Former South African women’s hockey coach Ros Howell relinquished her post a week ago, but South African hockey officials have still not decided on a permanent replacement. A frantic search in the past few months has yielded little reward with few obvious local candidates, and now the net has been cast overseas.

Blue Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer sounded an ominous warning to his Cheetahs counterpart, Peet Kleynhans, on Wednesday, ahead of the Absa Currie Cup final at the weekend. ”We haven’t yet peaked this season and I think we can reach our full potential in the final,” Meyer said, after naming his team for the final.

The South African Hockey Association is on the hunt for a new national women’s coach following the shock announcement this week that Ros Howell has quit the job. Howell will, however, continue in the position until the end of the year, after which she will return to being deputy headmaster at St Mary’s School in Johannesburg.

A last-minute try and conversion by Blue Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn secured a dramatic 36-36 draw against Western Province (WP) in a pulsating Absa Currie Cup clash at Loftus on Saturday evening. WP produced some of the most scintillating running rugby seen in ages to run in five awesome tries — all by the backs.

The Lions provisionally booked a home semifinal berth with a hard-fought 44-27 Absa Currie Cup victory over the never-say-die Pumas in Witbank on Friday night.
The six-tries-to-three win gave the Lions a valuable bonus point and took them to second spot on the log with 45 points, but it seems they will need a minor miracle to hold on to that position.

Things are slowly falling into place for Tri-Nations-winning coach Jake White two months ahead of the Grand Slam tour of the United Kingdom. White, still basking in the glory of the Springboks’ Tri-Nations triumph, met with journalists on Thursday in Sandton to set out plans for the upcoming tour of Britain and Argentina.