English squad announced

Martin Johnson has announced the names for his English team that will be taking on the Southern Hemisphere sides later this year.

They are:

Forwards - S Borthwick (Saracens), T Croft (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), N Kennedy (London Irish), M Lipman (Bath), L Mears (Bath), T Palmer (Wasps), T Rees (Wasps), S Shaw (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Stevens (Wasps), P Vickery (Wasps).

Backs - N Abendanon (Bath), D Armitage (London Irish), D Care (Harlequins), D Cipriani (Wasps), H Ellis (Leicester), T Flood (Leicester), R Flutey (Wasps), U Monye (Harlequins), J Noon (Newcastle), P Sackey (Wasps).

New Zealand squad

New Zealand have announced their squad for the end of season match ups against England, Wales, Ireland and scotland.

New Zealand squad:

John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Daniel Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Stephen Donald, Jason Eaton, Andy Ellis, Ross Filipo, Corey Flynn, Ben Franks*, Hosea Gear*, Andrew Hore, Cory Jane*, Richard Kahui, Jerome Kaino, Richie McCaw, Jamie Mackintosh*, Keven Mealamu, Liam Messam*, Malili "Mils" Muliaina, Ma'a Nonu, Kieran Read*, Josevata "Joe" Rokocoko, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Conrad Smith, Rodney So'oialo, Adam Thomson, Brad Thorn, Neemia Tialata, Isaia Toeava, Anthony Tuitavake, Piri Weepu, Scott Waldrom*, Ali Williams, Tony Woodcock.

*Denotes new cap

Rugby expo

I read this post about the Rugby Expo they're having in London over the 17 - 18th of November and have been wondering whether something like this would ever take off in South Africa?

We've got a pretty popular soccer expo - but I suspect this is being fuelled by the money being shoveled at the 2010.

Do you think something like this would take off in SA?

Let me know...

Flyhalf dilemma

While I appreciate it is something of an experimental squad, the selections for flyhalf for the Bok UK tour are baffling.

The logic of picking a scrumhalf (Ruan Pienaar) who has said he doesn't want to play flyhalf as your first choice and a guy who battles to make the first choice for the Lions (Earl Rose) as his backup his curious to say the least.

I appreciate that Eddie Jones and Jake White both believe that Pienaar has what it takes to be a world class flyhalf and we have a lack of any real depth in the position but if you want him as a flyhalf, the player and his province have to buy into it.

Peter Grant and Morne Steyn might not be the next Dan Carter but they're the kind of players who COULD fit the mould of a make shift Bok flyhalf. Steyn in particular has played his part helping the Bulls to the finals. Maybe he should have been rewarded for his efforts.

Well I guess we'll have to see what the team produces on tour....

The squad is as below:
Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez, Bryan Habana, Chiliboy Ralepele, Danie Rossouw, Pierre Spies, Gurthro Steenkamp, Jongi Nokwe, Juan Smith, Andries Bekker, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers, Conrad Jantjes, Ricky Januarie, Brian Mujati, Heinrich Brussow, Jaque Fourie, Earl Rose, Victor Matfield, John Smit (c), Odwa Ndungane, JP Pietersen, Adrian Jacobs, Bismark du Plessis, Frans Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Tendai Mtwarira, Ryan Kankowski.

Currie Cup final from Sports Trader

The Currie Cup final prediction from the Sports Trader blog

With half an hour to go before the kick off to the Currie Cup final, I'll admit I'm still not sure which way I think it's going to go. Being a WP supporter I'm a bit ambivalent seeing as the 'big name' teams already finished their season a few weeks back.

;-)

In all seriousness though, I'm leaning toward the Sharks purely based on the home ground advantage. I think both sides are both very evenly matched, both sides have quality players and either side has a handful of players who could turn the game on it's head without a second thought.

Black Pearl Betting has the Sharks at 6/10 while the Bulls are at 13/10 - not much in it either way.

Black Pearl however have two very interesting plays that might make it interesting:

First up they have a competition for the first try scorer and I think JP Pietersen at 12/1 has to look good.

The second option they've got going is the "STEYN ALIVE" which pits Morne Steyn against Francois Steyn around drop goals and total points scored. A leaning toward Francois to deliver a drop goal is quoted at 11/10. A few bucks either way here might be a bit of fun....

