Rugby shorts – A quick wrap of the morning’s most interesting rugby news …
- Richie McCaw has successfully undergone surgery on his injured foot but will miss the start of the Super Rugby season … More
- Blitzbokke coach Paul Treu will use his iPad to monitor the performance of his players during matches in the upcoming HSBC Sevens World Series, which starts this weekend at the Gold Coast in Australia … More
- Former Free State captain Helgard Müller will be named as the new Cheetahs Vodacom Cup coach for the 2012 season, replaing Pine Pienaar, who moved to the Bulls … More
- SARU plan to give the Vodacom Cup a kick in the pants by playing some of its matches on Monday nights after the Varsity Cup finishes … More
- Victor Matfield will captain a Barbarian team containing 10 different nationalities and more than a thousand Test caps in Saturday’s match against Australia at Twickenham …
Barbarians: 15 Isaia Toeva, 14 Sam Tomkins, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Stirling Mortlock, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Eusebio Guinazu.
Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Jason White, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Nemia Kenatale, 21 Richard Kahui, 22 Seru Rabeni.
Wallabies: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 James O’Connor, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Salesi Ma’afu, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 James Slipper.
Substitutes: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 James Horwill, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Matt Hodgson, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Ben Tapuai
- Former Bok flyhalf Naas Botha has gained his Bok Smart certificate, thus enabling him to start his position as head coach at Waterkloof High School … More
- Victor Matfield will become the most capped SA player ever in terms of first class appearances on Saturday. He will go to 345 caps, one ahead of Stefan Terblanche, and two ahead of Ollie le Roux.
- Definition of a ‘first-class match’ and ‘first-class appearance’ as per the SA Rugby annual compiled by Duane Heath:
i) To qualify as a first-class match, it must be played strictly according to the Laws of the game (no more than seven players on the bench).
ii) “e following categories of matches qualify for first-class status if point i) is fulfilled:
a) All matches featuring the South African national team (Springboks);
b) All matches in senior competitions sanctioned by SARU;
c) All matches against touring international teams;
d) All matches between senior provincial teams and touring teams of the same or a higher status;
e) All matches between senior provincial teams outside of SARU competitions where the strongest possible teams are fielded;
f) All matches played by senior teams carrying the name of a South African national team;
g) All matches played by senior composite teams in IRB approved competitions.
iii) Any player appearing in one of the above matches (either in the starting XV or as a replacement – blood replacements and yellow-card replacements included) will be deemed to have made a first-class appearance.
- Most Tests for Boks as a substitute: Ollie le Roux 43 out of 54 total; CJ van der Linde 34/73; Ruan Pienaar 30/51; Albert vd Berg 28/51; Danie Rossouw 20/63.
- Schalk Ferreira, who quit rugby two years ago after a serious neck injury, has decided to make a comeback. The 27-year-old, 111kg forward, who last played rugby in February 2009, played 45 games for WP and represented the Stormers on 14 occasions. Training with WP at the moment …
- The England Rugby Football Union have launched a probe into who leaked reports into the country’s Rugby World Cup campaign that painted a damning portrait of an ill-disciplined, divided squad obsessed with making money, thus seemingly more keen to find out who leaked the RWC report rather than attend to the issues it raised … More
