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/ 20 October 2009
Former Springbok prop Brian Mujati could face a lenthy ban after shoving a referee during a match in the Heineken Cup at the weekend.
The nature of Test rugby is that it tends to run in four-year cycles, centred on the mammoth spectacle of the World Cup. The Springboks face the next three-and-a-half years as World Cup defending champions, a lofty pedestal that has proven very difficult to defend in the past.
Percy Montgomery on Wednesday signed a one-year contract with Western Province. Montgomery, who was the leading points scorer at last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, is hardly likely to play for the Province Currie Cup side due the heavy Springbok schedule over the next four months.
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.
Isma-eel Dollie as one of a few lesser surprises in the Springbok training squad of 42 members that was named on Saturday night. The new Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, has included a number of players who are not regulars for their Super 14 franchises or who had limited opportunities because of injury this season.
The Stormers beat the Lions 22-13 after a late rally in a thrilling, if not always good, Super 14 match at Ellis Park on Saturday. However, their inability to score five tries meant that only one of either the Stormers or the Sharks, who were playing the Chiefs later on Saturday, could still make the semifinals.
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.
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/ 25 February 2008
Springbok and Stormers flank Schalk Burger was found guilty of an ”act contrary to good sportsmanship” by a judicial committee in Cape Town on Monday after gesticulating to referee’s assistant Willie Roos in Saturday’s Super 14 match against the Sharks in Durban. Sentence has been deferred to Tuesday.
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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.