Prop Jannie du Plessis reveals how he almost cut short his medical studies to save the family farm.
The captain missed the opening game last week when he withdrew at the last minute due to a shoulder problem, and will replace Kyle Cooper.
Just when Super Rugby is getting really exciting, it’s being interrupted by a show of mediocrity.
The red card against Springbok Bismarck du Plessis in Saturday’s rugby test between South Africa and New Zealand has been removed from his record.
Tries from Kieran Read helped New Zealand grab victory over South Africa, who had Bismarck du Plessis sent off for two contentious yellow cards.
Bismarck du Plessis has failed to make the Sharks’ matchday squad for their weekend clash against the Bulls in Durban.
New South Wales Waratahs put their season firmly back on track by coming from behind to beat a tiring Sharks side 34-30.
Bismarck du Plessis said filling captain John Smit’s boots would be one of the goals he would like to achieve when South Africa take on Samoa.
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/ 13 September 2011
Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis says South Africa need to improve their lineout play ahead of Saturday’s Rugby World Cup match against Fiji.
Butch James is on the bench and Lambie is at fullback as Morné takes over at flyhalf.
Bismarck du Plessis will be back at hooker for the Sharks’ Super Rugby encounter against the Brumbies in Durban on Saturday.
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/ 13 February 2009
Although the Super 14 begins for most teams this year on Valentine’s Day, it can be assumed that there will be a minimum of love lost.
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/ 17 November 2008
Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis and prop Gurthro Steenkamp will miss SA’s match against England on Saturday due to injury.
New Zealand on Saturday probably put paid to South Africa’s chances of winning the Tri-Nations when they beat them 19-0 at a packed Newlands Stadium.
Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis has been suspended for three weeks following an incident in Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test in Dunedin.
Centre Jean de Villiers scored two tries as South Africa scrapped their way to a 37-21 victory over Wales in the second Test on Saturday.
JP Pietersen’s lack of form in the Super 14 season has cost him a place in the Springbok squad that was named in Somerset West on Wednesday. The Sharks’ World Cup-winning wing failed to score a try in the 2008 series after he finished the 2007 Super 14 season as the leading try scorer.
The target for a Super 14 rugby semifinal berth for the Sharks was clear — a bonus-point victory initially or a win by 18 points or more — as they took to the field against the Chiefs of New Zealand at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday night. In the end, it was a convincing triumph as the necessary tries were secured and surpassed.
It looks like the closely fought endgame of the Super 14 might turn Saturday’s announcement of the 45-man Springbok squad into something of a damp squib. Springbok coach Peter de Villiers will want to avoid disrupting the semifinal preparations of the Sharks and Stormers and will postpone naming players from those squads.
South Africa’s Coastal Sharks face a moment of truth against the toughest team in rugby’s Super 14 when they put their chances of a home play-off on the line against the Canterbury Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday. The Sharks are feeling the effects of five demanding weeks on the road in Australia and New Zealand.
The Sharks moved up to second in the Super 14 after a pair of second-half tries secured a 22-10 victory over the Queensland Reds on Saturday. The South Africans touched down in the 63rd and 67th minutes, breaking a determined Reds defence that was put under relentless pressure.
Sharks rugby coach Dick Muir has resolved the issues he had with timekeeper Gabriel Pappas following last Saturday’s Super 14 clash against the Lions at Ellis Park. Muir was involved in an altercation with Pappas after Sharks hooker Bismarck du Plessis was not allowed to return to the game following treatment for a cut to his eye.
The Coastal Sharks maintained their impressive start to this year’s Super 14 competition with a hard-fought 16-8 win over the Golden Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday. With five victories out of five, the men from Durban moved back into second spot on the southern-hemisphere rugby championship points table.
Flanker Keegan Daniel scored a 16-second try to give the Sharks a perfect start en route to a 22-17 triumph over the Auckland Blues in a Super 14 thriller on Saturday. Daniel dotted down again as the home team took a 19-3 half-time advantage and then withstood fierce second-half pressure.
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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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/ 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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/ 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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/ 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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/ 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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/ 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.