Leaders Canterbury Crusaders and the Sharks will be under extra scrutiny this weekend about how they react to last week’s first defeats in rugby’s Super 14 series. The moody Auckland Blues are bracing for a backlash from the chastened Crusaders, whose unbeaten eight-match record was unceremoniously ended by the Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton.
The New South Wales Waratahs cemented their place in the top four of the Super 14 with a scrappy 26-3 win over the Lions in Sydney on Saturday. The Waratahs overwhelmed their South African opponents in the second period after both sides had played out a mistake-ridden scoreless first half in wet and windy conditions.
Springbok and Lions centre Jaque Fourie is set to make his comeback after a stomach injury when the Lions meet the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in a Vodacom Cup quarterfinal next weekend. The South African Rugby Union has given its blessing for Fourie to take part in the Vodacom play-offs.
Despite a valiant 70 not out by Roelof van der Merwe, a record haul of five for 13 by Elton Chigumbura gave Zimbabwe a thrilling, 12-run victory over the Titans in their Standard Bank Pro20 match at Supersport Park on Friday night. It was the Titans’ third successive loss.
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 Otago Highlanders held off a brave fightback from the Lions to claim their first Super 14 win of the season, 29-20 in Dunedin on Friday. The New Zealanders looked on course for a comfortable victory when they scored their third try just after half-time to extend their lead to 21-3, but the South African side hit back with two quick tries.
The Reds scored a converted try in the dying seconds of their Super 14 match against the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday to snatch a lucky 24-all draw. The result meant that no South African side could win a match in this weekend’s round of matches. The visitors came back from an 11-point deficit to take two points from the match.
Sharks rugby coach Dick Muir has resolved the issues he had with timekeeper Gabriel Pappas following last Saturday’s Super 14 clash against the Lions at Ellis Park. Muir was involved in an altercation with Pappas after Sharks hooker Bismarck du Plessis was not allowed to return to the game following treatment for a cut to his eye.
After a flying start to the season, the powerful Canterbury Crusaders are giving key players a breather for their Super 14 match against tail enders the Cheetahs on Saturday. Despite making six changes, the match remains crucial for the Crusaders with pressure on the regular bench-warmers to maintain the team’s unbeaten record.
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.
Bulls prop Jaco Engels received a three-week suspension and centre JP Nel a one-week ban on Monday following incidents in the weekend’s Super 14 loss to the Sharks. Cited after the 29-15 defeat at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in a rematch of last year’s final, the pair fronted up to a judiciary at the stadium.
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.
A glaring error by referee Kelvin Deaker cost the Lions seven points in the Super 14 match which they eventually lost 18-16 to the Western Force at Ellis Park on Friday night. The call forced the Lions to play catch-up after a Cameron Shepherd penalty had put the visitors ahead with a long-range penalty.
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/ 28 February 2008
Herschelle Gibbs, who has been going through a lean period in recent weeks, bounced back on Wednesday, making an unbeaten 74 to take the Cape Cobras to a massive seven-wicket victory over the Lions in their MTN Domestic Championship match at the Wanderers.
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/ 23 February 2008
The Titans maintained their unbeaten record in the MTN domestic championship this season with a four-wicket victory over the Highveld Lions in a rain-shortened match at the Wanderers on Friday. Chasing a modest total of 139 in 38 overs to win, the Titans looked far from convincing as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
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/ 16 February 2008
Replacement flyhalf Earl Rose landed two late kicks to earn the Lions a 23-22 win at the Cheetahs in the Super 14 on Saturday. The Lions were outscored by three tries to two in a tense South African derby where the lead changed hands five times. The Cheetahs were on target in the second minute when right wing Eddie Fredericks ended a sweeping move by diving over in the corner.
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/ 5 February 2008
The Super 14 Lions have secured a sponsorship deal of more than R30-million over the next three years. The naming-rights sponsorship, brokered by Primedia and Megapro, was announced by Leon Vermaak, CEO of leading short-term insurer Auto & General at a function in Johannesburg on Monday night.
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/ 4 February 2008
It was mostly good news in the Bulls camp on Monday regarding injuries following their warm-up match against the Lions in Windhoek over the weekend, but they were waiting anxiously for an X-ray report on Bryan Habana’s ribs. The star winger was injured in the Bulls’ last warm-up match before the Super 14 competition starts.
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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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/ 31 January 2008
Samuel Eto’o became the all-time record goal scorer at the Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday when he fired Cameroon into the quarterfinals, where Egypt will also feature despite Zambia holding the defending champions to a 1-1 draw. In Tamale, Eto’o helped Cameroon to a 3-0 win to bag the Group C runners-up spot on six points.
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/ 30 January 2008
The final countdown has started for Bafana Bafana as they take on Senegal in the last first-round fixture of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana on Thursday night with only a soccer miracle seemingly able to earn them a place in the quarterfinals. Senegal, meanwhile, are in the same precarious position as South Africa.
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/ 14 January 2008
English Premiership duo Diomansy Kamara and Henri Camara were on target as Senegal overcame Namibia 3-1 in Dakar as the countdown to the 2008 African Cup of Nations continued this weekend. Guinea defeated Sudan in Spain for the second time within 24 hours, but after dishing out a 6-0 drubbing, this time they had to settle for a lone-goal victory.
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/ 6 December 2007
A late start after lunch and an early closure because of fading light left the Dolphins with the upper hand on the first day of their SuperSport Series cricket match against the Highveld Lions at the Sahara Stadium, at Kingsmead in Durban, on Thursday. Heavy rain made play impossible before lunch.
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/ 22 November 2007
Martin Johnson has urged the British and Irish Lions to be creative with their selection policy when it comes to picking a squad for the 2009 tour of South Africa. An enduring fascination is that players who have not shone or even played at all for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales can become stars when they put on the red shirt of the Lions.
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/ 27 October 2007
Three yellow cards, two of them on the advice of the touch judges, played a huge part in the Absa Currie Cup final played at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday, which saw the Free State Cheetahs beat the Lions 20-18. The Cheetahs, with the victory, retained their hold on the Currie Cup that they had shared with the Blue Bulls in the 2006 final.
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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.
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/ 22 October 2007
The Diamond Eagles ground out a solid 113-run victory over the Highveld Lions in their SuperSport Series fixture that ended mid-way through the final session at the De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley, on Sunday afternoon. In Durban, the Dolphins posted a seven-wicket victory over reigning SuperSport champions the Titans.
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/ 13 October 2007
The Free State Cheetahs advanced to the Absa Currie Cup rugby final against the Lions when they beat the Blue Bulls 11-6 in Bloemfontein on Saturday. The soggy underfoot evened out the odds, with the Cheetahs running on as favourites after losing only one of their 14 league matches.
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/ 13 October 2007
The Warriors’ Lonwabo Tsotsobe finished with career-best figures of seven wickets for 39 runs from 21 overs in their SuperSport Series match against the Lions at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday. In Benoni, the Cobras were playing the Titans and in Durban it was the Eagles and the Dolphins.
Seven tries in the first half and a score of 47-0 at the break against the Boland Cavaliers on Saturday ensured the Golden Lions of third place on the Absa Currie Cup log after the last round of the season. The Lions’ comprehensive win of 75-0 will see them play the Sharks in Durban next Saturday in the first of the Currie Cup semifinals.
It started off as no more than a stroll in the park for the Sharks at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday. But in the end it became a struggle for the weakened KwaZulu-Natal side to overcome a determined bottom-placed Valke in their final round-robin Absa Currie Cup rugby match.