Welcome back to some of the regulars, like sharky_forever, Loosehead and Lion4ever… and to Webmonster GBS, recover quickly! The excitement and anticipation is building as we near the practice runs. It is thus fitting, that we look at the position, in which we are all of a sudden blessed with numerous contenders for the Bok 10 jumper. The Cheetahs are very lucky to have some exciting players in this position. A welcome change indeed!
The Cheetahs have produced a number of Springboks in this position, and some, it could be argued should have gotten more chances to play. Guys like Jannie de Beer, that only played a handful of test matches could have contributed more. Ironically, the Cheetahs are the SA franchise with arguably the most talent and depth in the flyhalf channel heading into the 2012 Super Rugby Competition.
The multi-talented flyhalf and center is set to leave Durban and further his career at Bayonne.
Newcastle Falcons will be holding a press conference on Wednesday 18 January to unveil new director of rugby Gary Gold, who joins the club after four years as assistant coach at South Africa.
The Sharks, rather than last year’s best-performing South African franchise the Stormers, represent South Africa’s best chance of success in the 2012 Super Rugby season.
Wallabies Nathan Sharpe, David Pocock and Ben McCalman have been welcomed back to full training this week as the Western Force continues preparations for the 2012 season.
The Queensland Reds squad has been given a boost by the return of all of their remaining Wallabies representatives from annual leave to rejoin the squad at Ballymore.
The Sharks have named their leaders for the Super Rugby Tournament of 2012.
The Sonny Bill Williams camp, have announced that Sonny Bill Williams will fight Clarence Tillman III in Hamilton on 8 February – two weeks before Super Rugby starts.
Jean-Pierre Elissalde’s brief reign as coach of struggling French Top 14 club Bayonne ended on Sunday after just three matches, the Sud-Ouest newspaper reported on its website.
As we reach the magical, mystical and unfathomable date of January 27th for the announcement of our new Springbok coach, and as the excitement builds, the media hacks go into overdrive. This comes second only to the general election results in terms of hype. Who’s in, who’s out, the circus continues, SARU aren’t helping, but here’s the latest.
Canterbury 9 / South Africa 6
This match was a turning point in terms of the media and public’s (in both countries) relationship with Craven and the 1956 Springbok team.
Terry McLean writes: This was the day that Canterbury, for the second time in three encounters, defeated South Africa, this was the night that Danie Craven, after telling me that he was not a happy man, said a critical piece about refereeing in New Zealand, this was the week-end in which he made an official complaint about the quality of New Zealand refereeing and this was the succeeding week in which angry passions were stirred in the backrooms of newspaper offices, both South African and New Zealand, that the Grey River Argus felt impelled to say, “Sour grapes, Dr Craven –very sour grapes indeed!”
The 1956 team was not a particularly happy touring group and struggled to find their feet right from the start of the New Zealand leg of the tour after losing the first match against Waikato. The Springboks had a hard time adjusting to the wet playing surfaces, the rainy/muddy conditions, the flat lying and rush-up defensive style of the New Zealand teams but in particularly with the kick and charge/marauding foot rush tactics of the New Zealand teams. The rucks were a nightmare for the Springboks and they were at loss how to counter the locals’ aggression, structure and ascendency at the tackle ball.
Morning Webmonster, minions, and my fellow Cheetah supporters. Now that we have the ground forces sorted, lets focus on the guys, that have to do something with the “pill” that has been fought for tooth and nail. Now last year, the Cheetahs cut loose, and ran many a team ragged. Can they continue in similiar vein, and simultaneously close the “revolving door” that they dished up as their defence at times. To lose 7 matches, in last years Super 15, by 7 points or less, makes one wonder what could have been, had the defence been 20% better?
Today we look at the scrumhalf contenders. A position where the Cheetahs have had some colourful characters. Like Werner “Smiley” Swanepoel, and Michael Claasens.
The second Cricket ODI between South Africa and Sri Lanka (2 of 5) at Buffalo Park, East London. The game started at 10:00 SA Time on 14 January 2012.
