The Springboks followed New Zealand’s Murrayfield success of 12 months ago as only the second away team in 12 matches to triumph on Scottish soil
But once the honeymoon is over, fans can expect clashes about the selections and sweeping changes to the Springbok rugby team.
Veteran Springbok flyhalf Butch James, a member of the 2007 Rugby World Cup winning team, has retired from Test rugby with immediate effect.
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/ 13 February 2012
Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies has been included in the upcoming warm-up match against the Super Kings after missing a game due to injury.
A painful Tri-Nations campaign for South Africa continued at Kings Park in Durban as they surrendered a six point half-time lead to Australia.
Flyhalf Butch James is set to get his first start for the Lions in Saturday’s Super Rugby clash against the Waratahs.
Joining the Lions from Bath is part of Butch James’s plan to impress the Bok selectors ahead of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand later this year.
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/ 1 February 2011
World Cup-winning flyhalf Butch James will be joining the Lions in May, it was announced on Tuesday when he arrived at Lanseria Airport.
Flyhalf Butch James has been included in the Springbok squad for the one-off Test against France in Cape Town on Saturday.
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/ 17 October 2008
The Springbok selectors are spoilt for choice, writes Andy Capostagno.
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/ 10 October 2008
South African World Cup winner Butch James has admitted that his international days may be numbered.
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/ 8 September 2008
South Africans Heyneke Meyer and Butch James grabbed the headlines in the English Premiership on Sunday as Leicester and Bath made winning starts.
Butch James is back in the Springbok green and gold and relishing the chance to add a second chapter to a glorious 2007.
Six Nations champions Wales will be looking to match everything the Springboks throw at them in the next fortnight when the teams meet in a two-Test series. But coach Warren Gatland said he was expecting no miracles from his injury-depleted squad that arrived in South Africa on Friday morning.
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.
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.
Springbok captain John Smit joined the Springbok training session in Stellenbosch on Monday morning just hours after stepping off the plane from France, where he had been playing for Top 14 club Clermont. The arrival of Smit was greeted with great relief by Springbok coach Peter de Villiers. ”We could not do our planning fully without him,” De Villiers explained.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) announced on Friday it had lifted its restriction on the number of overseas-based players eligible to play for the Springboks. In a statement, Saru said that new Springboks coach Peter de Villiers coach would now be able to pick as many foreign-based players as he liked.
Peter de Villiers said on Wednesday that South African rugby players who ply their trade abroad must be made to realise that it remains a privilege to play for the Springboks. The Springbok coach was airing his views on the controversial issue of calling up overseas-based players for Springbok duty.
Springbok captain John Smit will be released from national duty to fulfil his commitments to French club Clermont, SA Rugby announced on Wednesday. Smit would return to Clermont on June 15 to play in the French Top 14 semifinals on June 21 and the final on June 28 if necessary, SA Rugby said in a statement.
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.
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.
New Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is spoilt for choice ahead of the Springboks’ first Test of the year, against Six Nations champions Wales on June 7 in Bloemfontein. De Villiers, who took over from World Cup-winning coach Jake White at the beginning of the year, names his first South Africa squad on Saturday.
South African rugby coach Peter de Villiers said on Wednesday he is to name a national training squad of up 45 players for the forthcoming international season. De Villiers, who took over the reigns from Jake White in January this year, is expected to include Europe-based players John Smit (Clermont), Butch James (Bath) and Victor Matfield (Toulon) in the squad.
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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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/ 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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/ 25 December 2007
Springbok winger Akona Ndungane wants the display of the old South African flag — seen as a symbol of the apartheid regime — banned at all rugby games. Some fans, said Ndungane, still lived in the past. ”The national anthem is no longer just Die Stem, it is a combination of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and Die Stem”.
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/ 7 December 2007
Outgoing International Rugby Board (IRB) chairperson Syd Millar believes foreign invasions will have a damaging effect on European domestic rugby. Several World Cup stars — including All Blacks Chris Jack, Aaron Mauger, Carl Hayman and Luke McAlister, plus Springbok flyhalf Butch James — have arrived in the Premiership.
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/ 23 November 2007
South Africa’s captain, John Smit, has urged his team to give their World Cup-winning coach, Jake White, a rousing send-off at the Millennium Stadium this weekend as the Springboks prepare to say goodbye to the man who masterminded their triumphant campaign in France.
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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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/ 14 November 2007
Lock Victor Matfield has withdrawn from South Africa’s squad for the one-off Test with Wales on November 24, becoming the 12th member of the World Cup-winning squad to miss the tour. The South African Rugby Union (Saru) announced he had been released due to personal commitments.