Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news – 28 September

Franco van der Merwe

Lions keep Currie Cup hopes alive in six-try thriller
The Lions con­tin­ued their recent run of good form in this year’s Absa Currie Cup to run out nar­row 22–20 win­ners over log lead­ers the Sharks at Coca-Cola Park Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday even­ing. Lions cap­tain Franco van der Merwe (pic­tured) scored a 79^th minute try to bring the sides level and fly­half Elton Jantjies made no mis­take with the con­ver­sion to give the Lions their sev­enth win of the sea­son from 12 starts.

Some will con­sider the Lions for­tu­nate to have emerged vic­tori­ous given that tele­vi­sion replays appeared to show Van der Merwe short of the line, but to be fair the Sharks also benefited from an official’s error when assist­ant ref­eree Christi du Preez missed Lwazi Mvovo’s foot on the touch line for his second try ... Continued

Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news — 21 September

Ryan Kankowski

Sharks in the driv­ing seat after win over Cheetahs
The Sharks cemen­ted their pos­i­tion at the top of the Absa Currie Cup stand­ings with a con­vin­cing 30–16 vic­tory over bogey team the Free State Cheetahs at Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday after­noon. The Durban out­fit bagged a full house of log points with an 80-minute per­form­ance that would have greatly pleased coach John Plumtree.

Although the coastal team never quite hit top-gear, they non­ethe­less dom­in­ated the game and wrapped up the four-try bonus point with a 78^th-minute touch down from reserve scrum­half Rory Kockott. Livewire eighth­man Ryan Kankowski (pic­tured), who won the ‘Man of the Match’ award, was instru­mental in set­ting up Kockott’s try and the Sharks’ second five pointer – scored in the 29^th minute by right wing Odwa Ndungane. Continued

Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news — 14 September

Ashley Johnson

Cheetahs pip Bulls at the post
The Vodacom Free State Cheetahs pro­duced a ten­a­cious all round per­form­ance to defeat the Vodacom Blue Bulls 20–14 in a pulsat­ing Absa Currie Cup Premier Division encounter in Bloemfontein on Saturday. In an intense battle, the Cheetahs man­aged to with­stand a late Bulls onslaught to secure vic­tory by a slender six-point margin.

However, although the vic­tory mar­gin was undoubtedly a small one there can be no deny­ing the home side deserved their win. Their defence, par­tic­u­larly in the second half, was out­stand­ing and they took their chances on attack when it coun­ted while the Bulls decision-making let them down badly on occa­sions. Continued

Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news – 7 September

Morne Steyn

Morne’s bril­liant boot fails to save Boks
A long range pen­alty from full­back Kurtley Beale late in the game enabled Australia to record a nar­row 41–39 over South Africa in their pen­ul­tim­ate Vodacom Tri-Nations fix­ture at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday. In a nailbit­ing affair which saw the Springboks claw their way back into the match after trail­ing 31–13 at the break, it was Beale who held his nerve under pres­sure to slot the win­ning kick and earn his side their first win on the highveld since 1963.

Just as was the case at Loftus Versfeld a week ago the Aussies raced into an early lead scor­ing four con­ver­ted tries and a pen­alty while the Boks could only muster two pen­al­ties from kick­ing maes­tro Morne Steyn (pic­tured right) in reply. Trailing 31–6 just minutes before half-time it seemed as though the Boks were dead and bur­ied, but a moment of bril­liance from vet­eran lock Victor Matfield set the stage for an unbe­liev­able second half fight back. Continued

Weekly Sports Wrap, South African sports news — 31 August

Chiliboy Ralepelle

Shaky Boks pre­vail in nine-try thriller
The Springboks fought back from a four-point defi­cit at half time to defeat Australia 44–31 in a tense Vodacom Tri-Nations encounter at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night. The Boks were pushed all the way by the Wallabies in an enter­tain­ing match which yiel­ded nine tries – five of them going to the men in green.

