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/ 7 February 2008
Mzwandile Stick, one of South Africa’s top and most experienced Sevens players, has been called up by Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu to replace teenage sensation Juan de Jongh for the San Diego leg of the International Rugby Board (IRB) World Sevens Series on Saturday and Sunday.
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/ 6 February 2008
The cash-strapped Australian Rugby Union said on Wednesday it was shocked at a government decision to scrap funding for a national rugby academy in Queensland state. Former prime minister John Howard committed Aus-million to the project last June but the new Labour government of Kevin Rudd said it was now being axed under a cost-cutting programme.
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/ 30 January 2008
The Australian Rugby Union’s (ARU) chief executive, John O’Neill, has called for major changes to reinvigorate the game or it will slip into irreversible decline here. Amid falling attendances, ratings, revenues and performances, O’Neill said the ARU is in serious financial trouble.
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/ 11 January 2008
Changes in the laws of rugby are to be given a trial at all levels of the game in South Africa from next month, the International Rugby Board (IRB) said on Thursday. The IRB has already conducted a series of trials on the Experimental Law Variations at lower levels in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, England and Scotland.
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/ 21 December 2007
A Super 14 expansion side of Australians, Argentinians and Pacific Islanders playing out of Melbourne could be key to getting the Pumas into the southern hemisphere’s elite competitions, the Australian Rugby Union deputy chief executive Matt Carroll said on Friday.
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/ 4 December 2007
Rugby Sevens, the abbreviated form of rugby union, is seeking to ride the wave of popularity in the sport generated by the highly successful World Cup in France. The three-day season-opening Dubai leg of the World Series Sevens circuit attracted 32 000 spectators a day, but importantly offered a showcase for many future international stars.
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/ 30 November 2007
The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will remain a 20-team competition, the International Rugby Board (IRB) announced on Friday. Before this year’s World Cup, where South Africa beat England in October’s final in Paris, plans for a reduction from 20 teams to 16 were being considered because of the numerous mismatches that had taken place in the previous five editions.
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/ 25 November 2007
Departing South Africa coach Jake White insisted he wouldn’t miss the demands of international rugby after seeing his last Test in charge of the Springboks end in a 34-12 win for the world champions over Wales in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. ”I am not going to get bored at all,” White said.
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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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/ 12 November 2007
A Sri Lankan newspaper chose a graphic way to illustrate how a media rights dispute between Cricket Australia and the international news agencies is hurting its coverage of the series. Next to the report, in a space where a match photo would usually go, was a black figure in the shape of a batsman playing a stroke.
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/ 6 November 2007
Three leading international news agencies are set to boycott this week’s first cricket Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka after organisers demanded payment for the right to distribute photographs from the event. The row is the second major rights dispute to hit international sports organisers in two months.
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/ 26 October 2007
The World Cup last week then the EDF Energy Cup this? Not quite, but Butch James will barely have time for the Springboks’ victory tour of South Africa before he is back on a plane heading for Europe. After signing a two-year contract with Bath this summer, the flyhalf is expected to be in the squad when the Heineken and European Challenge cups start on November 9.
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/ 26 October 2007
For the first time in its 20-year history, the third place play-off game was better than the Rugby World Cup final. A joyous Argentinian side swept aside host nation France at the Parc des Princes 24 hours before South Africa finally quenched the English flame and put the light out on that team’s four-year reign as champions.
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/ 24 October 2007
Former Wallabies coach and Springbok consultant Eddie Jones on Wednesday dismissed calls for changes to rugby union’s rules after a drab World Cup final that featured no tries. Jones, who helped South Africa to their win in Paris, said the demand for change was ”Australia-centric” as the calls in that country have grown since the Wallabies’ defeat by a defensive England side.
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/ 22 October 2007
They may be the world champions, but the Springboks have few illusions that their new status will stave off a new push by the government to overhaul the team’s racial composition. Meanwhile, Springbok wing Bryan Habana was on Sunday named the International Rugby Board player of the year.
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/ 21 October 2007
France’s first hosting of rugby’s World Cup will leave mixed emotions on the home front. The six-week long tournament was superbly organised, the grounds were packed, and there was colour and drama aplenty. But the script that had the French hosts taking on the mighty All Blacks in the final in Paris failed to materialise.
