Rynhardt Elstadt needs to “out-work” Brad Thorn and not be intimidated by him in Saturday’s Super Rugby semi-final between the Stormers and Crusaders at Newlands.
That was the call from Stormers forwards coach Matthew Proudfoot on Tuesday. The vastly experienced Thorn was injured and did not feature for the Crusaders in their recent 20-14 victory over the Stormers at Newlands, with Luke Romano and Chris Jack guarding the second row.
Female rugby supporters can now hang up their over-sized rugby jerseys and slip into a sexy Rugby Dress and show their support in style.
The Blue Bulls Company Pty (Ltd) is pleased to announce several new additions to its current coaching staff, as well as the long term appointment of Heyneke Meyer as Executive: Rugby.
Coach, Allister Coetzee, has announced the Stormers team to play the Crusaders in Saturday afternoon’s semi final.
As a Lions supporter the Rugby fare during the playoff stages of competitions can become a bit dreary unless you fancy watching the teams you’ve booed all season.
After all, it’s been a while since the team from Johannesburg had a sucessful play off game.
Personally, I don’t normally watch a great deal of Rugby when the Lions are having a weekend off, but this week I made an exception, and what a treat it was.
The Stormers are sweating on the fitness of Jaque Fourie and Dewaldt Duvenage who are in danger of missing the Super Rugby Semi-final against the Crusaders.
Canterbury has officially launched their revolutionary new jersey that will be worn by the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand later this year.
(Take note, the picture on the left and the picture on the right are just cartoons and DO NOT APPEAR on the jersey!)
Refereeing is and will always be a thankless task. Rugby is the one sport that allows our primal instincts to run havoc with our emotions. The brutal tackles, runs and physicality dictates that rugby provides us with an alternative to modern warfare where at the end of a match there may be some serious injuries, but there is no intent to kill or maim.
Coach Pat Lam of the Blues has announced his team to take on the Reds on Saturday for the first Super Rugby semi final. This semi final takes place at 11:40 SA Time on Saturday.
We had an article about the brave Crusaders – I want to salute another team – The Reds.
From “cellar dwellars” to topping the Super Rugby Log in 2011. They won the most games of all competing sides this year, 13 out of 16.
The Queensland Reds’ amazing rise is set to see them surpass the Brisbane Broncos as South-East Queensland’s biggest football club drawcards.
Breaking News!! We have just received a Media Release from the MTN Lions… here it is:
June 28 – The Golden Lions Rugby Union today wishes to confirm that negotiations around the completion of the shareholders agreement with GUMA TAC has been terminated by GUMA TAC.
For rugby in South Africa to remain strong, SA Rugby needs to take a tough stance against its own unions before it looks to improve its standing within SANZAR.
Dr Ross Tucker, a well known Sports Scientist placed good articles about Rugby fatique before. I found this Article about the subject and want to share a few of his thoughts. The second part of his Article about home ground advantage is interesting, Here are a few extracts from the Article.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee says his team will “look to right the mistakes” they made in their league defeat to the Crusaders in Saturday’s Super Rugby semifinal at a sold-out Newlands (5.05pm kick-off).
Even though the Stormers went down 20-14 to an injury-ravaged Crusaders in May, the biggest problem on that Saturday night was taking their opportunities on attack, of which there were plenty.
The Saracens hooker, Schalk Brits, has answered an SOS and is available to play for the Stormers as a loose forward this weekend.
The Crusaders may have to play all of their home games away from AMI Stadium in Christchurch in 2012 and the All Blacks could already have played their last game there.
New Zealand were crowned IRB Junior World Championship 2011 winners after a thrilling final with Beauden Barrett’s late try sealing a 33-22 victory at the Stadio Plebiscito in Padova, Italy, on Sunday.
The 2012 Currie Cup Rugby tournament’s Premier Division will be contested by six teams instead of the usual eight Currie Cup teams.
Sharks coach John Plumtree says his side suffered because of the referee, but in the end, they just weren’t good enough.
