De Villiers confirms commitment to Smit
He said ‘Luckily I’m the coach. For me its not as black and white as some people would believe. There’s more to team selection. If every player understands his role, that’s the important thing. If you look at how comfortable Wales were against our starting line-up it was important that we had something up our sleeve on the bench. We look at the cohesion of the team and what every player can bring. There are definitely some attributes Bismarck has that John doesn’t have. We’ll look at what we want to achieve in any given match and make selection decisions accordingly.’

Jean and Victor out for at least 10 days
Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield will be sidelined for 10 days following injuries sustained in Sunday’s Test against Wales. Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts confirmed on Monday that De Villiers suffered a grade one rib cartilage injury, while Matfield felt his hamstring tighten up in the second half. Both players have subsequently been ruled out of the next game against Fiji.

Lawes cited
England lock Courtney Lawes will face a disciplinary hearing for allegedly intentionally driving his knee into Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma’s head. If found guilty he should face a lengthy ban. What are the chances that the IRB will deprive their beloved England of one of their best players? Not likely!

Ioane out of the World Cup?
Wallaby winger Digby Ioane has a fractured finger and isn’t likely to feature in the pool stage of the World Cup again. He is expected to be available to play again later in the tournament although the exact timelines on when he might be able to return will not be known until after the joint has been operated on, and his rehabilitation from the injury has begun.

Barnes could’ve called on the TMO
The IRB has confirmed that the referee may call for TMO assistance if he is unsure as to whether a penalty, drop goal or conversion has been successful. In Sunday’s Test between South Africa and Wales, James Hook’s first-half penalty attempt appeared to be over, but the on-field officials decided that the kick had missed.

Don’t miss a game. The fixtures for the 2012 4 Nations rugby championship featuring Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are here. Updated 2012/06/01.

» Download fixtures in Outlook, iCal and PDF format HERE (Facebook)

PLEASE NOTE

    • Fixtures subject to change.
    • View Ou Grote Rugby terms and conditions related to fixture downloads.
    • Outlook and Internet Explorer are copyrights of Microsoft Corporation.
    • To remove the fixtures from Outlook, follow these steps:
      1. Open Outlook
      2. Open the calendar
      3. Click on View \ Arrange by \ Current View \ Events
      4. You can then sort by Event name, select multiple and delete.

 

Add all the South African holidays for 2012 to your Outlook calendar automatically.

Going away for the holidays? Sign up to get awesome savings here:

(more…)

by Rob Cowie The Springboks ran out narrow 17-16 winners in their opening game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. For once it was the replacements who made a big impact off the bench. The best players on the day were Frans Steyn, Schalk Burger, Heinrich Brussow, Francois Hougaard and Bismarck du Plessis. Here is what we thought of the individual performances.

15. Frans Steyn [8] – Started well on attack with an excellent try in the corner and some booming touch-finders. Took a more defensive role in the second half, and his positional play was good. Made the Welsh think twice about kicking onto him.

(more…)

Wednesday 14 September 2011
04:30SA 03:30UK 12:30AU 14:30NZ | Samoa v Namibia (D)
07:00SA 06:00UK 15:00AU 17:00NZ | Tonga v Canada (A)
09:30SA 08:30UK 17:30AU 19:30NZ | Scotland v Georgia (B)

Thursday 15 September 2011
09:30SA 08:30UK 17:30AU 19:30NZ | Russia v USA (C)

Friday 16 Septemeber 2011
10:00SA 09:00UK 18:00AU 20:00NZ | New Zealand v Japan (A)

Saturday 17 September 2011
05:30SA 04:30UK 13:30AU 15:30NZ | Argentina v Romania (B)
08:00SA 07:00UK 16:00AU 18:00NZ | South Africa v Fiji (D)
10:30SA 09:30UK 18:30AU 20:30NZ | Australia v Ireland (C)

Sunday 18 September 2011
05:30SA 04:30UK 13:30AU 15:30NZ | Wales v Samoa (D)
08:00SA 07:00UK 16:00AU 18:00NZ | England v Georgia (B)
10:30SA 09:30UK 18:30AU 20:30NZ | France v Canada (A)