Interestingly the Sharks keep including Luan Giliomee in teams even though he set to join the Bulls in December. In the past they would have allowed an early release – now they are making full use of him while short on full back cover. The game is in George on Friday night and will not be televised.
I have not been a fan of Ross Braude but after his recent form in the Currie Cup I would think he deserves a go in the URC team.
(more…)Rassie made only one injury enforced change to the team for the third test. Cheslin Kolbe moves to full back while Kurt-Lee Arendse comes back into the team at wing.
This is in effect another must win game for the Boks as they would not want to lose the SA leg of the tour to the All Blacks. The Springboks showed major improvement from the first game. The maul worked really well, they did manage to get points from their 22 visits, Eben and co disrupted their lineout a number of times, the Boks won the high ball battle (Ethan Hooker was outstanding) and the Bok defense mostly ensured that the All Blacks did not have their own way on attack.
(more…)Cheslin Kolbe and Grant Williams (would probably have been dropped anyway) are out with injury – so Ethan Hooker and Cobus Reinach starts. SFM (also had a poor match overall) is dropped to the bench and Pollard starts the crunch match for the Boks.
Deon Fourie is on the bench as hooker – a selection that will raise eyebrows but he did trouble the All Blacks in their game against the Stormers. Thomas du Toit and Lood de Jager will add some scrumming power and old heads later in the game.
(more…)Coach Vowles has mostly stayed with the same squad with just one change with Pieterse at 8 and Mavesere moving to 6.
The Sharks still has a tiny mathematical chance to reach the semis but will require Boland to lose against Griquas without any bonus log points, Stormers and Lions to draw and score 4 tries and beat the Bulls by 29 points. Should both the Pumas and Boland lose their games without bonus points the Sharks just have to score 4 tries. So basically the Sharks are playing for pride.
(more…)The Sharks (with a very small mathematical chance of making the top 4 on 10 log points) will face the Lions (13 log points) in Pietermaritzburg on Friday night. Hopefully the coaches have worked on the scrum, lineout and kicking as the Sharks were really poor in all these departments against the Griquas. Slabbert coming back into the team should at least improve the lineout.
(more…)Rassie has picked a very strong starting team for the All Blacks. The strongest available scrumming front row of Louw, Marx and Nche has been picked – question is will the refs reward the Bok scrum? Andre Esterhuizen has been picked in the hybrid bench role with SFM preferred ahead of Libbok.
(more…)Coach Vowles have rotated / rested a number of players for the game against the current Currie Cup champions. Great to see all the youngsters but I still can’t follow why at least not some second tier URC players are not included in this group.
(more…)Coach JPP has selected new signing All Black legend Ma’a Nonu to play from the bench against the All Blacks on Tuesday night. Vusi Moyo will run the show from 10 next to Murray Koster (back from Japan). I was under the impression Jaco Williams was released in order to play in this match but still great for Litelihle Bester to get this opportunity.
(more…)Coach Vowles has made a number of changes to the team that lost to the Stormers last weekend. Rambo Kubheka replaces Cameron Dawson. Tino Mavesere comes back into the team at 8 with Ross Braude taking over as captain. Lyle Matthews moves to 13 with Khuthi Rashivanga starting at 11.
(more…)Rassie has kept 12 players back in SA to train with Tony Brown. He is using the test in Argentina to give players returning from injury a game before the All Black games start. Both Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth have copped long bans plus injury layoffs – so expect at least one to play no more than 50 minutes. Andre Esterhuizen, Ethan Hooker, Morne van den Berg, Sacha FM and Siya Kolisi all return from injury either having little game time or no Bok games this season.
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