“We bid farewell to a rugby legend, a gentleman of the game, a friend to all he encountered and a menacing opponent on the field. Good luck with the next chapter.” The Official Blue Twitter account joins the Pat Lambie appreciation society. Volume 19, Number 1 23 January 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za

A Wonderful Year of Rugby Ahead

Glancing at the rugby fixtures over the next several And in early March, the HSBC Sevens Series visits weeks and months, it is clear that we have a lot about , USA and , on which to look forward. And it begins this weekend as successive weekends. Also in March, the club rugby in Europe resumes in the guise of PRO14, gets underway as ’s clubs duke it until The Gallagher Premiership and the French Top14. mid-April.

Across the pond in America, the second of April also sees the HSBC Sevens Series stop off for a gets underway on Saturday. No weekend each in Hong Kong and Singapore. On the doubt, more than a few former South African players local rugby front, the SuperSport Challenge is set to will be enticed by the dollar and some may even start as the Gold Cup winds up and, on the last day of represent the USA or Canada in years to come. April, the World U20 Rugby Championships get underway in Argentina. The HSBC World Sevens Series also resumes this weekend with the tournament in Hamilton, New On the last weekend of May, the HSBC Sevens Zealand. Next week, the whole kit and caboodle hops Series arrives in London for the penultimate round of across the Tasman Sea and takes the circus to the season and hops over the English Channel the , for round four of the series. final round in Paris on the first weekend in June.

In mid-February, returns but before that Through all of this, Super Rugby has continued week we have a few weekends of warm up matches as after week and it finally begins to wrap up with the preparations at the local franchises get serious. scheduled for 21st & 22nd of June – around the same time that the local youth tournaments kick off. The Super Rugby final leads almost directly to the Rugby Championship in July and August.

While that’s going on, the and the U19, U20 and U21 championships take place between late July and early September, leading almost directly into the World Cup in September and October (it finishes on 2nd of November). If this proves to be our year, will become the third Springbok captain to lift the Webb Ellis Cup. But there’s a lot of rugby to be played, and watched, between now and then.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

Dry, Gans recalled for Antipodean Adventure Willie Should be Big in Japan Catching Up With the PRO14 Announcing the Super Rugby Superheroes Pat Lambie Hangs Up his Boots Major League Rugby, Season 2

Page 1 Dry, Gans recalled for Antipodean Adventure Catching Up With the PRO14

The experienced will return to the In the six weeks or so that we’ve been away, the Springbok Sevens squad for the first time in more than Guinness PRO14 continued in the northern a year after being named in the tour group for the hemisphere but, inexplicably, without the HSBC Sevens Series tournaments in participation of the two local franchises: the New Zealand and Australia. and the . Meanwhile, the competition continued in Europe and the two local teams are now Dry last played for the defending World Series languishing near the bottom of their respective tables, champions in in December 2017. His albeit with a game in hand. return to the side for his 65th tournament is just reward for the months of rehabilitation since he was ruled out That game happens next week when the two face off with a knee injury 14 months ago. He takes over from against each other in as they did in Port in the forwards. Elizabeth last week, when the Cheetahs ran out victors in what has been described as a bad-tempered There are two changes amongst the backs to the side affair. that finished third at the HSBC Cape Town Sevens in Indeed, at one point, the match descended into an December 2018. , who last played in ugly brawl. London in June last year, will replace injured and , the 13th player in Cape But as the official match report has it, Town, comes into the match day squad for Rosko scored a last-gasp try to help Toyota Cheetahs edge a Specman, who has joined the Vodacom Bulls. 24-17 victory over Isuzu Southern Kings in the Guinness PRO14, extending their unbeaten run against their South African rivals to eight games across all competitions.

The win moves the Cheetahs back into contention for a place in the Guinness PRO14 Finals Series, while the Kings remain rooted to the bottom of Conference B. What the report doesn’t say is that the Kings have been on the rough end of some seriously dodgy refereeing decisions this season and are looking unlikely to be able to lift themselves off the foot of the table any time soon. will again lead the side after missing the second day in Cape Town with a shoulder niggle, while and , who underwent minor surgery for knee and facial injuries last month, have also being declared fit to play in Australasia.

Mfundo Ndhlovu and were not considered due to injury. The inclusion of , for his 68th World Series tournament, will see the former team captain equal the record for tournament appearances in the Blitzboks jersey, held by .

“We had a slower start than usual to the season, so the next two tournaments will be important for us to keep on improving on our performance,” said Springbok Sevens coach .

Page 2 Page 3 Pat Lambie Hangs Up his Boots Willie Should be Big in Japan

At the tender age of 28 former Springbok flyhalf Pat All Out Rugby is running a piece suggesting that Lambie has retired from rugby to protect his health. will not continue his career in South Lambie made the announcement in Paris on Saturday Africa after the 2019 . The article following nearly three years of battling the effects of a appears to be from a press release [the “Staff Writer” series of concussions. byline was our clue - Ed] issued by his UK club, Wasps. The club announced that le Roux would be leaving at the conclusion of this season.