Right-wing JP Pietersen sealed vic­tory for the Boks with a well-taken try after the Wallabies were only six points adrift with just a few minutes left to play. The win was the first for John Smit’s out­fit in this year’s Tri-Nations and also ended the Springbok cen­tur­ion curse, with lock Victor Matfield becom­ing the first Bok to win in his 100^th Test – after Percy Montgomery and Smit lost in their cen­ten­ary Tests. Continued

South African Sports News – 24 August

John Smit

Late try burst sinks cour­ageous Boks
Late tries from skip­per Richie McCaw and wing Israel Dagg con­demned South Africa to a heart­break­ing 29–22 defeat against New Zealand at the FNB Stadium in Soweto on Saturday night. The All Blacks’ win secured them the 2010 Vodacom Tri-Nations title and sent the Springboks, who have not been able to win a match in the com­pet­i­tion thus far, into the throes of depression.

With New Zealand trail­ing 22–17 with just two and a half minutes remain­ing it seemed as though the Boks were head­ing for vic­tory, but sadly their defence just couldn’t hold out against a late onslought from the men in black. After a series of phases the All Blacks spun the ball down the line to an unmarked McCaw, and the rugged flanker was able to shrug off the atten­tions of Bryan Habana and Jean de Villiers to squeeze in at the corner flag. Continued

South African Sports News – 17 August

Willem de Waal

Willem’s boot puts WP back on top
Western Province moved back to top spot on the Currie Cup log when they nar­rowly defeated the Blue Bulls 15–12 in front of a packed Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday even­ing. WP were briefly over­taken by the Sharks who thumped the Leopards in Phokeng the pre­vi­ous even­ing, but Saturday’s win means the Cape out­fit move back to the top of the stand­ings with 27 points.

The Sharks are a close second with 26 and both teams now enjoy a com­fort­able lead over the chas­ing pack with third placed Griquas six points adrift on 20. WP’s vic­tory also means they remain unbeaten in the com­pet­i­tion and although it is still early days yet, Allister Coetzee’s side must cer­tainly be favoured to lift the coveted Currie Cup trophy this sea­son. Continued

South African Sports News — 10 August

Juan de Jongh

Perfect Province remain on top
Western Province made it five wins from five starts in this year’s Absa Currie Cup com­pet­i­tion when they thrashed a hap­less Griquas out­fit 50–3 at Hoffe Park in Kimberley on Saturday after­noon. Province ran in six unanswered tries in a dom­in­ant per­form­ance that con­firmed their status as the lead­ing con­tenders for this year’s title.

Griquas were expec­ted to provide Province with a stern test in Kimberley after defeat­ing the Cape side by a single point there in 2009 and 2008 and los­ing by no more than five points in 2007 and 2006. And in the early going on Saturday, it looked as though another tight con­test was in the mak­ing as Province went into the inter­val just 12–3 ahead. However, the wheels came off for the home side in the second half as the vis­it­ors scored 38 unanswered points to romp to vic­tory. Continued

South African Sports News — 3 August

Patrick Lambie

Two try Lambie sinks Cheetahs
The Sharks scored their third con­sec­ut­ive vic­tory of the sea­son when they defeated the Vodacom Free State Cheetahs 25–13 in a tense Currie Cup encounter at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday after­noon. Nineteen-year-old centre Patrick Lambie (pic­tured) turned out to be the hero for the Sharks, scor­ing two late tries to power the vis­it­ors home.

Trailing 13–11 with nine minutes to go, the Sharks looked down and out, but just when it seemed all was lost the inspir­a­tional Lambie came to the party and pro­duced some magini­fi­cent rugby to send the home side pack­ing and their sup­port­ers into the throes of depres­sion. Continued

South African Sports News — 27 July

Jaque Fourie

Things go from bad to worse for Boks
The Springboks’ dis­mal run in this year’s Tri-Nations com­pet­i­tion contined on Saturday when they suffered a resound­ing 30–13 loss to Australia at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. It was the Boks’ third con­sec­ut­ive defeat in as many weeks after back to back losses to the All Blacks and left them at the bot­tom of the Tri-Nations log without a single point.

