Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i SA RUGBY

Based at the Train Camp Franschhoek campus, the programme brings international coaching expertise, specialist technical and medical support, and a bespoke academic offering together under the banner of Franschhoek Rugby. Former Springbok assistant coach and current head coach of USA Rugby, Gary Gold, takes up his role as Director of Rugby from 2023 – and he’s eager to get involved with school-level coaching, where player development begins. His vision for Franschhoek Rugby is to build a programme that mentors and develops players, both local and international, on the foundation of the fiercely competitive schools and club leagues in the Winelands. Gold is joined by Head of Performance Strategy Dick Muir – his fellow Springbok assistant coach from 2008 – 2011. “We’ve been developing a strategy for Franschhoek High School for…

DAMIAN WILLEMSE ‘Not our best performance but nobody gave up last night. Great to have the supporters back in the stadium, you guys were awesome.’ – The Springbok fullback exchanged jerseys with former Saracens teammate Liam Williams after his match-winning penalty goal against Wales at Loftus Versfeld. AARON SMITH ‘Two Maori boys from the east coast of New Zealand.’ – The All Blacks scrumhalf exchanged jerseys with Ireland rival Jamison Gibson-Park after their Test at Eden Park. VINCENT TSHITUKA ‘It’s been a long time coming but I finally decided to fix what needs to be fixed. The URC season was nothing short of exciting. Special thanks to the fans who stood behind me and believed in me all the way through, I truly appreciate you guys.’ – The flank was…

SARUGBYMAG.CO.ZA READERS CAST THEIR VOTES ROUND 1 SIYA KOLISI vs JEAN DE VILLIERS Kolisi was named Bok skipper in May 2018, the first black African player to hold the position. He then became the third man to lead South Africa to World Cup glory with a 32-12 victory against England in the 2019 final. The loose forward with 60-plus caps was named SA Rugby’s Player of the Year after a stunning 2021 in which he led the Boks to a British & Irish Lions series success. He was the only Bok to play in all 13 Tests last year and went on to captain the side under difficult circumstances in the Rugby Championship, which culminated in a nail-biting win over the All Blacks. De Villiers became the 54th Bok captain…

SPRINGBOKS My son Oliver asked me which players I rated the best during my time writing on rugby. I asked him to qualify what he meant by ‘best’ as I had reported on so many good South African and international players since 1992. ‘Which players made the biggest impact on you?’ he asked. There were so many. He challenged me again and asked me to pick a Springbok match-day 23 and a World 23 from every player I had seen live since 1992. How would it look? And so The Chosen 23 was bom. I started writing as a 15-year-old for my local ‘knock and drop’ and reported on my first Springbok Test on South Africa’s return from international sporting isolation in 1992. The All Blacks beat the Springboks 27-24…

Supplied by RUGBY COACH WEEKLY PREPARING FOR ACTION Seven great ways to warm up Make the best use of your precious pre-training warm-up time to ensure you get the best from your players. Here are seven ways to make sure you do. 1. STEADY STATE TO RUGBY ACTIVE Players will not arrive at the same time, or in the same state of mind. You need to get them from their steady state up to rugby active. If you are lucky, they will organise a game of touch rugby. If not, encourage a gentle game. It will certainly drag a few out of the changing rooms quicker. Try Rondo-type activities, again which can be set up by the players. 2. MINDS ON Once your team is ready to start properly, a…

South Africa produces world-class rugby talent like the United States produces hamburgers, and identifying the best 100 Springboks with conviction is attempting the impossible. Never shy of a challenge, we’ve gone ahead and named the Top 30 Boks since 1995. Gulp! While charges have been laid at the local police station as the selectors did come to blows over a few of the picks, without exception the players chosen are among the most talented, tough and/or trophyladen in team history. Spoiler alert: Willie le Roux didn’t make the cut, but dry your eyes because the veteran playmaker is featured as a player with a big role to play in the season ahead as the world champions charge from a series against Wales into the Rugby Championship. And while South Africa’s…

