Richie McCaw will make an appearance on the Crusaders bench against the Hurricanes after a lengthy battle with a foot injury.
McCaw hasn’t played since the World Cup final in October 2011. There were fears that it was so severe that he would be forced into premature retirement. However, McCaw assured the media that those fears were unfounded.
In other changes, the Franks brothers, Ben and Owen, start at loosehead and tighthead prop , while Luke Romano comes into the second row in place of Sam Whitelock.
Dan Carter continues his stint in midfield.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Will Genia to join Western Force? Seriously?
I was confirmed yesterday that Melbourne Reds and Wallabies scrumhalf will join the Western Force next season.
Shock, right? I mean I don't understand Australian teams and their players sometimes, waisting their talent by leaving teams that have been performing well for struggling teams. It makes if you know you are a good player, playing the best players in the country as a team and dominating as apposed to going off and being the superstar of an ok team. I get that they are spreading the talent amongst the teams but this decisions i don't understand.
It almost feels like he's abandoning ship because with Quade Cooper out on injury and Digby Ioanes suspension the Reds have been struggling. But I guess money talks.
The move will only be confirmed next week, but it is believed that Genia has already agreed terms to leave defending Super Rugby champions the Reds for the Force in 2013. This comes after the player requested an improved contract to remain in Australia, with demands of a A$400 000-a-season deal.
There were potential moves to Europe and Japan on the cards before the Force offered Genia a lucrative deal. The signing of Genia has also convinced Wallabies flank and Force captain David Pocock to agree a new deal to extend his stay in Perth.
This is going to be a massive loss for the Reds, I'm starting to wonder what Quade Cooper s going to do when or if he comes back from injury.
Shock, right? I mean I don't understand Australian teams and their players sometimes, waisting their talent by leaving teams that have been performing well for struggling teams. It makes if you know you are a good player, playing the best players in the country as a team and dominating as apposed to going off and being the superstar of an ok team. I get that they are spreading the talent amongst the teams but this decisions i don't understand.
It almost feels like he's abandoning ship because with Quade Cooper out on injury and Digby Ioanes suspension the Reds have been struggling. But I guess money talks.
The move will only be confirmed next week, but it is believed that Genia has already agreed terms to leave defending Super Rugby champions the Reds for the Force in 2013. This comes after the player requested an improved contract to remain in Australia, with demands of a A$400 000-a-season deal.
There were potential moves to Europe and Japan on the cards before the Force offered Genia a lucrative deal. The signing of Genia has also convinced Wallabies flank and Force captain David Pocock to agree a new deal to extend his stay in Perth.
This is going to be a massive loss for the Reds, I'm starting to wonder what Quade Cooper s going to do when or if he comes back from injury.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Hougaard to stay with the Bulls
It was reported that talented scrum half Francois Hougaard signed a 3 year deal extending his contract with the Bulls. Good news for the team indeed considering that there were rumours that he wold go back to Westeern prvince and that he also had other offers to go abroad to play.
He moved from Western Province to the Bulls in late 2007.
Hougaard said: ‘This is where it all really started for me and in the last four years I have worked very hard in the structures to establish myself in the side. I put a very high premium on hard work and the work ethic at the Bulls is something I feel very comfortable with. I know how hard not only the players, but the coaching staff work to achieve results.’
He moved from Western Province to the Bulls in late 2007.
Hougaard said: ‘This is where it all really started for me and in the last four years I have worked very hard in the structures to establish myself in the side. I put a very high premium on hard work and the work ethic at the Bulls is something I feel very comfortable with. I know how hard not only the players, but the coaching staff work to achieve results.’
The Beast is Back!
Wow, It felt like he was gone forever. Sharks Tendai Mtawarira is back in action this week in the Vodacom Cup after making a faster than expected recovery from injury.
He suffered a bad ankle injury at the begining of the year while training and had to have surgery, He recovered 2 weeks early. The 26-year-old is in the starting line-up for the Sharks XV's clash with the EP Kings at Kings Park on Saturday. This is good news for Sharks, Beast will add great value to the team for a place in the playoffs.