When Bok centre Jaque Fourie (pic­tured) was yel­low carded for a second minute tip tackle on Wallaby num­ber eight Richard Brown, one sensed this wasn’t going to be the Boks’ day yet again and so it proved to be as the South Africans failed to get going against a well drilled Australian team. Ill dis­cip­line has been a fea­ture of Bok play in recent weeks and one won­ders when Pieter de Villiers’ men will get their house in order after so many repeated indis­cre­tions. Continued

South African Sports News – 20 July

Danie Rossouw

All Blacks give Boks another rugby les­son
New Zealand scored their second con­sec­ut­ive vic­tory over South Africa in as many weeks with a con­vin­cing 31–17 tru­imph in their Vodacom Tri-Nations fix­ture in Wellington on Saturday. The All Blacks outscored the Boks by four tries to two and thor­oughly deserved their win against a dis­join­ted South African outfit.

To their credit the Boks did put up a bet­ter dis­play than they did last week­end in Auckland when they were com­pre­hens­ively out­played in all facets of the game to go down 32–12. They were solid in the set-pieces this time out and though one got the impres­sion the All Blacks still won the col­li­sions, there wasn’t much in it. Continued

Iniesta’s late strike wins World Cup for Spain

Andres Iniesta

Iniesta’s late strike wins World Cup for Spain
Spain cap­tured their first ever World Cup trophy when they defeated the Netherlands 1–0 last night cour­tesy of a 115^th minute goal from mid­fielder Andres Iniesta (pic­tured). Iniesta slot­ted the win­ner in extra time when he was put clear by Cesc Fabregas and drove the ball past a diving Maarten Stekelenburg in the Dutch goal. It was a bit­terly dis­ap­point­ing defeat for the Netherlands who suffered their third World Cup final loss after defeats in 1974 and 1978. Continued

World Cup News — the Final 2

Carles Puyol

Puyol powers Spain into final
Spain qual­i­fied for their first World Cup final when they defeated Germany 1–0 in a tense encounter at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban yes­ter­day even­ing. A 73^rd minute header from defender Carles Puyol (pic­tured) was enough to pro­pel ‘La Roja’ into Sunday’s final against Holland at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

Vicente del Bosque’s second ranked side dom­in­ated the match but battled to fin­ish off a German team lack­ing their usual pace until Puyol struck the decis­ive blow 17 minutes from the end. “Players from defence to attack were extraordin­ary and played a great game,” said Spain coach del Bosque. Continued

Currie Cup fixtures

Currie Cup Fixtures

After nearly a month of non-stop foot­ball, the FIFA World Cup ends on Sunday but fear not sports lov­ers, the South African domestic rugby com­pet­i­tion, the Currie Cup kicks off on July 9^th with week­end fix­tures lined up for just over three months.

Use our com­pre­hens­ive list of matches, times and loc­a­tions to keep up to date on all the Currie Cup action! Continued

World Cup News — The final four

David Villa

Villa puts shaky Spain into last four
Second ranked Spain over­came a determ­ined chal­lenge from 31^st ranked Paraguay to pro­gress to the semi-finals of the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a nar­row 1–0 vic­tory over the South Americans at Ellis Park on Saturday. It was the first time that Spain have reached the last four of the World Cup since 1950.

In a match of high drama in which both sides squandered pen­alty kicks, Spain once agained relied on the goal-scoring prowess of striker David Villa (pic­tured) to secure vic­tory. The 28-year-old Villa scored his fifth goal of the tour­na­ment in the 83^rd minute to book his side a place in the semi-finals and give them a chance of win­ning the World Cup for the first time ever. Continued