With bearded behemoth Louis Moolman at lock, knuckle-dusters made flesh like Thys Lourens on the flank, Bugs Bunny’s lovechild Naas Botha at flyhalf and the effortless class of Johan Heunis at fullback, who was going to tell the Bulls they were getting it wrong? Not while the Currie Cup titles mounted up.
Bulls loose forward Pedrie Wannenburg will become the most capped Bulls player in Super rugby when he takes the field against the Western Force in Perth on Friday. Wannenburg, who was selected as flank alongside Wikus van Heerden, will surpass Victor Matfield’s record of 77 matches for the franchise.
Pierre Spies has been included in the Bulls side to play the Blues in a Super 14 match in Auckland on Saturday. The inclusion of the Springbok number eight is a major boost for the defending champions, who have won only two of their six matches to date and were outplayed by two of the competition’s weaker sides over the past two weekends.
The Bulls will be without Bryan Habana for their Super 14 match against the Chiefs in Roturua on Saturday. The 2007 IRB Player of the Year has not been considered due to a recurrence of a shoulder injury, and Danwel Demas will replace him on the left wing.
Despite having to play for 10 minutes with 13 men, the Bulls beat the Lions 31-17 in a pulsating Super 14 match in Pretoria on Friday. The home side lost Springbok hard man Bakkies Botha to the sin-bin, and fullback Zane Kirchner to a red card, in the first period, but still had too much fire-power to overcome the Lions.
Frederic Michalak is an anomaly in the migration patterns, the maverick flyhalf the sole French player moving to South Africa to play while many Boks head the other way. It now seems almost voguish that every French rugby team have at least a couple of South Africans on their books.
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/ 28 February 2008
The Sharks and the Bulls will stage a replay of last year’s final in the third round of the Super 14 this weekend, with both teams attempting to prevent recent glory days from ebbing away. The Sharks won their first two matches by narrow margins, 17-10 over the Western Force and 12-10 — relying on penalties — over the Stormers.
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/ 27 February 2008
The Bulls have included their fit-again World Cup Springboks Bakkies Botha and Akona Ndungane in the team to play the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in a repeat of last year’s Super 14 final. Their inclusion was expected, pending their fitness, but coach Frans Ludeke made a surprise selection of Morne Steyn at flyhalf, while giving Springbok Derick Hougaard a rest.
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/ 15 February 2008
South African rugby will enjoy an auspicious season this year. We begin the year as the envy of the rugby-playing nations, champions of both the world and the Super 14. Even the internecine wrangling for power in the South African Rugby Union (Saru) has failed to dim that envy.
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/ 14 February 2008
The new Super 14 season, which begins on Friday, could help determine whether South Africa’s dominance of world rugby was a one-year wonder. South Africa provided both teams in last year’s Super 14 final — the Bulls beat the Sharks — and the Springboks went on to win the sixth World Cup in France.
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/ 13 February 2008
South Africa’s five Super 14 teams will have to produce some of their best rugby yet if they are to retain the title they so famously won, for the first time, last year. After years of being denied the title by the Australian and New Zealand teams, South Africa’s Northern Bulls finally went all the way in 2007.
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/ 12 February 2008
The Blue Bulls have refused to allow South Africa lock Bakkies Botha to join French second division Toulon. Ian Schwartz, media spokesperson for the Blue Bulls, said on Monday that Botha would not be released from his contract. ”We had no option but to decline his request,” Schwartz was quoted as saying.
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/ 11 February 2008
South Africa lock Bakkies Botha is set to join French second division club Toulon, sports daily L’Equipe reported on Monday. Botha (28) agreed a three-year contract on Sunday and could start playing for Toulon in April, L’Equipe said.
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/ 4 February 2008
It was mostly good news in the Bulls camp on Monday regarding injuries following their warm-up match against the Lions in Windhoek over the weekend, but they were waiting anxiously for an X-ray report on Bryan Habana’s ribs. The star winger was injured in the Bulls’ last warm-up match before the Super 14 competition starts.
The Bulls’ chances of defending their Super 14 rugby title suffered a blow Monday when inside centre Wayne Julies was ruled out of the competition with a knee injury. Team doctor Tommie Smook, who will stay on with the Bulls until the end of the Super 14, on Monday said Julies had to undergo an operation and will not be able to play for at least six months.
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/ 29 December 2007
The early stages of the 2008 Super 14 competition could be especially challenging for the five South African franchises — three of the teams have new coaches, and the training of all five has been affected to various degrees by the resting of their Springboks after the United Kingdom tour.
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/ 29 November 2007
South Africa have made three changes for Saturday’s non-cap international against the Barbarians at Twickenham — Jake White’s last match as coach of the world champions. Bismarck du Plesis takes the place of World Cup-winning captain John Smit after the hooker’s French club, Clermont Auvergne, refused to release him for this fixture.