This was Live Discussion Article where we chatted about the match in progress and where the scores were updated regularly.
Time for the Cheetahs to look the part! Watch out boys, we can bite! Ha ha.
This edition looks at the selection of loose forwards. One area where the Boks, and in particular the Cheetahs have been strong.
This one is lengthy, as a few players have announced themselves during the injury crisis last year. No doubt there will be hot debate, but what is sure is that the Cheetahs have options aplenty, and may just have the most balanced and exciting backrow in SA, and will be one of the best in the tournament!
Let’s hope in the interests of Cheetahs and Bok rugby, that Juan, and Ratel will stay relatively injury free in 2012.
Sharks coach John Plumtree has made it public knowledge that he will select his captain for the season next week sometime, and this got me thinking as to who the candidates could be. My 2 minute self debate ended quite simply with another year under Keegan Daniel. But then I had a few beers with a good mate of mine, and this is what we decided would be best for the Black and White.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has hinted at using the services of their former Springbok scrumhalf Bolla Conradie in the Super Rugby tournament.
Stellenbosch University’s Maties have defeated English club Saracens’ second team, the Storm, in a friendly game in Stellenbosch on Wednesday.
The Lions have given the Pumas duo of Doppies le Roux and Marius Coetzer a chance to book a place in the Lions Super Rugby squad after they were added to the Lions wider Super Rugby group.
Lions fly half Elton Jantjies will miss his team’s Super Rugby warm up matches due to a broken hand but should be fit by the start of the Super Rugby season.
The Stormers duo of Andries Bekker and Duane Vermeulen are in a race against time to be fit for the upcoming Super Rugby season which starts next month.
Newcastle Falcons have announced that Gary Gold has been appointed as director of rugby for the remainder of the current season.
England Caretaker Coach Stuart Lancaster has revealed his revised England Elite Player squad which has nine players who have no Test Experience.
Most of the pre-season rounds of matches have now been confirmed after a bit of two-ing and fro-ing and the line-up looks like this:
Hallo all rugby addicts! It’s good to see the blogging intensifying, as prep for the 2012 Super 15 has started in earnest at all the franchises. Rassie’s antics has stolen my thunder momentarily, but I’M BACK!
Anyway, back to my series of articles on contenders for the Cheetahs 2012 Super squad. Tall Timber is next. An area where the Cheetahs have not had dominance since David de Villiers’ departure. We have had some good locks, guys like Braam Els, Flippie, Rory Duncan, and Barend Pieterse, but we need some staunch players to really get the powerful Cheetahs scrum to become destroyers!
The First Cricket ODI between South Africa and Sri Lanka (1 of 5) took place at Boland Park, Paarl. The game started at 14:30 SA Time on 11 January 2012.
This was the Live Discussion Article where we chatted about the match in progress and where the scores were updated regularly.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke says Springbok utility back Francois Hougaard will mainly play at scrumhalf in this year’s Super Rugby tournament.
Injured Springbok flank Juan Smith should be ready for the start of the Cheetahs’ Super Rugby campaign and could also feature in a warm-up match.
The British and Irish Lions have revealed that three of the current Six Nations coaches will effectively be on trial for the Lions head coaching job to be announced later this year.
I have put up two articles on the Rassie affair together, as both are linked
.
The Sharks might be without two of their most bruising forwards, back row stars Willem Alberts and Jean Deysel, when their Super Rugby season gets underway next month.
Wales’ Rugby World Cup captain Sam Warburton has been named rugby personality of 2011 beating World Cup winning coach Graham Henry to the title.
The Western Force have dumped their New Zealand import Willie Ripia, despite a full year remaining on his contract, because of a ‘serious breach of team protocols’.
Vodacom Bulls vice-captain Wynand Olivier suffered a slight setback in his comeback from injury when he broke a small bone in his wrist at the weekend.
Forgotten former Springbok centre Jorrie Muller has been appointed as the Leopards’ assistant coach for the 2012 season.
The leader of the Stormers, Schalk Burger, is the right man to take over the captaincy of the Springboks.