenders for PROPS at the Sharks 2013 Super Rugby group.
The Sharks, although sitting pretty with the Springbok front row, still look vulnerable as the backup props, although steady for the most, have not been as dominating as the team would want.
This is specially the case at Loosehead where Dale Chadwick at times would stand his man and other times just fade into obscurity as he seems lack drive and passion. The Sharks could very well see one or two of the junior props coming through the ranks to fill that gap unless Dale really stands up.
At Tighthead things seem more settled as Wiehann Herbst has been solid in backup to Jannie Du Plessis, and young Nick Schonert is growing as a player and will no doubt have a good future.
Looking at the hooker position, the Cheetahs have had a fair bit of consistency over the last few seasons of Super rugby. As we look at the contenders, it will be more a case of who to select as back up for current Springbok vice captain, and current Cheetahs captain, Adriaan Strauss.
SANZAR announced their 18 referees for the 2013 Super Rugby season, the group of referees includes 5 new as well as the Argentinean Francisco Pastrana (who controlled his first Super Rugby match in 2012).
2012 Saw the Stormers topping the table in the round robin, only to lose out to the Sharks in the semi’s. 2013 Will be a big year for the boys. With almost the whole of the young 2012 squad still available and the coaching staff remaining unchanged (unlike the very disruptive 2012 start), this side has every chance of going all the way this year. Add to the squad the likes of Burger, Cilliers, Rhodes, Taute and Jantjies, depth in every position looks so much better.
In this Article we look at the contenders for PROPS at the Southern Kings 2013 Super Rugby group.
It is extremely difficult to pre-judge the Southern Kings and the performance we could expect from them, hell it is even difficult to get full player particulars of the players who are squad contenders in many instances, so here it goes.. warts and all.
Vodacom Bulls lock Juandrè Kruger did not extend his contract with the Blue Bulls Company (Pty) Ltd beyond the the 2013 Vodacom Super Rugby season and will leave the Vodacom Bulls to join up with French club Racing Metro 92.
In the first week of discussion of Super Rugby squad contenders (17 to 23 December), we will discuss 2 positions in seperate Articles (Props & Hookers) and also seperate the Articles of the 5 SA Super Rugby participating franchises.
That means 10 Super Rugby Articles every week from now on.
The basic idea is to discuss the players IN the Super Rugby Group, and not all the options beyond that.
In this Article we look at the contenders for PROPS in the Vodacom Bulls 2013 Super Rugby group, and whether they could force their way into Bok contention.
A year has come and gone, and now we face a “rugby drought” until Super 15 kicks off mid February 2013. It is the “dry season” as far as rugby news goes, so am sure most of us are getting withdrawl symptoms. Hopefully this will solicit some debate or scorn.
I list the possible contenders for props in the Cheetahs 2013 Super Rugby group. The Cheetahs seem to have a penchant for grooming young props, with most of the contenders still puppies as far as props go.
The Southern Kings have admitted they went ahead and signed additional foreigners, despite a South African Rugby Union statement that they are allowed just two imports.
The Crusaders Super Rugby licence has been awarded to a limited partnership that is owned by the six provincial unions within the Crusaders region with the Canterbury Rugby Football Union (CRFU) being the major shareholder.
Toulon lock Bakkies Botha will be sidelined for up to two months as the Springbok international undergoes surgery on a fractured eye socket.
Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll is on course to feature in the Six Nations tournament after returning to training with Leinster following ankle surgery.
Brumbies scrumhalf Nic White was assaulted at a music festival and has fractured his jaw, but is not expected to miss the start of the Super Rugby season.
Wales and Clermont fullback Lee Byrne looks set for a long lay-off after breaking a bone in his back during Saturday’s European Cup clash with Leinster.
A bit late sorry but we take a look at an interesting weekend’s action in the Heineken Cup. This weekend saw some very close games as well as a few run away wins and perhaps most significantly saw Ulster lose their first competitive match of the season in one of the weekend’s close affairs.