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/ 12 September 2007
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South Africa flanker Schalk Burger will not play at this year’s World Cup again unless his team reach the semifinals. Burger was banned for four matches at a disciplinary hearing that ran into the early hours of Wednesday morning after he was found guilty of a dangerous tackle on Samoa scrumhalf Junior Polu in South Africa’s 59-7 victory on Sunday.
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/ 11 September 2007
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South Africa flanker Schalk Burger was cited on Tuesday for a high tackle on Samoa scrumhalf Junior Polu in his team’s World Cup Pool A 59-7 victory on Sunday. If Burger is suspended he will miss the Springboks’ pivotal group clash against defending champions England at the Stade de France on Friday evening.
Springbok captain Johann Muller said referees are afraid of sin-binning All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw following his team’s 33-6 Tri-Nations defeat on Saturday. He said referee Stuart Dickinson should have yellow-carded the All Black captain for an identical offence to one that later led to the sin-binning of South Africa’s Pedrie Wannenburg.
Southern hemisphere rugby bosses pledged on Friday never again to field weakened teams in the Tri-Nations and Super 14. ”It’s fair to say that it will never happen again,” John O’Neill, chief executive of South Africa New Zealand and Australia Rugby (Sanzar) told a media briefing in Christchurch.
The Rugby World Cup’s dominance of the international calendar has turned Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test between New Zealand and South Africa in Christchurch into little more than a glorified warm-up match. South Africa have fielded a weakened team for the meeting between two of the sport’s fiercest rivals, while New Zealand made seven changes.
A row over selection for the national training squad has overshadowed what should be South Africa’s biggest week of celebration since the Springboks won the World Cup on home soil in 1995. Durban’s Sharks and the Bulls from Pretoria contest the first all-South African Super 14 final on Saturday before a 54 000-strong sell-out crowd in Durban.
About 100 000 South African rugby fans will pack into stadiums in Durban and Pretoria on Saturday in anticipation of the country’s biggest party since the World Cup was won at home in 1995. The relative recent form of the teams has encouraged local pundits to predict an all-South African final and first South African winner.
Embattled South African Rugby Union (SARU) president Brian van Rooyen will face new questions at a president’s council meeting on Friday over his leadership style, following the resignation of Saru deputy president André Markgraaff. Markgraaff quit in an apparent power struggle over who holds the strings of Springbok coach Jake White.
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/ 16 September 2003
Rugby racists will face life bans once the King inquiry completes its work if Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour gets his way. Balfour has been working to hold together the unravelling inquiry into Springbok racism following its postponement until next year.
If you look closely enough you might just be able to make out the thin fissures that have begun to creep across the facade of infallibility that once clung to Fast Eddie Jones.