The Bulls combined strong forward play with outstanding defence to record a 28-17 win over the ACT Brumbies in the penultimate round of the 2008 edition of the Super 14 competition. The defending champions from South Africa, who led 18-10 at the break, outscored the men from Australia three tries to two.
Rassie Erasmus is a name synonymous with rat-cunning unpredictability in rugby. And if the Waratahs are to beat his Stormers side in their Super 14 clash at Newlands on Saturday, they know they will have to crack the mindset of the coach before they can break his players.
Champions Bulls beat the second-placed New South Wales Waratahs 16-13 in a Super 14 match on Saturday. The result helped the struggling Bulls to move up a slot into 10th place, while the Waratahs retained their position in the standings. They lie 10 points behind the Canterbury Crusaders courtesy of a losing bonus point.
Victor Matfield, Bulls captain when they won the Super 14 last year, will be back for the Blue Bulls when the Currie Cup season starts, and will therefore be eligible for the Springboks. The Blue Bulls on Thursday night announced that Matfield had signed a contract with them to return ”home”. The contract becomes effective on July 1 and ends on October 31 2011.
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.
Australia’s Brumbies will not to be sidetracked by history or the widely acclaimed Stormers injuries in the run-up to Saturday’s make-or-break Super 14 clash at Newlands. The history books will show that the last time the Brumbies lost at Newlands was in 1998, and apart from one draw in 2006, they’ve always defeated the Stormers in the Mother City in a decade of clashes.
Springbok scrumhalf Fourie du Preez could be heading to Europe as early as next month if he decides to accept one of four offers he has received. The Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Sondag reported that Du Preez is currently considering four offers and has not ruled out the option of an imminent move after the Super 14.
The Bulls turned around last week’s shocking form to beat the Otago Highlanders 47-17 in the Super 14 on Saturday. Having lost 50-22 last week to the Wellington Hurricanes, the Bulls scored six tries to two against Otago at Loftus Versfeld, with fullback Zane Kirchner and winger Akona Ndungane each collecting two.
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.
Stormers flanker Schalk Burger is a greater threat than ever to the Stormers’ Super 14 opponents, says Jerry Collins, star loose forward of the Hurricanes. The tough All Black, who will oppose the Springbok star at Newlands on Saturday, has been impressed by the way Burger and Luke Watson combine, reports RugbyHeaven website.
The Canterbury Crusaders will field a largely second-string line-up against bottom team the Lions as they look to extend their six-point lead at the top of rugby’s Super 14 series this weekend. The six-time champions and the team to beat for this year’s southern hemisphere provincial crown are coming off a bye last weekend.
Lions coach Eugene Eloff has had enough of his side’s near-wins in the Super 14, in which they have only one win and a draw from seven outings. ”I’m fed up with saying that this was another match we should have won,” Eloff said after Friday’s defeat to the Highlanders, who were bottom of the log before their 29-20 win over the Lions.
The Western Force came from a long way behind to snatch a thrilling 15-14 win over the Bulls in Perth on Friday night. Down 14-3 at half-time and staring down the barrel when still trailing by four points and with the Bulls in possession with just two minutes to go, the Force scored the winning try through rugby league convert Ryan Cross in the 79th minute.
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.
Auckland flyhalf Nick Evans landed a drop goal seven minutes from time to guide the Blues to a 23-21 win over defending Super 14 champions the Bulls on Saturday. Evans, returning to the New Zealand franchise after two weeks out with concussion, also kicked two penalties and two conversions to help the Blues pinch victory despite the Bulls outscoring them three tries to two.
The Waikato Chiefs ran away with a 43-27 win over the Northern Bulls in a Super 14 rugby match that came alight with a flurry of second-half tries in New Zealand on Saturday. Their third win from six matches produced Chiefs’ first bonus point of the season and lifted them from 10th to eighth on the ladder.
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.
The Auckland Blues took the outright lead in rugby’s Super 14 when they racked up 50 points for the second straight week against a South African opponent. The Blues followed last week’s 55-10 win over the Lions with a 50-26 win Saturday over the Cheetahs to secure their third straight bonus point and to open a one-point lead over their compatriots, the Canterbury Crusaders.
French Test flyhalf Frederick Michalak scored his first try in Super 14 rugby when the Sharks beat the Bulls 29-15 in an all-South African match on Saturday. Michalak scored the first of three Sharks tries in the final 10 minutes to help maintain his team’s unbeaten start to the season and settle a match in which the lead changed hands four times.
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/ 29 February 2008
Football gets by on 11 rules: a simple game for simple folk. Rugby has 22 laws, each one of which has myriad sub-clauses. On top of that there are the variations, laws adapted for under 19-rugby and different ones for seven-a-side. Now the big boys have their own discrepancies.
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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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/ 26 February 2008
Stormers flank Schalk Burger has received a two-week suspension after being found guilty of ”unsportsmanlike behaviour”. Burger’s suspension runs from February 23 to March 8, inclusive. He has a right to appeal the sentence. His suspension is a big setback for the Stormers, who are yet to win a match in this year’s Super 14 competition.
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/ 23 February 2008
The Crusaders spoilt the Bulls’ homecoming when they thrashed them 54-19 in their Super 14 encounter played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday. The visitors ran in a deluge of seven tries as opposed to the solitary one scored by the Bulls in the dying minutes.
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/ 16 February 2008
World player of the year Bryan Habana scored the only try of the match as the Bulls began the defence of their Super 14 title with a hard-fought 16-9 victory over the Stormers on Saturday. Habana scored his 25th try in 40 matches in the competition when he dived over on the left hand side four minutes before halftime.
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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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/ 8 February 2008
South African Rugby Union (Saru) deputy president Mike Stofile faces questions after Saru’s audit committee found he had no mandate to discuss the future of former Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer with him. Stofile, who has ambitions to defeat president Oregan Hoskins at Saru’s presidential elections next month, met Meyer on January 22 in Johannesburg.
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/ 3 February 2008
In a rugby match riddled with mistakes and plenty of kicking, the Bulls, in their second friendly match preparing for the Super 14 season, beat the Lions in their first outing of the season 28-14 in Windhoek on Saturday. The Lions, with a little more practice, are going to be a team to watch.
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/ 16 January 2008
The one-and-a-half-day visit of Eddie Jones to the Bulls was worthwhile — and the Super 14 champions have learnt a lot from it. Bulls forward coach Pote Human and the franchise’s new captain, Fourie du Preez, were unanimous in their view that the former Brumbies and Wallaby coach had lots to offer the Bulls.
The new coach of the World Cup-winning Springboks is expected to be named on Wednesday. The technical committee appointed to interview the four short-listed candidates for the vacant South Africa rugby coaching position wrapped up their task of finding a successor to Jake White on Tuesday.
Former Super 14-winning coach Heyneke Meyer is the favourite to succeed World Cup-winning boss Jake White as the new South Africa rugby coach next week. White stepped down as the Springbok coach at the end of last year after his four-year contract with the South African Rugby Union had run its course.
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/ 5 December 2007
The worst-kept coaching secret of the year is out: former Cats and Golden Lions coach Frans Ludeke is the new coach of the Bulls. Ludeke’s appointment was confirmed by the Blue Bulls Company on Tuesday night after weeks of speculation. He will now join the team in George on Wednesday night.
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/ 3 December 2007
The appointment of Jake White’s successor as Springbok coach has been postponed until the president’s council meeting, which is being held on January 9. Johan Prinsloo, CEO of the South African Rugby Union, on Monday confirmed that the four candidates’ final interviews with the appointment committee will be held on January 7 and 8.