The Sharks play the Chiefs this weekend before enjoying a bye next week, so there is a good chance Tendai could be involved in the next clash against the Highlanders on May 5.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer must be a pleased man with these news.
He suffered a bad ankle injury at the begining of the year while training and had to have surgery, He recovered 2 weeks early. The 26-year-old is in the starting line-up for the Sharks XV's clash with the EP Kings at Kings Park on Saturday. This is good news for Sharks, Beast will add great value to the team for a place in the playoffs.
The Sharks play the Chiefs this weekend before enjoying a bye next week, so there is a good chance Tendai could be involved in the next clash against the Highlanders on May 5.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer must be a pleased man with these news.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Counting the days till Peter Grant is back at no.10 for The Stormers, but Gary van Aswegen should be good for now right, ....
Not to take anything away from the young Gary van Aswegen who has ‘unbelievable potential’ playing in Super Rugby. But I cant wait for flyhalf Peter Grant to come back in the country and feature for the Stormers.
They said he wont be available until early March due to his commitments to the Japanese club Kobe Steelers took him away from the Stormers’ pre-season games. So the Stormers have had to search for a more dependable, and potentially greater, longer-term option.
Van Aswegen held his own during the first few games of the 2011 competition, but is this year that he will be expected to exercise more control and authority. We all know that the Stormers have been having issues with finding a flyhalf , but the coach has faith in Van Aswegen as a player.
De Villiers said ‘We’re basically preparing as if Bash [Grant] isn’t going to be here,’ . ‘Gary has done well with the few opportunities that he’s had, and I think we’re in a better position now than we were at the same time last year with regards to the flyhalf situation.
‘Gary is maturing as a player, he has unbelievable potential. I have a role to play in mentoring young players like Gary, but at the same time I’m excited to be playing next to him.’
Van Aswegen has started 2 games thus far during the pre-season. While he will have De Villiers on his outside at No 12, he won’t have the Stormers’ best scrumhalf, Dewaldt Duvenage, on his inside.
With all that said we shouldnt worry about Gary starting now and Grant starting later,... right?
They said he wont be available until early March due to his commitments to the Japanese club Kobe Steelers took him away from the Stormers’ pre-season games. So the Stormers have had to search for a more dependable, and potentially greater, longer-term option.
Van Aswegen held his own during the first few games of the 2011 competition, but is this year that he will be expected to exercise more control and authority. We all know that the Stormers have been having issues with finding a flyhalf , but the coach has faith in Van Aswegen as a player.
De Villiers said ‘We’re basically preparing as if Bash [Grant] isn’t going to be here,’ . ‘Gary has done well with the few opportunities that he’s had, and I think we’re in a better position now than we were at the same time last year with regards to the flyhalf situation.
‘Gary is maturing as a player, he has unbelievable potential. I have a role to play in mentoring young players like Gary, but at the same time I’m excited to be playing next to him.’
Van Aswegen has started 2 games thus far during the pre-season. While he will have De Villiers on his outside at No 12, he won’t have the Stormers’ best scrumhalf, Dewaldt Duvenage, on his inside.
With all that said we shouldnt worry about Gary starting now and Grant starting later,... right?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I hate that I have to admit this about the Sharks ...
After last year, the drama within the teams, players moving to other countries in search of greener pastures and the retirements.
I had a discussion with my friends and I cannot believe it but I had to admit that the Sharks, compared to last year’s best-performing South African team the Stormers, represent South Africa’s best chance of success in the 2012 Super Rugby season.
According to the latest edition of Sports Illustrated magazine and the artlicles I have read about the upcoming Super Rugby season.
They have theSharks finishing second on the overall log behind the Crusaders, last season’s runners-up and the top side in the Super Rugby history, and thus winning the SA conference.
It tips the Stormers, last year’s domestic conference winners and eventually beaten semi-finalists, to end fifth overall and as conference runners-up, thus qualifying again for the playoffs as the only other South African team to do so.