Racing 92 owner and president Jacky Lorenzetti confirmed the news on Saturday and praised Lambie as a player and as a person. “At flyhalf‚ in the centre‚ and at fullback‚ he has repeatedly proved that he was one of those rare players who know how to spark a The Springbok and Wasps fullback had previously team. It's no coincidence that he played for the been linked with the Bulls in a possible return home Springboks 56 times.” next season, but it has since been confirmed that he will be joining at Toyota Verblitz on an Lambie explained his decision in more detail to exclusive deal that rules out any off-season stints, www.sarugbymag.co.za. “I am following the advice of such as participating in Super Rugby. two neurologists‚ one in South Africa and one in France‚ both of whom I have seen on a number of “Willie joined Wasps at a time when he wasn’t a part occasions‚” Lambie said. of the Springboks side and since making the move here, he has rediscovered his form and shown that he Following the announcement, and in a touching is a world-class player which in turn has seen him tribute, the Official Twitter account joined restored to the national side, going on to make over the Pat Lambie appreciation society: “We bid farewell 50 appearances.” to a rugby legend, a gentleman of the game, a friend to all he encountered and a menacing opponent on the Le Roux’s form at Wasps led to a Test recall and he field. Good luck with the next chapter.” quickly re-established himself as SA’s first-choice fullback. However, his relationship with the club reportedly soured after Wasps docked Le Roux’s salary for every match he missed while on Bok duty.

The Bulls stepped in with a failed attempt to negotiate an early release from Wasps that would bring Le Roux to Loftus Versfeld and the 53-Test veteran has since agreed to terms with Verblitz.

Page 4 Page 5 Announcing the Super Rugby Superheroes

South Africa's Super Rugby teams have revealed the “Form, however, will factor into selection. How the super hero jerseys they will wear this season. The new players fare in the Super Rugby tournament and in the jerseys, inspired by Marvel's Spider-Man, Thor, Black truncated Rugby Championship could influence the Panther and Captain America, will debut in public at pecking order in certain positions.” the Super Hero Sunday preseason double-header at on February 3. As de Jager puts it: “We’re all starting at zero. Reputations count for little in this context. How many The teams will only wear the new jerseys during the times have we seen a young guy forcing his way into season in derbies against other local opposition but the national setup and playing a big role at the World will don their usual jumpers against all international Cup? You just can’t take anything for granted.” opposition.

Meanwhile, Sport24 is reporting that SA bookie, Sportingbet, is unwavering in its belief that a New Zealand team will win the competition, again. It's a reasonably fair presumption when one considers the history: in the 23 years of competition so far, on only seven occasions has a New Zealand team not won.

Indeed, the firm has installed the as 11/4 favourites to lift their 10th title. Among local teams, The Lions are on offer at 8/1 while the and find themselves at 33/1 and the Bulls are (40/1) expected to be the weakest of the SA sides. Over in the Lions camp, a thoroughly refreshed and revitalised is raring to go after his stint with the Yamaha Jubilo in Japan. He told SA Rugby Mag’s Dylan Jack that his Super Rugby franchise gave him a month off to recover.

“I feel fresh. It’s the longest break I’ve had since I started playing professional rugby. So I feel good and I am really excited for the Super Rugby season. I have been training for a week-and-a-half now and it has been awesome to be with the boys again,” said Smith.

On SA Rugby Mag, Jon Cardinelli is reporting as describing this year’s Super Rugby competition as a World Cup trial. He has a point.

“ experimented a great deal over the course of his first year at the helm of the Springboks. At this point – less than eight months from the team’s first World Cup fixture in Japan – the coach should have a good idea about the makeup of his preferred 31- man squad.

Page 6 Major League Rugby, Season 2

There’s an interesting piece on RugbyPass that purports to tell you everything you need to know about Major League Rugby (MLR) season two. Written by Sam Warlow, the article offers insight into America’s flagship professional rugby league, which gets underway this weekend for its second season.

“After a successful inaugural season in 2018 that saw seven teams battling for North American supremacy, the league has expanded for 2019 and has plans to Interestingly, there is likely to be considerable South expand further in 2020.” Africa interest in MLR, with at least two former Saffers having played international rugby for the USA in the last Last year, seven teams contested the competition: the year: Hanco Germishuys and . While the Austin Elite, Glendale Raptors, SaberCats, former has turned out for the Austin Elite, the latter is Gold, Legion, apparently still contracted to the Cheetahs Seawolves and Warriors. This season, another until 2020 so he could turn out in MLR or in Super two teams come into the mix: Rugby United New Rugby. York and the Arrows, the first Canadian team to participate. But they certainly will not be the last South Africans to be lured across the Atlantic. The USA national team And next season, three more sides are set to join the coach is none other than former Assistant Springbok competition: a team based in , one from coach, , and he is known to take a keen DC and the . interest in promising young players not scooped up by local franchises.

Getting back to MLR, the first match takes place on Saturday (10pm our time) when take on the . Then, at 3am our time Sunday morning, Germishuys' Austin Elite entertains other team from , the Houston Sabercats.

All matches will be available on ESPN+ and, crucially, streamed live on Facebook for international fans. You can find that live streaming action on the Major League Rugby Facebook page.

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Page 7 For your weekend viewing pleasure

A glance at the HSBC World Series web site, reveals that the Blitzbokke are playing Kenya at 11:22pm on Friday night, face off against France at 3:10am and Scotland at 7:22am on Saturday morning. Naturally, the knock-out rounds on Saturday and Sunday (our time) will be determined by the results of those matches.

Consulting my trusty Ultimate Rugby app, I see that there is plenty of other rugby action this weekend in Europe and the USA. But focusing on those matches with a strong South African interest, we’d have to highlight the PRO14 fixtures on Saturday. The Cheetahs welcome to Bloemfontein and will be looking to take five points from the encounter given that the Italians are the only team below them on their conference table. It should be a comfortable win for the home side.

And in , presumably at the smaller Madibaz NMMU stadium, the Southern Kings will have a tough assignment against Edinburgh. A home team win is looking extremely unlikely.

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With what promises to be a fantastic year of rugby before us, we look forward to engaging you, our readers, as well as our contributors, many of whom you'll find on our Twitter timeline.

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