​Can this crop earn the right to join a group that includes John Smit and Nelson Mandela?
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.
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.
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.
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/ 13 February 2008
South Africa’s five Super 14 teams will have to produce some of their best rugby yet if they are to retain the title they so famously won, for the first time, last year. After years of being denied the title by the Australian and New Zealand teams, South Africa’s Northern Bulls finally went all the way in 2007.
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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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/ 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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/ 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.
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/ 6 November 2007
The Springbok rugby selectors, who on Tuesday sat down to pick the side for the two-match tour of Wales and England later this month, will not have included loose forward Bob Skinstad in the touring team. The 50th Springbok captain has retired with immediate effect. It is unlikely that Skinstad will be replaced for the short tour.
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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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/ 27 October 2007
World champions South Africa will be almost at full strength for next month’s Test match against Wales in Cardiff, the Welsh Rugby Union said on Friday. Springbok captain John Smit will lead South Africa, who won the World Cup last Saturday when they beat England in the final in Paris, in the Test at the Millennium Stadium on November 24.
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/ 26 October 2007
Oom Os du Randt — the Springbok loosehead prop — is one of the most experienced sports stars in the country. At the ripe old age of 35 and with two World Cup winners’ medals around his neck, he has a lot to pass on to younger players, especially those who do not know how to handle success and end up in self-destruct mode.
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/ 23 October 2007
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”Awesome”, ”unbelievable” and ”like a fairy tale” is how the Springboks described their homecoming at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Showing cool nerves during interviews that at times resembled a scrum, flanker Schalk Burger said he was still getting used to the idea of being a world champion.
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/ 23 October 2007
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Springbok captain John Smit said he was ”overwhelmed” by the reception the national team received at the OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday. ”What we walked into was far beyond what we ever imagined,” Smit said. The Boks struggled to wade through the throngs of exuberant supporters, many of whom were singing Shosholoza.
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/ 20 October 2007
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A ruthless South Africa punished England’s ill-discipline with a 15-6 win over the defending champions in the Rugby World Cup final at the Stade de France north of Paris on Saturday. Fullback Percy Montgomery took his points total for the tournament past the century mark by converting each of his four penalty attempts.
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/ 20 October 2007
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In this most weird and wonderful Rugby World Cup, England is making it seem like anything is possible. That includes winning the final against South Africa on Saturday at Stade de France, a prospect that was utterly absurd little more than a month ago.
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/ 18 October 2007
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On Saturday, Springbok prop Os du Randt will look to bow out of rugby with a second World Cup winners’ medal. The 35-year-old is the sole survivor in the squad from the team that stunningly won the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, beating hot favourites the All Blacks, and he is looking forward to his retirement, which this time will be definitive.
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/ 18 October 2007
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Unbeaten South Africa face defending champions England in a mouth-watering Rugby World Cup final at the Stade de France on Saturday, a re-match of the pool match the Springboks won with consummate ease. But both sides have been quick to play down the significance of that record 36-0 rout, achieved when England were without talismanic flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson.
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/ 16 October 2007
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Bryan Habana was named after a former England soccer captain and could have been a top-class international sprinter but, thanks to the Springboks’ 1995 World Cup success, he turned to rugby. The 24-year-old winger could clinch a memorable double on Saturday in the World Cup final against England.
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/ 13 October 2007
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How much do Argentina have left in the tank? The answer should be clear in the second half of a ferocious forwards clash between the Pumas and South Africa on Sunday. Cracks appeared among the Pumas last Sunday when they let slip a 19-6 lead around the hour mark to give Scotland a sniff at victory. The Springboks are too dangerous for anybody to afford easing off at any time.
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/ 12 October 2007
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South Africa prop CJ van der Linde will start against Argentina in the World Cup semifinal at the Stade France in Paris on Sunday after recovering from a knee injury. The 27-year-old tighthead prop is the only change to the starting XV that beat Fiji in last Sunday’s quarterfinal — Jannie du Plessis drops to the bench as the Springboks attempt to reach their second final.
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South Africa progressed to the Rugby World Cup semifinals on Sunday by eking out a hard-fought 37-20 victory over Fiji in a brutal but enthralling game in which no quarter was given. Some monumental hits were exchanged between two immensely physical sides.
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There’s no disguising this one. South Africa against Fiji should be a mismatch of a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal. Fiji would have to produce the perfect game to upset South Africa and advance to the semifinals. So that’s what coach Ilie Tabua is asking his squad to do. Fiji qualified for their first World Cup quarterfinal since the inaugural edition in 1987 with a 38-34 upset over Wales.
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South Africa play Fiji in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals in Marseilles on Sunday with a game plan based around a return to basics in a bid to nullify the Pacific Islanders’ flair and raw talent. The Springboks are sure to dominate the set-piece, Fiji having suffered in the scrum throughout their pool games against Japan (35-31), Canada (29-16), Australia (lost 55-12) and Wales (38-34).
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South Africa are facing a front-row crisis ahead of Sunday’s World Cup quarterfinal clash against Fiji. BJ Botha has already been forced out of the competition with knee ligament damage suffered in the 64-15 Pool A win against the United States last week, while fellow tighthead prop CJ van der Linde has bruising on one of his knees.
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/ 30 September 2007
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After pacing the sidelines for two weeks, Schalk Burger gets another chance to wreak havoc for South Africa at the World Cup. The bustling blonde backrower was switched from the flank to number eight in a strong Springboks lineup unveiled by coach Jake White for Sunday’s match against the winless United States in Montpellier.
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/ 28 September 2007
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South Africa are not planning to cruise into the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals. The Springboks have already won Group A and want to keep the momentum going into the knock-out stages of the tournament, so coach Jake White on Friday announced a strong starting line-up to face the United States Eagles in Montpellier on Sunday.
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/ 14 September 2007
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What a difference four years make. On Friday South Africa take on England at the Stade de France, confident that they have the beating of the old enemy. Four years ago the England team had an aura of invincibility about it, but today it looks like one of those household implements reassembled in haste, with two or three parts left over that don’t seem to have a genuine function.
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/ 12 September 2007
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South Africa great Os du Randt may be 35 but that doesn’t lessen England’s respect for the powerhouse prop. Reigning world champions England will look to end a three-match losing streak against the Springboks when they meet in Friday’s potentially decisive Pool A clash in Paris.