Changes to the rules of rugby bring the law of unintended consequences into play.
No image available
/ 13 December 2011
Bernard Lapasset has retained his position as International Rugby Board chairperson after winning elections against vice-chair Bill Beaumont.
No image available
/ 8 December 2011
New Zealand and South Africa are hurting before the third leg of the IRB Sevens World Series in Indian Ocean city Port Elizabeth from Friday.
No image available
/ 26 November 2011
Fiji rallied from 12-7 down at halftime to beat reigning world champion New Zealand 26-12 in the final of the Gold Coast Sevens.
The Western Province Rugby Football Union has refused to allow Saracens to play their Heineken Cup match against Bairritz at the Cape Town Stadium.
No image available
/ 11 October 2011
New Zealand remained officially the world’s best team after the latest edition of the IRB rankings was published ahead of the World Cup semifinals.
The International Rugby Board responded to a possible New Zealand withdrawal from the next World Cup by saying "everyone is replaceable".
No image available
/ 30 September 2011
Fans clamoured have condemned the leniency of Rugby World Cup organisers toward England after fining Samoa for wearing the wrong mouthguard.
No image available
/ 20 September 2011
The scheduling row that has soured the World Cup took on a new dimension with a Samoan player accusing the IRB of exploitation akin to "slavery" and
No image available
/ 12 September 2011
The IRB says referee Wayne Barnes could have asked for television replays to check whether a penalty kick in the SA vs Wales game was successful.
No image available
/ 4 September 2011
The IRB has declared New Zealand ready to host an "extraordinary" Rugby World Cup despite questions about the tournament’s make-up and unsold tickets.
The International Rugby Board chief has warned price gouging during the Rugby World Cup threatens to sully New Zealand’s reputation with tourists.
The International Rugby Board on Wednesday said five pool matches have been moved from Christchurch because of damage caused by the earthquake.
The hosts of the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and 2019 will be announced on Tuesday and England and Japan are hot favourites.
Agreement on the most contentious of rugby’s experimental laws is close and will produce the ”perfect game”, says Wallabies coach Robbie Deans.
No image available
/ 30 January 2009
This week marked 500 days to the start of the Soccer World Cup and the closer we get, the further behind rugby will fall in the popularity stakes.
The rugby union World Cups of 2015 and 2019 have attracted a record number of countries interested in launching official bids.
No image available
/ 24 September 2008
Kiwi flyhalf Dan Carter was the only southern hemisphere player announced on Wednesday in the list of nominees for the IRB Player of the Year award.
SA have slipped to third place in the IRB rankings after their fourth defeat in five Tri-Nations matches on Saturday, when they lost to Australia.
The 2015 World Cup must be held outside a rugby union stronghold if the sport is serious about becoming a truly global game, according to a report.
The International Rugby Board has announced that it will allocate the world cups of 2015 and 2019 at the same time next summer.
Argentina will play South Africa in Johannesburg on August 9 in the first move to include the World Cup semifinalists in southern hemisphere competition, SA Rugby said in a statement on Wednesday. A full-strength Pumas side will travel for the World Cup semifinal rematch against the champions in between the away and home legs of the Springboks’ Tri-Nations campaign.
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will look at introducing experimental law variations (ELVs) for this year’s Tri-Nations tournament. The International Rugby Board said on Thursday that 13 of the 23 ELVs, many of which are being trialled in this year’s Super 14 competition, would be adopted for a 12-month global trial from August 1.
It probably cannot all be put down to Australian referee Paul Marks’s inept handling of the Super 14 match between the Hurricanes and the Sharks in Wellington on Saturday, but there are now thoughts of the International Rugby Board (IRB) appointing Super 14 referees rather than the three Sanzar unions.
South Africa is considering bidding for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. South Africa has sent a letter to the International Rugby Board (IRB) tails on the tender process, which is expected to end next year. SA Rugby managing director Jonathan Stones said the IRB was thinking of staging every ”two out of three” World Cups in European time zones.
Japan is being lined up as a Bledisloe Cup host in 2009 and could become the base for a new team in an expanded Super 14 competition. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said initial talks with Japanese officials about bringing the Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks to Asia’s top rugby nation had gone smoothly.
No image available
/ 29 February 2008
Football gets by on 11 rules: a simple game for simple folk. Rugby has 22 laws, each one of which has myriad sub-clauses. On top of that there are the variations, laws adapted for under 19-rugby and different ones for seven-a-side. Now the big boys have their own discrepancies.
No image available
/ 19 February 2008
Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri has labelled as ”short-sighted” remarks by Springbok flyer Bryan Habana that the new laws on trial in the Super 14 are making rugby union become more like rugby league. Tuqiri also applauded the way the new game requires players to be better all-round athletes.
No image available
/ 15 February 2008
Sport Minister Makhenkesi Stofile’s attack against former Springbok rugby players is an attempt to distract attention from the government’s ”transgression of international sports regulations”, AfriForum said on Friday. Stofile on Thursday sharply criticised AfriForum after a group of former Springbok rugby players called for an end to ”racial discrimination in rugby”.
No image available
/ 14 February 2008
Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile on Thursday slammed the ”re-emergence of the erstwhile ambassadors of apartheid” in South African rugby. Stofile was responding to a public campaign calling for an end to political interference in the sport.
No image available
/ 13 February 2008
New laws more than new faces will add an element of unpredictability to the 2008 Super 14 rugby competition that kicks off Friday. The shadow of last year’s World Cup hangs over the tournament, adding a touch of intrigue, but it may be the adaptability of players to the experimental law variations that bears most heavily on its outcome.
No image available
/ 11 February 2008
New Zealand continued their domination at the World Sevens series by beating South Africa 27-12 in Sunday’s cup final, extending their record wining streak to 36 matches. New Zealand also won their fourth straight tournament in the current World Sevens series.