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.
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 Leopards qualified for a play-off in the quarterfinals of the Vodacom Cup competition on Friday night by beating the Wildebeest 37-32 in the Woodburn Stadium in Pietermaritzburg. In other matches, the Blue Bulls, Boland Kavaliers and Free State Cheetahs also emerged victorious.
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/ 29 January 2008
Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske, in announcing his side to play the Sharks in a warm-up match in Bloemfontein on Friday night, has admitted that he was still undecided on a number of positions. Springbok Meyer Bosman gets the nod at inside centre ahead of Herkie Kruger, and former Bull Jacques-Louis Potgieter is preferred to Conrad Barnard at flyhalf.
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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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/ 8 December 2007
Fiji won a semifinal of sheer quality against South Africa 21-12 to set up a replay of last weekend’s Dubai final against New Zealand in the International Rugby Board Sevens World Series in George on Saturday. In the other semifinal, Argentina tried to catch defending champions New Zealand off their guard.
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/ 5 December 2007
South Africa will be looking to home-town favourite Kabamba Floors to fire up their Sevens team when the second leg of the world Sevens series is played in George this weekend. Capped once for the XV-man Springboks, Floors has been a hit on the Sevens circuit.
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/ 4 November 2007
SA Rugby has confirmed the names of the finalists in the main categories of the 2007 Absa SA rugby player of the year awards. The awards banquet, which will be attended by the Springbok squad, takes place on November 7 at the Sandton Convention Centre.
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/ 25 October 2007
With five forwards and only two backs on the bench, it does not take a rocket scientist to predict that the Cheetahs will play it mostly tight in Saturday’s Absa Currie Cup final against the Lions in Bloemfontein. And the Lions are aware of it. ”They will probably try and make a statement with their forwards, but we’ll just play our own game,” said Lions coach Eugene Eloff.
The allure of the cosmopolitan display of rugby on the global stage in France has provided overwhelming competition for this year’s domestic showpiece, the 2007 Currie Cup. Despite the welcome panache and entertainment that have been provided by the two dominant sides, the Cheetahs and the Sharks, the Currie Cup has crept to its final stages almost unnoticed.
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/ 23 September 2007
The battered and bruised bodies of 22 Western Province (WP) players bore witness on Saturday to an exceptional 34-20 Currie Cup victory for the home side over Free State, who had not been beaten in 14 matches. The blue-and-white jerseys gave the Newlands faithful a spectacle that will be remembered for quite some time.