The assault charge against former Springbok star Percy Montgomery was withdrawn on Friday morning, it has been reported.
Former Springbok star Percy Montgomery was arrested on Sunday for allegedly assaulting his wife, Tasmin, the Star reported on Friday.
Veteran fullback Percy Montgomery was on Tuesday axed from the South Africa team for Saturday’s Tri-Nations match against Australia.
New Zealand on Saturday probably put paid to South Africa’s chances of winning the Tri-Nations when they beat them 19-0 at a packed Newlands Stadium.
Last week’s rout of Argentina built confidence but the Springboks must bring their ‘A’ game to Newlands.
The hot topic of transformation in sport boiled to the surface again this week, somewhat predictably in the domain of rugby.
SA fullback Percy Montgomery will become the ninth player in history to reach the magical 100-Test mark when he faces New Zealand on Saturday.
SA coach Peter de Villiers has handed the number 15 jersey to fullback Percy Montgomery for Saturday’s clash against the All Blacks.
Percy Montgomery won’t talk about it. The approaching milestone of 100 caps for the Springboks has captivated the country, but for the man itself, it’s all about 96. “I was lucky enough to get my 95th cap against Wales,” smiles Montgomery.
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.
Percy Montgomery on Wednesday signed a one-year contract with Western Province. Montgomery, who was the leading points scorer at last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, is hardly likely to play for the Province Currie Cup side due the heavy Springbok schedule over the next four months.
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.
Frederic Michalak is an anomaly in the migration patterns, the maverick flyhalf the sole French player moving to South Africa to play while many Boks head the other way. It now seems almost voguish that every French rugby team have at least a couple of South Africans on their books.
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/ 19 February 2008
Top-ranked tennis stars Roger Federer and Justine Henin received the Laureus Awards on Monday as the world’s top sportsman and woman for 2007. Federer won an unprecedented fourth Laureus, all in succession, while Henin was voted top for the first time. South Africa won the world team of the year award after going unbeaten to win the Rugby World Cup.
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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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/ 14 February 2008
The new Super 14 season, which begins on Friday, could help determine whether South Africa’s dominance of world rugby was a one-year wonder. South Africa provided both teams in last year’s Super 14 final — the Bulls beat the Sharks — and the Springboks went on to win the sixth World Cup in France.
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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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/ 11 January 2008
”I want to be honest with South Africa and say that the appointment was not entirely made for rugby reasons. We as an organisation have made the appointment and taken into account the issue of transformation very, very seriously when we made it. I don’t think that tarnishes Peter — I’m just being honest with our country.”
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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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/ 21 December 2007
October 20 was South Africa’s biggest sporting day of the year. The venue was the Stade de France in Paris and the outcome was the right to call the Webb Ellis trophy ours for the next four years. The Springboks beat England 15‑6 in a tense final. Lucky Sindane looks back at the sporting highlights of 2007.
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/ 15 December 2007
South Africa’s World Cup winning fullback Percy Montgomery endured a painful European Cup introduction on Saturday when he limped out of Perpignan’s 23-6 win over London Irish. Montgomery suffered a dead-leg and was substituted on the hour mark but the Bok star insisted the injury was not connected to his knee problem.
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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.