Western Province coach Allister Coetzee has made two changes from the team that beat the Sharks last weekend to face the Blue Bulls at Loftus on Saturday.

Sevens star Gio Aplon replaces the injured Joe Pietersen at fullback, while Dewaldt Duvenhage steps in at scrumhalf after Ricky Januarie was called up to the Springbok squad.
Frikkie Welsh will also travel with Western Province to face his former teammates. Welsh recently joined the Western Province from France club Montpellier on a 18-month contract.

Chris Jack made his debut for the Western Province on Saturday against the Sharks at Newlands in Cape Town. He scored in no less a try after no less than 22 seconds into the game!

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The ABSA Currie Cup produced a few shock results in the first round already, giving the competition a juicy start.

The Boland Kavaliers are always a formidable opponent on their home turf, but there were many pundits predicting a win for the Platinum Leopards in the wake of the gutsy showing by the Royal XV – coached by Chaka Willemse and made up largely of Leopards players – against the British & Irish Lions. Boland held firm, however, and beat the Leopards 26 – 18.

The big shock of the round came when the Cheetahs were rolled at home 18 – 28 by the Griquas with the visitors gaining a bonus point and denying their rivals any in Bloemfontein on Friday night. The Vodacom Cup champions sending out a clear warning to the so-called ‘big five’ that they are more than capable of upsetting the apple cart this season. Even away from their rock-hard field in Kimberley.

The least attractive game of the weekend was clearly the dour scrap between the Blue Bulls and the Lions. (more…)

The Sharks are still missing some of their Springbok back players, but have nontheless named an impressive team to face the Western Province for the Newlands clash on Saturday.

No less than seven Springboks still feature in the match-day 22, with the forward pack especially laden with experienced personnel.

In the backline, Rory Kockott, Odwa Ndungane, Riaan Swanepoel, Andries Strauss and Stefan Terblanche are also no strangers to the Sharks jersey and will have a big job in keeping the impressive Western Province backs at bay.

It will be a baptism of fire, though, for flyhalf Guy Cronje who was battling with a hip injury earlier this week, but has been named to start in the crucial pivot position.

Sharks coach John Plumtree said he knew it was going to be a tough encounter first up but expressed confidence they could pull through if they stuck to their guns.

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A significant number of Springbok players have been released to play for their provinces when South Arica’s premier rugby competition, the ABSA Currie Cup kicks off this weekend.

Oregan Hoskins, President of the South African Rugby Union, said at the launch of the competition on Monday that the Bok management decided to releases “as many players as possible” for this coming weekend’s opening matches.

Hoskins, describing it as “the word’s best domestic competition”, said it is obvious that the public want to see the top players in action.

The Currie Cup, one of the oldest competitions in the world and still regarded as the cornerstone of South African rugby, kicks off this Friday when the Boland Cavaliers host the competition newcomers, the Leopards, in Wellington.

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It’s all systems go for this year’s ABSA Currie Cup and it will start with the Boland Cavaliers hosting the Platinum Leopards in Wellington on Friday.

And to mark the occasion SA Rugby and Absa have launched a new logo to renew the identity of Absa’s long-standing sponsorship of South Africa’s 118-year Currie Cup.

“The nature of the game is constantly changing, increasing competition for ‘market share’ so that competing in sports sponsorship necessitates a strategic review of tournament reach and flex in a developing market place”, said Bronwen Rautenbach, Absa Executive Creative Director.

“Absa is confident that the new identity will reflect the nature of rugby in South Africa as it is today, as the logo captures the emotion, professionalism and energy of the current game.”

Eight teams – Boland Cavaliers, GWK Griquas, Platinum Leopards, The Sharks, Vodacom Blue Bulls, Vodacom Free State Cheetahs and Vodacom Western Province and the Xerox Lions, will battle it out for domestic rugby’s most important prize in the Premier Division competition.

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The Chiefs have reached the semi final of the Super 14 competition by beating the Hurricanes 14 – 10 in Hamilton decided in the end by a 60m counterattack by Mils Muliaina resulting in the winning try.

Stephen Donald converted the Chiefs captain’s try and the Chiefs withstood a late onslaught to claim a place in the final against the winner of Saturday’s semi-final between the Bulls and the champion Crusaders.

The Chiefs, who lost the first three games of the season, produced an outstanding defensive effort in the final 15 minutes when Hamilton’s Waikato Stadium became enshrouded in a thick blanket of fog and the Hurricanes were hammering at their lines.

“The heart and dedication that went into that last 10 or 15 minutes you can’t train for that,” Muliaina said in a televised interview.

“You have to have togetherness and tightness and we had that. We knew we had to try and slow their ball down and if they were going to pick and go we knew we had to put them back and the forwards did that.”

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