According to the magazine, the rebuilding Bulls will end seventh, just outside the playoffs, cash-strapped Currie Cup champions the Lions 11th and the Cheetahs 12th.
“The Sharks have all the personnel, skills and smarts a team could wish for. Now they just need the belief,” SI said.
It cited favourable aspects for the Sharks like the fact that they don’t meet the Crusaders on the pre-playoff calendar this season, and will play defending champions the Reds at home.
In slightly downgrading the Stormers this year, the magazine said: “They have the goods to take top (conference) spot if they fire on all cylinders, but when they backfire, they do so spectacularly.”
On a broader level, as the tournament faces a record-length year marked by a three-week break for Test rugby, it quoted SARU chief executive Jurie Roux as admitting that the schedule was “challenging not only from a player point of view but also because we have the incoming English tour in the middle of the Super Rugby competition which makes selling both quite tricky”.
He added: “It’s certainly easier to handle the promotion of one tournament at a time. The Test window will put added pressure on the new Bok coach because he’ll have hardly any time to work with the players before the first England Test.”
I had a discussion with my friends and I cannot believe it but I had to admit that the Sharks, compared to last year’s best-performing South African team the Stormers, represent South Africa’s best chance of success in the 2012 Super Rugby season.
According to the latest edition of Sports Illustrated magazine and the artlicles I have read about the upcoming Super Rugby season.
They have theSharks finishing second on the overall log behind the Crusaders, last season’s runners-up and the top side in the Super Rugby history, and thus winning the SA conference.
It tips the Stormers, last year’s domestic conference winners and eventually beaten semi-finalists, to end fifth overall and as conference runners-up, thus qualifying again for the playoffs as the only other South African team to do so.
According to the magazine, the rebuilding Bulls will end seventh, just outside the playoffs, cash-strapped Currie Cup champions the Lions 11th and the Cheetahs 12th.
“The Sharks have all the personnel, skills and smarts a team could wish for. Now they just need the belief,” SI said.
It cited favourable aspects for the Sharks like the fact that they don’t meet the Crusaders on the pre-playoff calendar this season, and will play defending champions the Reds at home.
In slightly downgrading the Stormers this year, the magazine said: “They have the goods to take top (conference) spot if they fire on all cylinders, but when they backfire, they do so spectacularly.”
On a broader level, as the tournament faces a record-length year marked by a three-week break for Test rugby, it quoted SARU chief executive Jurie Roux as admitting that the schedule was “challenging not only from a player point of view but also because we have the incoming English tour in the middle of the Super Rugby competition which makes selling both quite tricky”.
He added: “It’s certainly easier to handle the promotion of one tournament at a time. The Test window will put added pressure on the new Bok coach because he’ll have hardly any time to work with the players before the first England Test.”
Monday, January 16, 2012
Rugby players partying like Rockstars, Part 2
The Kiwis also like to party. Shocked onlookers at a bar watched as a naked, drunk and bleeding Zac Guildford staggered into a beachside Rarotonga bar and assaulted two holidaymakers.
Witnesses said the All Black winger suddenly appeared dripping wet and without clothes in Trader Jacks, a popular bar and restaurant, about 10pm on Friday (NZ time).
He was bleeding from a gash to his forehead and wounds on his chest and knees, thought to have happened when he fell off a scooter earlier in the day.
The 22 year old Guildford first punched one man in the bar who asked him if he needed help. The All Black then staggered to the bar and hit Australian Nick Cox across the back of the head.
In September, Guildford admitted to a drinking problem and met with All Blacks coaches to promise he would take steps to control his drinking.(Umm,... Yeah)
But the Kiwis watching him on Friday night say his behaviour was appalling.
Luckily Zac Guildford has kept his lucrative New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) contract but been banned for four games and ordered to undergo alcohol counselling
Luckily Zac Guildford has kept his lucrative New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) contract but been banned for four games and ordered to undergo alcohol counselling
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