What a weekend of Rugby. South African Rugby can hold its head up high and something is going well in the Republic. The Chiefs were “BULL”dozed in Pretoria on Saturday night in front of a sold out Loftus crowd. There may have been a few worried supporters when the Chiefs opened the scoring with a try however Springbok no 9 Fourie Du Preez quickly got them cheering again with 2 tries in quick concession. After that it was pretty much one way traffic for the Bulls after that. Loftus went on to witness the largest thrashing in a Super 14 final. The Bulls will be parading around Pretoria today and rightly so.
The Royal XV came out fighting against the British and Irish Lions but just let it slip away at the end. The Final score was 25-37 to the Lions however they did trail 25-13 with only 13 mins to go. The first game together will no doubt let them pickup on their week points and work them out, so I do expect a much stronger Lions team for the Test Matches. Credit must go the Royal XV who did really well and disrupted the Lions by getting in their faces and putting them under a lot of pressure. Welldone to them and they can hold their heads up high.
Below is highlights of the 2 games from the weekend.
“BULL”dozed
Limping Lions:
On Saturday the Chiefs will take on the Bulls at Loftus in Pretoria. The Bulls will be looking to claim their second Super 14 titel while the Cheifs are on the hunt for their first.
Here is a Preview video for the Super 14 Final:
Bulls:
15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Dewald Potgieter, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Derick Kuün, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Chiefs:
15 Mils Muliaina (c), 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Callum Bruce, 11 Dwayne Sweeney, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Toby Morland, 8 Sione Lauaki, 7 Tanerau Latimer, 6 Liam Messam, 5 Kevin O’Neill, 4 Craig Clarke, 3 James McGougan, 2 Aled de Malmanche, 1 Sona Taumalolo.
Gerald Davies (British & Irish Lions Tour Manager) has announced the match day 22 to play the Royal XV in Phokeng on Saturday. There are 9 debutants in the match day 22.
British & Irish Lions Team versus Royal XV on Saturday 30th May
15. Lee Byrne (Ospreys/Wales)
14. Tommy Bowe (Ospreys/Wales)
13. Keith Earls (Munster/Ireland)
12. Jamie Roberts (Cardiff Blues/Wales)
11. Shane Williams (Ospreys/Wales)
10. Ronan O’Gara (Munster/Ireland)
9. Mike Blair (Edinburgh/Scotland)
8. Andy Powell (Cardiff Blues/Wales)
7. Martyn Williams (Cardiff Blues/Wales)
6. Joe Worsley (London Wasps/England)
5. Paul O’Connell (Munster/Ireland) captain
4. Simon Shaw (London Wasps/England)
3. Adam Jones (Ospreys/Wales)
2. Matthew Rees (Scarlets/Wales)
1. Andrew Sheridan (Sales Sharks/England)
Replacements:
16. Lee Mears (Bath/England)
17. Phil Vickery (London Wasps/England)
18. Alun-Wyn Jones (Ospreys/Wales)
19. Stephen Ferris (Ulster/Ireland)
20. Mike Phillips (Ospreys/Wales)
21. Stephen Jones (Scarlets/Wales)
22. Riki Flutey (London Wasps/England)
Here is some ads for the British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa. They are pretty cool.
Warren Gatland has revealed that he will not be playing mind games with the South Africa players as he helps the Lions prepare for their opening tour match against a Royal XV on Saturday.
The Wales coach sparked a great deal of controversy during this year’s Six Nations tournament when he publicly admitted that his Welsh players didn’t like their Irish rivals. Ireland, of course, then went on to win the Grand-slam, prompting a response to Gatland’s comments by Lions captain Paul O’Connell.
Speaking about the situation, Gatland said that he wants to ‘keep my mouth shut’ during this tour because he has ‘had a couple of lessons’ since his Six Nations outburst. In fact, he aims to be ‘very boring’ while the Lions are in South Africa, thus avoiding any controversy.
Gatland admits that mind games can often do nothing other than ‘motivate the opposition’ to raise their game. When you are playing a team like South Africa, this is the last thing you want to be doing. Therefore, he is probably right by keeping his thoughts to himself.
The New Zealander did reveal that the Lions team have ‘a couple of things up our sleeve’ though, suggesting that the aim is to catch South Africa off guard in terms of how they will approach the three-Test series.
As for how the preparation is going overall, Gatland seems very happy indeed. He says that he is confident the Lions can ‘play some positive rugby and score some good tries’ over the next few weeks.
The 45-year-old also claimed that the squad has gelled together ‘a lot quicker than initially expected’, meaning that everything is coming together nicely. Gatland clearly believes in this bunch of players.
The obvious downer of the tour so far though, as we all know, is the amount of injuries that have been picked up. Gatland admits to seeing huge ‘disappointment’ on the players who are set to miss out. This is a Lions tour after all and it doesn’t get much bigger.
Gatland knows this all too well and it is probably one of the main reasons that he is deciding to let the players do the majority of the team’s talking on the pitch.
By Thomas Rooney
McGeechan and O’Connell have a word with the press after arriving in South Africa.
As the Lions are a mixture of 4 Nations I was under the impression that they wouldn’t perform a song however I have been told that they actually have a special Lions Anthem called “The Power of 4”.
This Song was used in their tour of New Zealand in 2005 but I am not sure if they will use the Power of 4 again. Anyone know?
On Saturday the Crusaders traveled to Loftus in Pretoria to take on the Bulls for the Super 14 09 Semi Final.
The Bulls managed to score the first try via Brian Habana and then seemed to relax. The Crusaders crossed the line twice making the score 7-20 after 30 mins of play. The next 10 mins saw the Bulls score a total of 20 points before the half time whistle with tries from Ndungane and Spies. Spies’s try was a great one to watch with a number 8 sprinting from the half way line to score under the posts.
Morné Steyn has once again proved that he is South Africa’s inform number 10 with 4 drop goals, 3 conversions and one penalty. Surely he has kicked his way into a the Springbok Squad with another classic performance. Have a look at the highlights video below. Zane Kirchner also had an outstanding game and is still my first choice full back for the Boks.
The Bulls will now host the Chiefs in Pretoria next Saturday.
Lions received a nice welcome at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Airports Company of SA officials handed out T-shirts with “Welcome to Springbok Country” printed on them. Some lucky fans managed to get autographs from the Lions squad. The players were whisked away before the media could talk with them.
The lions begin their tour this Saturday (30th May) against the Royal XV. Springbok fans have to wait one more week until they know the Official test squad who will take on the British and Irish Lions.
The Lions have landed
On the 29th of May the Springbok training Squad will have a warm up match against the Namibian Invitation XV in Windhoek. Five capped Springboks and Sharks number 9 Rory Kockott will be taking on the Bok training squad along with the Namibian’s and this may be the last chace for some to impress PDV and make their way into the Bok Squad.
Namibian Invitation XV:
15 Jaco van der Westhuizen, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Frikkie Welsh, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Llewellyn Winckler, 10 Derick Hougaard, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Jacques Burger, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Jacques Nieuwenhuis, 5 Nico Breedt, 4 David de Villiers, 3 Kobus Calldo, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Kees Lensing (capt.).
Springbok Training Squad:
Andries Bekker, Heinrich Brüssow, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers, Jean Deysel, Bismarck Du Plessis, Wian Du Preez, Peter Grant, Adi Jacobs, Ricky Januarie, Ryan Kankowski, Tendai Mtawarira, Johan Muller, Odwa Ndungane, Morgan Newman, Jongi Nokwe, JP Pietersen, Earl Rose, John Smit (capt), Juan Smith, Adriaan Strauss, Steven Sykes, Jano Vermaak.