Sponsors folding

I blogged about it a while back, but the financial crisis is creating a serious problem in terms of sponsorship for professional sports across the globe.

Unfortunately companies are being forced to cut back on their spending or simply disappear leaving sports teams without much needed sponsorship to see them survive from month to month.

Sports is big business and sponsorship is the lifeblood of this business - if sponsors fold then all those nice fancy dinners and big money salaries become a little tougher to offer.

But most unfortunately, the areas that are likely to suffer are going to be the grassroots infrastructures offered by club setups.

The top end of the spectrum might go on about 'cost cutting' and might see a few personnel let go, but the bottom end of the budget (The guys who ask for R100 000 as opposed to R100m) are likely to feel it that much harder.

I know for a fact that our small amateur hockey setup had been counting on R20k in sponsorship which never materialised this year. These kind of problems are likely to increase and I guess a word of warning to sports administrators banking on money from sponsors - IT IS ONLY SPONSORSHIP WHEN THE BUCKS ARE IN THE BANK

Some tough times ahead and I guess for those sports administrators it is going to make their lives quite challenging at times.

Read an article today, highlighting some of the problems that the financial crisis is having on sport already and thought I would highlight some of them:

- Manchester United football clubs primary sponsor - AIG - has just been bailed out by the US government who will be looking to cut costs so that they can get their multi-billion dollar loan repaid

- David Triesman, the chairman of the English FA, has said that English soccer was collectively 3 billion pounds ($5.23 billion) in debt and that he could not rule out a top club collapsing

- West Ham and Newcastle are under huge pressure with sponsors folding

- Even a glamour sport like motor racing has had its seen administrators come out and suggest that teams forfeit their technical advantages and use standard engines in 2010 to try and help team survive this period...

Tough times ahead...

Why did Earl Rose not play flyhalf?

The worst thing about being a top level coach is that when your selection decisions don’t come off you have journalists, bloggers and sports commentators spending the next day telling you what you did wrong.

But I guess that that is part and parcel of the job, as unfair as it may be.

One decision I did find quite curious this weekend was Eugene (Loffie) Eloff’s decision not to play Earl Rose at flyhalf in the Currie Cup semi-final match against the Sharks.

Now just to clarify – I don’t rate Earl Rose particularly highly and have blogged on that topic before.

But Rose has been mentioned as a potential for the Springbok touring side at the end of the year and he is currently the leading points scorer in the Currie Cup. Most importantly, he has been the first choice flyhalf for the Lions for the majority of this season.

Eloff himself has said that he believes Rose will be a Bok flyhalf but he shouldn’t be rushed.

Despite this Eloff decided for the crunch semi-final he would instead shift Rose to Fullback and field Louis Strydom at flyhalf. (Bear in mind that the last time these two sides met two weeks earlier, Strydom came on as a late replacement and covered himself in glory by throwing the intercept pass that sealed the game for the Sharks.)

My ‘arm-chair’ concern is that Eloff sent out the message that he does not trust Rose in the big games because he may be targeted.

What does the rest of the team take out of the decision?

Does that not pass on a message to the rest of the team that Eloff does not believe the system they have employed for the rest of the season will be sufficient to carry them through?

Hindsight is obviously 20/20 and if Strydom had had a blinder or Rose had scalped them from the fullback position, I probably wouldn’t be writing this. It just doesn’t seem to make much sense to me that you would publicly talk about all the faith you hold in a player and then shift them around when the crunch came….

Currie Cup rugby picks

From the Sports Trader blog.

As most of you know, I have been covertly backing the Lions from around 7-1. While I never admit in public that the bet exists, I think they are going to be the surprise package this weekend.

They have a problem at flyhalf and I think even they acknowledge it. The decision to move Rose to fullback (in my opinion) is a vote of no confidence.

I think a lot is going to revolve around Jaque Fourie amongst the backline.

Don’t write the Lions side off, they have a sneaky ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

In terms of the Bulls - I suspect they simply have way too much firepower for the Cheetahs this year…

The irony of South African sport

Sport remains a hugely political tool in South Africa and I think many ordinary people find it frustrating when government officials who haven’t seen a sports field (let alone run on one) start making bold predictions about how they are going to ‘fix’ things.