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/ 27 November 2007
Johan Ackermann joined South Africa on Monday as cover in case injured lock Bakkies Botha was unavailable for the Springboks’ season finale against the Barbarians this weekend. Botha hurt his ankle in the Boks’ 34-12 win over Wales at Cardiff on Saturday.
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/ 22 November 2007
Springbok World Cup hero Bryan Habana believes South Africa have been given a great inheritance by departing coach Jake White. This Saturday sees White, barely a month after masterminding the Springboks’ march to the World Cup title in France, coach South Africa in a full international for the final time when his side face Wales.
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/ 21 November 2007
South Africa captain John Smit and star wing Bryan Habana are among nine members of the Springboks’ victorious World Cup final starting XV named to face Wales in Saturday’s one-off rugby union international at the Millennium Stadium. Although several players are missing from the two-match tour, the side still contains plenty of experienced campaigners.
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/ 13 November 2007
Forwards Danie Rossouw, Wickus van Heerden and Gurthro Steenkamp withdrew injured on Monday from South Africa’s short rugby tour of Britain. Star scrumhalf Fourie du Preez also looks like staying home and missing the Test against Wales at Cardiff and the celebration match with the Barbarians at Twickenham on December 1.
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/ 7 November 2007
Three new signings at fullback and the return of Springboks Chiliboy Ralepelle and Pierre Spies after a layoff are the outstanding features of the Bulls’ Super 14 training squad that was announced on Wednesday. The Bulls have also named six locks in their search to fill the huge boots of this year’s captain, Victor Matfield.
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/ 22 October 2007
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South Africa may have reclaimed the World Cup for the southern hemisphere after a one-off win by England in 2003, but that is not to say that the debate over who is in the ascendancy has been resolved. For many, the Springboks’ tactics in the 15-6 win over England in the final were decidedly of northern values.
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/ 20 October 2007
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In this most weird and wonderful Rugby World Cup, England is making it seem like anything is possible. That includes winning the final against South Africa on Saturday at Stade de France, a prospect that was utterly absurd little more than a month ago.
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/ 19 October 2007
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‘I’ve believed for a long time now that South Africa are going to win the World Cup,” Jake White says with quiet but utter certainty in his hotel room in Paris. Days away from the final, against an England team that White’s Springboks beat 36-0 last month, it might be presumed that arrogance or complacency underpins the South African coach’s unusually bold honesty.
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/ 18 October 2007
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Unbeaten South Africa face defending champions England in a mouth-watering Rugby World Cup final at the Stade de France on Saturday, a re-match of the pool match the Springboks won with consummate ease. But both sides have been quick to play down the significance of that record 36-0 rout, achieved when England were without talismanic flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson.
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/ 15 October 2007
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South Africa may have reached the World Cup final, but they will have achieved nothing if they don’t beat England in Saturday’s showdown, said coach Jake White on Sunday following the Springboks’ 37-13 victory over Argentina. The 43-year-old also insisted that the 36-0 walloping of England four weeks ago counted for nothing.
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/ 13 October 2007
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How much do Argentina have left in the tank? The answer should be clear in the second half of a ferocious forwards clash between the Pumas and South Africa on Sunday. Cracks appeared among the Pumas last Sunday when they let slip a 19-6 lead around the hour mark to give Scotland a sniff at victory. The Springboks are too dangerous for anybody to afford easing off at any time.
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/ 12 October 2007
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South Africa prop CJ van der Linde will start against Argentina in the World Cup semifinal at the Stade France in Paris on Sunday after recovering from a knee injury. The 27-year-old tighthead prop is the only change to the starting XV that beat Fiji in last Sunday’s quarterfinal — Jannie du Plessis drops to the bench as the Springboks attempt to reach their second final.
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There’s no disguising this one. South Africa against Fiji should be a mismatch of a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal. Fiji would have to produce the perfect game to upset South Africa and advance to the semifinals. So that’s what coach Ilie Tabua is asking his squad to do. Fiji qualified for their first World Cup quarterfinal since the inaugural edition in 1987 with a 38-34 upset over Wales.
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South Africa play Fiji in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals in Marseilles on Sunday with a game plan based around a return to basics in a bid to nullify the Pacific Islanders’ flair and raw talent. The Springboks are sure to dominate the set-piece, Fiji having suffered in the scrum throughout their pool games against Japan (35-31), Canada (29-16), Australia (lost 55-12) and Wales (38-34).
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South Africa’s imposing lock forward, Bakkies Botha, has slimmed down for the World Cup but still has a huge appetite for success before he calls it quits. Botha is relishing a forward battle with Fiji in the quarterfinals on Sunday, where victory will keep the Springboks on course for a second world title and the 28-year-old on track for a half-century of caps.