In the sober light of Sunday morning, there is a very good reason that the Sharks were never going to win this one.
With the Super 15 nearing its conclusion, a lot more clarity has been provided to Springbok coach Peter de Villiers with regard to the make-up of his World Cup squad. The emergence of exciting talents like Coenie Oosthuizen and Bjorn Basson have added to the burgeoning pool of talent, but there are plenty of headaches for “Div”.
I enjoyed this article a lot, the reason why I am sharing it here. I have not read anything of Lungani Zama before, read it and give your opinion.
Last week former Crusaders coach Robbie Deans, who guided the team to a record five titles between 2000 and 2008, reckoned the heavy travel schedule during the finals series would wear down his former outfit.
9 June 1956 – Waikato 14 / South Africa 10
The first match against Waikato is remembered mainly for two reasons; firstly, the massive three and a half hour welcoming procession; secondly, the fact that the Springboks lost the match. Here is a picture of the welcoming procession.
Crusaders (13) 36 / Sharks (5) 8 (Final Score)
The Crusaders hosted the Sharks at Travalgar Park, Nelson at 09:35 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
This was the last of the two play-off matches to decide who will be in the semi-finals. No 3 on the Combined Log (Crusaders) at home against No 6 on the Combined Log (Sharks).
With a little bit of help from a poor performance by Bryce Lawrence as well as some poor Sharks handling, the Crusaders eased into the semi-finals.
The Crusaders now travel to Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa to meet the Stormers in the one semi-final whereas the Blues travel to Queensland, Australia to meet the Reds in the other semi-final.
Ricky Januarie has withdrawn from the Springboks’ preliminary Rugby World Cup squad after announcing his retirement from international rugby.
Blues (13) 26 / Waratahs (8) 13 (Final Score)
The Blues hosted the Waratahs at Eden Park, Auckland at 09:35 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
This was the first of the two play-off matches to decide who will be in the semi-finals. No 4 on the Combined Log (Blues) at home against No 5 on the Combined Log (Waratahs.
The Blues were just more clinical, more hungry and it showed on the final score. It was a good game of rugby, considering it is about knockout rugby and not silky bonus point rugby.
Well done Blues.
Deaker on sport (sport talk show here in NZ) featured interesting interviews with Robbie Deans and Graeme Henry 
as well as with some other sporting celebrities last night. In particular they talked about how the new breakdown rule
interpretations would influence the games during the WC, All Black choking, team selections and preparing players for
the WC.
Herewith the Super Rugby team sheets for the 4 teams competing in the play-off round this weekend.
There will be no let-up for Super Rugby’s newest team, as the Rebels confirmed the details of their off-season European tour in August.
The Rebels – who finished last in their debut season in Super Rugby – will play three matches in a week-long tour of England and Ireland that will kick-start the club’s preparations for the 2012 Super Rugby season.
Improbable, not impossible. This is the feeling amongst most South Africans prior to the Sharks massive qualifier match against the Crusaders this weekend.
England U20 booked their place in the IRB Junior World Championships Final on Wednesday with a 31-18 win over France in Treviso, Italy.
Congratulations Morné and team. I am glad we have such a good working relationship with your blog. Wish you well and hope this is not your last award and recognition.
Here is the whole article From Ruggaworld.
SANZAR has confirmed that Bryce Lawrence, Chris Pollock, Jonathan Kaplan and Craig Joubert have been appointed to control the two Super Rugby Finals Series Qualifiers, the two Semi-Finals and the Final in the coming weeks.
Chiefs first-five Stephen Donald appears to be out of the running for the place in the All Blacks Rugby World Cup squad after he was left out of an All Black camp.
HALFBACK Luke Burgess has likely played his final game for the Waratahs after breaking his hand at training yesterday, further disrupting an already chaotic build-up with several other injuries already depleting the NSW side for Friday’s elimination final in Auckland.
Whilst the Super Rugby log might tell us quite a number of things of individual teams and how they performed, it is quite interesting to measure each country as a collective following the league rounds of the Super Rugby competition. Continue reading