SA Rugby magazine The Stormers produced a magnificent second-half comeback to claim an 18-13 victory over the Bulls in the URC final in Cape Town. Johan Barnard Well done to the Stormers from a Bulls fan! A deserved victory! Gutted for my team but very happy for SA rugby! This game showed our rugby is healthy and strong. The future seems bright for SA rugby. Steve Horne A final is won 90% of the time by the team with the most powerful pack. Stormers pack just far too good on the day. Two SA teams in the final shows how strong SA rugby is. Marlon Ohlsson Well done Stormers! Putting Western Province rugby back on top where it belongs. Sisonke Linako Zotho I’m a big Stormers fan, proud of my…

Which do you prefer playing: fullback, wing or flyhalf? I started on the wing in my junior years but when I came to the Pumas they put me at fullback. When we had injuries last season I had to move to 10. At fullback, there’s lots of time and space, and that suits me perfectly, but I wouldn’t mind giving 10 another run. Do you have any pre-match habits or rituals? I’m past that stage of getting fired up, but at the Pumas we like to play a bit of table tennis, which helps clear my mind and it helps with my co-ordination. What do you enjoy more, scoring or creating tries? I think creating, because then you involve everyone in the game and everyone’s happy, even if the guy…

SA Rugby magazine’s selection of the best 30 Springboks since 1995 – and its No 1 pick – should create some debate, simply because lists like these are subjective. I bet if you randomly picked 10 South African rugby fans out of a crowd and asked them to select their top 30 Boks since 1995, you’d get 10 very different lists. While all those fans would be wearing green-and-gold tinted glasses, their Bok experiences would vary and they’d all have their favourite players. My favourite Bok from the past 27 years, James Small, would definitely be on my list. As a kid growing up in KwaZulu-Natal, Small was my rugby hero. I had posters of the Sharks and Bok wing on my bedroom walls and a magazine photo of him…

Springbok fans are likely to feel one of two emotions when watching Willie le Roux in action. They will either be thrilled at the prospect of him sparking a dazzling attacking move, or dread the possibility of the mercurial fullback botching a simple catch or pass. Le Roux is a World Cup champion, Rugby Championship winner and World Rugby Flayer of the Year nominee with more than 70 Test caps under his belt, yet he divides the opinion of Bok fans like none other. Faced with a trio of challengers to his No 15 jersey in Aphelele Fassi, Warrick Gelant and Damian Willemse, Le Roux needs to deliver a spectacular Test season to win over critics and secure his place as a starter in the team that will mount a…

Which team is the greatest in the history of Super Rugby? Was it the 2009 Bulls powered by Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez, the all-star Stormers side that contested the 2010 final, the Sharks outfit that coasted into the 2007 decider or the 2017 Lions who tripped at the final hurdle? Or how about Joeli Vidiri’s Blues of the mid-1990s, Sam Whitelock’s 2018 Crusaders or the masterful 2011 Reds steered by halfbacks Will Genia and Quade Cooper? The envy of northern hemisphere rugby for the better part of two decades after the game turned professional. Super Rugby produced most of the talent that went on to win a World Cup between 1996 and 2019. SARugbymag.co.za readers have tackled the opportunity to participate in a unique 32-team knockout tournament that…

The United Rugby Championship has in three months killed off the memory of 25 years of Super Rugby. The success of the Stormers and the Bulls, coupled with the national selection of so many players from the URC, means there is no need to look into the rearview mirror of what once was. It is about what is now – and that now is the URC and the extended participation of South African teams in Europe’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup tournaments. The Junior Springboks’ impact at the U20 Summer Series Six Nations tournament in Italy only reinforced the value of player participation in the URC, with the Stormers young flyhalf/centre Sacha Mngomezulu in sensational form. Mngomezulu was part of the Stormers playoff match-day squad. WHEN STORMERS CAPTAIN STEVEN KITSHOFF…