The Merit Panel of Referees to be in charge of next year’s Super 14 matches has been chosen on Monday. SANZAR is looking to use the same system in future test matches. “It means referees will no longer be prevented from refereeing their countrymen in opposition to another nation. The move was made to ensure the best players would be refereed by the best officials.
The move to have a similar Merit Panel in charge of Test matches could be trialled next year during the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa.
The panels are:
SANZAR Super 14 Merit panel: Stuart Dickinson (Australia), Matt Goddard (Australia), Marius Jonker (South Africa), Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Mark Lawrence (South Africa), James Leckie (Australia), Steve Walsh (New Zealand).
The kick-off times for the 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour of South Africa have been confirmed.
The schedule is as follow:
Sat, May 30 - Highveld XV v Lions Rustenburg: 3pm
Wed, June 3 - Xerox Golden Lions v Lions Johannesburg: (7-10pm)
Sat, June 6 - Vodacom Free State Cheetahs v Lions Bloemfontein: (3pm)
Wed, June 10 - Sharks v Lions Durban: (7-10pm)
Sat, June 13 - Vodacom WP v Lions Cape Town: (3pm)
Tues, June 16 TBC - Coastal Xv v Lions Port Elizabeth: (3pm)
Sat June 20 - South Africa v Lions Durban: (3pm)
Tues, June 23 - Emerging SA v Lions Cape Town: (7-10pm)
Sat, June 27 - South Africa v Lions Pretoria: (3pm)
Sat, July 4 - South Africa v Lions Johannesburg: (3pm)
If Robert Ebersohn, who first represented South Africa with his talented twin brother, Sias (a flyhalf) at under-19 level, were to receive a call from Springbok Rugby Coach Peter de Villiers tomorrow asking him to join the ’Boks, he would choose to remain with the SA Sevens Team.
This talented young Free State centre, who was recently named the SA Young Player of the Year, was also crowned best player of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens Tournament in George on Saturday.
Not only was he one of the leading try scorers, but also defended like a man possessed, and on numerous occasions won turn over ball for his team.
The 19-year old took the decision not to make himself available for Super 14 rugby next year, and rather remain on the sevens circuit for another year, because he felt this would be best for his rugby career.
The Springbok coach, who attended the Sevens Tournament in George, said if he felt that if a player was good and mature enough, he wouldn’t hesitate to call him up from the Sevens side to the Springboks.
Joe van Niekerk, who has only just started playing for Toulon since arriving from the Lions in South Africa, got a ‘warm’ welcome from Samoa’s big number 8 Tuilagi in the French Top 14.
The Sevens Springboks of South Africa finally won the IRB Sevens World Series final at Outeniqua Park in George on Saturday, by coming from behind and beating New Zealand 12 - 7.
“It was the first time South Africa had won the IRB tournament at home and also the first time that they had put two successive wins together. The Springboks beat England in Dubai last weekend.
It was a victory against all the odds, with South Africa weakened by the Super 14 call-ups of a number of stalwarts like Schalk van der Merwe, Fabian Juries, Jonothan Mokueana and the non-availability of Stefan Basson and the injured Marius Schoeman and captain Neil Powell.
Built on a solid defence and an unbelievable camaraderie and team spirit, the relatively inexperienced Springboks, lighter than their opponents in virtually every match defied all the odds — and are now clear leaders in the eight-tournament series.
Mzwandile Stick, who led the team in the absence of the injured Powell, was again outstanding in the final and scored the try that put the Boks ahead with less than two minutes remaining.
But hats off to every one of the players in this and the Dubai tournaments.
Robert Ebersohn received the Player of the Tournament award on saturday, but it might just as well have gone to any of Frankie Horn, Mpho Mbyozo, Stick or Renfred Dazel.
Sitiveni Sivivatu scored a classical All Black try in this encounter with the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in 2005. Aaron Mauger broke the Lion’s line and offloaded excellently to the supporting Tana Umaga, who then threw the perfect long pass out to Sivivatu, who stepped inside to finish superbly.