Upfront, I completely acknowledge that sport was largely divided along racial lines in the past so I don’t deny that there is some merit in the racial arguments.

However the landscape is changing. No side in South African cricket or rugby enjoys the backing of the likes of billionaire Patrice Motsepe. The South African football side is not subjected to selection criteria of local, black coaches or quotas. In fact if one adds up how much the national football side has spent on foreign coaches or advisors over the last decade, it must be a massive figure.

This week has been a case in point about government administrators getting on their high horse and focusing on the wrong aspects of South African sport.

Every few years, sports administrators (typically those with political ties), will get together to hold a sports indaba of sorts where the ‘future strategic direction’ of sport will be covered. Ironically senior figures in cricket, rugby and soccer are normally not invited to give their input.

A hot topic this week has been the future of the Springbok emblem worn by the national rugby team. The politicos it should go because they believe it divides South Africa along racial lines.

The ‘logical decision’ is that it must go to unite South African sport.

Please note that senior rugby administrators and players were not invited to comment at this congress / indaba / conference or whatever they want to call it.

(Bear in mind – nobody actually knows if these guys have any legal backing to the ‘decisions’ that are taken here nor do they enjoy backing of the ruling government party, even if it is convened by some of its more militant members).

Now let’s remember that South African rugby has won 2 World Cups, a Tri-Nations, has a good black coach that is there on merit and has been able to attract an increasingly mixed racial audience to its grounds.

Soccer on the other hand is plumbing new lows. Millions have been spent on foreign coaches, the players themselves are reluctant to play and pick and choose the games they want. The national side is barely competitive with the minnows on the African continent that have budgets probably one fiftieth of what Bafana Bafana enjoys.

The national Olympics team managed a single medal at the 2008 Olympics campaign. We took along more non participating members in our squad than actually athletes, sponsors were disappointed or more interested in sponsoring the Paralympics squad and despite this, the athletes were poorly managed.

Throw in the fact that we have local government departments trying to sell off the land on which grass roots sports clubs operate to make sure that their books balance at the end of the year and the minor issue of a global financial crisis that is robbing all sports disciplines of sponsorship money and we have a pretty grim sports scene.

But no – the priority is to make sure we get rid of a brand that is highly successful, generates a lot of revenue for grass roots sports development.

I think we all agree that sport in South Africa is not perfect, but the meddling of sports officials is somewhat ironic. They talk about wanting to improve sport, but the idea of actually focusing on the problems is something that escapes some people’s agendas.

Jaque Fourie – a rugby machine

When you try and define the term ‘class’ in a professional sports person, it is extremely difficult. It’s that special something that simply puts them head and shoulders above the rest of the team or competition. This weekend, there was a class performance that I believe may define the 2008 Currie Cup – it was the performance of Jaque Fourie for the Lions against Western Province on Sunday.

The requirements were simple for Western Province:

- Beat the Lions by 19 points with the support of your home crowd behind you

- Score 4 tries

- Don’t let the Lions score enough points to give them a bonus point

Let’s be honest – on paper, the Lions should have been blown away. There should have been no way they could go head to head with that Western Province side.

Instead Western Province couldn’t catch a cold let alone a rugby ball and they could only manage a 14-6 win.

You can say what you like about where the game was won, but I will tell you that it was won by Jaques Fourie in the Lions backline.

Fourie was charged with marking backline danger-man Sireli Naqelevuki the Fijian wrecking ball. If Naqelevuki had gotten going in the backline, then the Lions would have been toast. There is no stopping a guy who weighs 100kgs plus and can take 2 or 3 men with him in the tackle…. Unless of course you are Jaques Fourie.

Fourie never backed down and he charged the big man down every time he got the ball. Even when Naqelevuki got going Fourie was there to break down his momentum.

The spirit displayed by Fourie seemed to inject confidence into the rest of the backline and the others fed off him and tightened their lines. When a free running side like Province can’t make the gaps – then their game plan goes out the window.

And ultimately I think that is what happened on Saturday – Western Province wanted to run and Jaques Fourie wouldn’t let them. End result – game and campaign over for Western Province.

At the end of the day Jaques Fourie is a machine on the rugby field. A good combination of brains and brawn and Springbok rugby will be relieved to see him fit and flourishing….