Brief was my excitement when I made haste to the mailbox to pick up my latest addition of SA Rugby and a familiar face stared back at me – NOT SCHALK AGAIN! Yes people, Schalk Burger donned the cover of my favourite magazine for close to the fourth or fifth time this year alone! Have these guys run out of people to put on the cover or what?! Granted, Schalk sells and he had an above-average RWC, but please widen your search and get some new blood in. Thankfully other regulars like Fourie du Preez, the combo of Victor Matfield/Bakkies Botha and of course John “deep pockets” Smit have either thought it time to retire or ply their trade abroad.

However, upon putting my disappointment on ice and actually opening the damn thing, I found (to my surprise) a stand-up comedian, moonlighting as a journalist. Ryan Vrede took on the enviable task of throwing an article together that explains why Schalla should become the heir to Smittie’s Bok hot-seat! What a load of ostridge-like drivel his particular contribution turned out to be – filled to the brim with references of Burger’s “never-say-die attitude”, his ability to take on all opponents “head-on” and even going as far as to label him a talisman for all that SA rugby stands for. If Schalk Burger epitomizes SA Rugby where it is at in this post-RWC wake of disappointment, that is one thing, but if he is the future of SA Rugby, we’re in for a decidedly tough and heart-wrenching FOUR, MORE YEARS!

(more…)

Sanzar announced this morning that the Springboks will be meeting the Pumas at the opening game of the new “Castle Rugby Championship” in South Africa in August 2012. The re-branded Tri-Nations now includes the Argentinian rugby team (joining Australia and New Zealand) that will take part in the new-look and new fixture line-up tournament.

The agreement was made official at a signing in Auckland recently with the Sanzar Joint Venture partners after several months of negotiations and included the Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) and the International Rugby Board (IRB).

Sanzar CEO Greg Peters said that “The invitation to Argentina to join the Championship is a defining moment for Southern Hemisphere rugby and significant for world rugby.”

(more…)

Pat Lambie, Schalk Burger and Bismarck du Plessis

On Thursday night, Gold Reef City hosted the 2011 SA Rugby Awards and here are some of the winners of the night.

Springbok flank and Western Province captain Schalk Burger won the award for SA Player of the Year for the second time, going up against fellow Springbok and Shark’s player Pat Lambie who did not walk away empty handed. The 21-year-old was named the Absa Young Player of the Year.

A historical Currie Cup victory for the Golden Lions saw them unsurprisingly winning three titles during the ceremony that included Absa Team of the Year for the squad,  Absa Coach of the Year for John Mitchell and Absa Currie Cup Premier Division Player of the Year for their captain Josh Strauss.

Other winners included Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis for The SARPA Players’ Player of the Year Award and Springbok Sevens flyer Sibusiso Sithole for The Supersport Try of the Year for his tournament-winning score in the final of the Edinburgh Sevens against Australia. Cecil Afrika, who was recently named the World Sevens Player of the Year walked away with the award for Springbok Sevens Player of the Year.

The South African Rugby Union (SARU) also paid tribute to two recently retired Springbok legends. Both John Smit, who has already left the country to take up a contract with English club Saracens, and Victor Matfield played their last Test for the national team in the quarter-finals at the Rugby World Cup.

Commenting on the past year of rugby, Oregan Hoskins, President of SARU said “Onfield success of our national and provincial teams will always be of paramount importance, but I believe we have enjoyed a special year in the history of our rugby – perhaps a watershed year.”

source: SA Rugby

Peter de Villiers has said that he will definitely apply for the job of Springbok coach when it becomes available after his tenure comes to an end this year. De Villers plans to hand in his application to serve a second term as the national rugby team’s coach as soon as SARU begin taking them in.

After the Boks were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by Australia, and one could argue at the hands of Bryce Lawrence, there was a lot of confusion surrounding the separate statements de Villiers made about his position as coach. While some media publications reported that he had stated his intentions to resign, soon afterwards it was reported that he was not planning on doing any such thing. At the post-match press conference de Villiers said that he knew it was the end of the road for him and only 30 hours later said he had not resigned but was simply acknowledging that the match in Wellington had been his final in the contracted period.

Now, after four years as coach, de Villiers believes he has the credentials to continue if the South African Rugby Union want him to. Not winning the World Cup, he says, makes him feel like “there is unfinished business.” I’ll let that statement sink in for a bit.

(more…)

The South African Rugby Awards will take place on Thursday night at Gold Reef City where the award recipients will be announced. With the Golden Lion’s victory against the Sharks in the Currie Cup final 2011, The team could very well walk away with the Absa Team of the Year award.

See the list below for some of the nominees:

 SARU Rugby Player of the Year:

1. Schalk Burger
2. Bismarck du Plessis
3. Francois Hougaard
4. Pat Lambie
5. Victor Matfield

(more…)

The Golden Lions beat the Sharks emphatically by 42 – 16 at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg on Saturday in the final of the 2011 Currie Cup competition. An enormous performance (including a drop goal) by Elton Jantjies saw him walk away with a points tally of 24 points and the man-of-the-match award. The Lions scored three tries to the Sharks’ one.

Point scorers:

Lions - Tries: Michael Killian, Patric Cilliers, Jaco Taute. Conversions: Elton Jantjies(3). Penalties: Jantjies (5), Jaco Taute. Drop goal: Jantjies. (more…)

And here it is, after about 3 months of intense and competitive provincial rugby, it all boils down to the 80 minutes of finals rugby on Saturday from 5.30pm at Coca-Cola Park in Joburg, where the Lions host the Sharks for the overall spoils in the 2011 Kerrie Beker final.

And what a final it should be, with two very different teams built around two very different team perspectives, each attempting to impose their brand of rugby on the other. The Lions have played this entire competition – along with the Super Rugby competition that preceded it – with basically the same group of players, whereas the Sharks offered up a number of players in key positions to the national cause at the World Cup. Those players are now obviously back in the mix and Sharks coach John Plumtree will be hoping that they have all been blended seamlessly into their provincial unit.

This all sets us up nicely for a bit of a group-of-stars versus overachieving team-of-nobodies match-up, and to be honest, that’s the type of contest I really like – on paper an apparent mismatch as the Sharks seem to have the quality players in at least 10 of the 15 positions, whereas the Lions have arguably moulded together into a much better functioning unit than any other team in the competition this year, to the credit of their coach John Mitchell. It’ll be a disservice to the Lions to call this a David-and-Goliath match-up, since they very deservedly ended on top of the Currie Cup log after the pool stages, but the fact that they head into this final with very few players with any type of finals experience versus a group of Sharks players used to playing in finals along with the mental rigors of full-blown international rugby, makes for an interesting dynamic on Saturday.

(more…)