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/ 16 October 2007
Jake White has a lot to thank England for as South Africa coach and he may be eternally grateful by the end of Saturday’s World Cup final at the Stade de France. Twickenham, across the English Channel from France, marked the moment 11 months ago when White’s Springbok side beat England 25-14 to ensure they remained together for the World Cup campaign.
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/ 12 October 2007
Had things turned out differently, one of the seats in the press box in the Stade de France last Sunday night might have been occupied by a 79-year-old Argentinian newspaperman whose own rugby career was blighted by asthma. But life held different challenges for Che Guevara.
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/ 12 October 2007
Spectators at this Rugby World Cup have had the privilege of ringside seats at a revolution. If there is one overarching conclusion to be drawn from the emergence of Argentina and the Pacific Islanders into major powers it is that the shape of international rugby between the quadrennial tournaments cannot stay the same.
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/ 10 October 2007
South Africa have always prided themselves on their giant forwards, but scrumhalf Fourie du Preez, one of the smallest members of the team, has arguably played the biggest part in getting them to the World Cup semifinal. Du Preez may be little in stature compared with his teammates but what he lacks in size he makes up for skill and sheer courage.
A Rugby World Cup featuring upset results pleases many, but not the International Rugby Board (IRB). The IRB likes to hide behind the profitability of the Rugby World Cup, stating that the funds raised from it go towards helping to grow the game globally. What they don’t like to see is any sign of the boat rocking.
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/ 25 September 2007
South Africa centre Francois Steyn has been cited for allegedly biting an opponent during Saturday’s World Cup Pool A match against Tonga in Lens, tournament organisers said on Monday. ”Francois Steyn has been cited in connection with an allegation of biting involving the Tonga wing Joseph Vaka,” organisers said in a statement.
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/ 14 September 2007
A group of Afrikaner activists under the banner of AfriForum is off to Europe to draw the International Olympic Committee’s attention to the threat of interference in sport posed by the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill. The legislation was passed by the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.
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/ 14 September 2007
All Black coach Graham Henry on Friday called for consistency from the International Rugby Board (IRB) when it dealt with incidents of foul play after a severe clampdown in the opening games of the World Cup. With the tournament barely into its second week, the IRB has sent out a firm message to the teams that foul play will not be tolerated.
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/ 13 September 2007
The Wallabies are shocked by what they see as an over-the-top crackdown on foul play at the Rugby World Cup and are on notice to keep it clean during the rest of the tournament. The International Rugby Board (IRB) has sent out a firm message to the teams that foul play will not be tolerated with four citings and suspensions from the opening matches.
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/ 13 September 2007
The Rugby World Cup appeal committee on Thursday reduced Springbok flanker Schalk Burger’s four-match suspension to two matches. This was announced following an appeal hearing by the committee into the incident where Burger tackled a Samoan player in the air during the Boks’ opening match on Sunday.
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/ 11 September 2007
England captain Phil Vickery was suspended for two matches on Tuesday for tripping United States centre Paul Emerick. It is a ban that rules the tighthead prop out of the world champions’ key Pool A clash against South Africa in Paris on Friday and the September 22 fixture with Samoa in Nantes.
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/ 11 September 2007
South Africa coach Jake White kept England guessing by delaying naming his team for their World Cup Pool A match at the Stade de France on Friday. White announced a 22-man squad on Tuesday and said he would reveal his starting team only 48 hours before kick-off as tournament rules allow.
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/ 10 September 2007
Namibian rugby union president Dirk Conradie and his entire executive committee have been barred from attending the World Cup in France, organisers confirmed on Sunday. Conradie has been accused of complicity in the irregular sale of World Cup tickets, a charge he denies.
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/ 7 September 2007
The media boycott of the Rugby World Cup was lifted on Friday, just 90 minutes before the first match kicked-off, after an agreement was reached between the International Rugby Board and the media coalition, the management of Agence France-Presse announced.
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/ 7 September 2007
The Rugby World Cup kicks off in France on Friday. As has happened so often in the past, questions have been raised as to whether some of the potential mismatches between established nations and amateur nations are any good for the game. Ian Robertson and Stephen Larkham assess the pros and cons.
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/ 7 September 2007
Australia beat England at the 1991 Rugby World Cup final, but in the South Stand at Twickenham lurked a couple of fellows who held up a banner emblazoned with this motto: ”South Africa, the real World Champions”. As it turned out, the blazers of the International Rugby Board had met during the second World Cup to debate the re-entry of the Springboks into the international fold.