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This is pretty funny, kinda self explanatory. It’s something I wish I had thought of.

Tana Umaga is there somewhere I’m sure of it!

Mike Catt To Play, Apparently

So it is being reported that Mike Catt will play for an Alan Solomons coached, Solly Tyibilika captained Southern Kings side against the British and Irish Lions.

The tour schedule is here.

This is slightly surprising, seeing Solly as captain, seeing as when he was playing for the bigger franchises he often didn’t ‘make it to practice’

Maybe this is one of those cases of making the delinquent in charge? They tried that with me in High School and see how well I turned out!

Mike Catt, who is nearly 38 and a former Lion, has been included in a provisional Southern Kings XV consisting mainly of former players from the Eastern Cape to face the Lions.

The team selected is not final and it is uncertain whether all the players are available.

Apparently not available are Gcobani Bobo (WP), Skipper Badenhorst (Sharks), Fabian Juries (Cheetahs), Hilton Lobberts (WP), Albert van den Berg (Sharks) and Luke Watson (WP).

The launch of the Eastern Cape franchise coincides with the match against the touring Lions.

The Southern Kings team list as forwarded by Solomons is as follows:

Tiger Mangweni, Vuyo Zangqa, Rudi Coetzee, De Wet Barry, Wylie Human, Mike Catt, Neil de Kock, Darren Nel, Solly Tyibilika (captain), Trevor Hall, Ross Skeate, Mpho Mboyosi, BJ Botha, Hanyani Shimange, Daan Human.

Replacements: Gary Botha, Faan Rautenbach, Lungile Payi, Robbie Diack, Josh Fowles, Mzwandile Stick, Brent Russell.

This team is better than I thought it would be, but I can’t see anyone hurrying to want to get a hiding from the Lions, so expect it to change! After the way they dispatched the Xerox Lions who are a slightly more settled team than the Southern Kings can expect to be, I shudder at the thought of this outcome!

New Bok Jersey

UPDATE: IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO SEE THE 2011 WORLD CUP SPRINGBOK JERSEY, CLICK HERE

Not many people will even notice that the new Springbok Jersey now sports the Protea logo over the heart with the Springbok logo shaftedshifted to the right.

The new Springbok jersey is likely to be popular among Springbok supporters in spite of complaints about changing the old jersey. THis is the usual story, but to the real fans it’s about winning on the field.

Maybe this will satisfy the naysayers who constantly want the thing changed. Let’s hope they can it now. I highly doubt that.

On the actual Bok Jersey, the word “rugby” appears underneath the Protea and the Springbok leaps to the left. It appears without a rugby ball on the right.

The supporter’s jersey has the words “SA Rugby” under the antelope, but the word “Springbok” will appear on the players’ jerseys.

I’m happy, bring it on. Hell I was even happy with the jerseys here [link to previous article]

Technorati Profile

I’ve been following the developments surrounding the latest Clint Eastwood directed project, The Human Factor (or ‘Untitled Mandela Project’ as it’s also known) for some time. As a huge rugby fan and one who remembers the events of ‘that day’ very well, this is a film I have to see. The movie has been shot at various locations across SA, but was based out of Cape Town. If this movie performs as well as previous Clint Eastwood movies it could be yet another feather in the cape, err cap for SA.

Then South African President Nelson Mandela handing over the William Webb Ellis trophy to Springbok skipper Francois Pienaar at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on June 24, 1995.

It’s also recently become a little more interesting to me when my mate, cape town karaoke / general entertainer extraordinaire, Larger [read more here] did the wrap party for the movie in Cape Town this last weekend. The lucky fucker got to sing Mack The Knife on stage with none other than Morgan Freeman and he is super stoked about it. Good on you Larger. Incidentally if anyone needs a good cape town karaoke vibe going down drop me a mail at joe@socialyz.com. (he gives me free booze)

Anyway, I’ve done some digging to see who stars as whom and who does what and all that and this is what I’ve come up with. I thought I’d put together a little post with some more info all in one spot than what I had to go through to find this.

Everyone knows that Morgan Freeman is playing Mandela. I absolutely love Morgan Freeman movies, and this is a big highlight for me to finally see him playing the role he was born to play. Oscar time methinks. Well this is what it looks like…

Morgan Mandela trying to steal some chicks watch.

Our man Matt Damon does his best Francois Pienaar mini me impression and might just be able to pull it off. Incidentally, he was coached by none other than Chester Williams in the finer arts of the game (Williams being the ‘rugby coach’ to the movie). He got a real taste of what rugby is all about when he injured himself in training. He tried to kick the ball, but aimed low and sprained his ankle. In other words he fucked his foot up kicking the ground.

This is how he got on in his bok kit…

The days before shoulder pads

I’d love to see how he gets the accent on in the movie.

Talking of Chester Williams, the hero of the show for non whites (and whites) all over South Africa at the time for being the first black player selected after apartheid is being played in the movie by the SECOND black Springbok selected after apartheid, McNeil Hendricks.

Pretty good likeness I must say…

Chester Williams

MacNeil Hendricks

It’s a real shame that I could find only ONE picture of MacNeil Hendricks on the net. Well at least he will portray a Bok well, having actually been one, and a pretty decent player too.

Cant’ say I’m too excited about the actor rumoured to be playing Joel Stransky, Scott Eastwood.

Scott Eastwood

Joel Stransky

Theyre both wearing a collar and tie I guess. There’s a start. Well Scott best of luck, Stransky is pretty well liked ’round these parts, for THAT kick. Im guessing Clint would give his offspring some word time so I’m assuming this isn’t a bit part.

Talking of bit parts, one person who most certainly wouldn’t be a bit part in any story where the Rugby World Cup 1995 is mentioned, is Jonah Lomu, being played in this movie by former Samoan 8th man Isaac Feaunati. At 1.88m and 117kg he has similar stats to Lomu’s playing figures of 1.96m and 119kg.

Isaac Feaunati

Jonah Lomu

That all I could find out for now but I’m sure looking forward to this movie. I have heard various rumours of other people playing other players. I’ll update that as I hear more.

Derick HooHaaaah

The Western Force are courting South African flyhalves Derick Hougaard and Peter Grant.

The Western Force will lose star flyhalf Matt Giteau next season, and are said to be in talks with both players, according to The Australian newspaper.

Hougaard, who made his Test debut for the Springboks at the Subiaco Oval in Perth in 2003, may return there next year if the Force’s bid is successful.

Hougaard has played 43 Super Rugby games for the Bulls and eight Tests for the Springboks. He currently plays for English club Leicester.

With Heyneke Meyer being touted as the possible new coach for the New South African rugby franchise The Southern Kings, don’t rule out a move there either should his Western Force move not transpire. Hougaard is known to be a favourite of Heyneke Meyer.

Grant has played mostly at flyhalf but is also a competent number 12.

As expected, the new South Africa franchise will be officially known as the Southern Kings.

I don’t know the history behind why they’re called this but anyway. I guess there is soemthing ‘ethnic’ behind the reasoning. I personally think they should have gone for a local tribal name or word to describe the team. Southern Kings sounds very ‘English’

The Eastern Cape franchise will launch with a game against the British & Irish Lions in Port Elizabeth on 16 June. Talk about a tough first up encounter!

The Kings squad will be named at a later date, but is set to include a host of Vodacom Cup players as well as players originally hailing from the region. I think they’re onto a hiding second to none.

Former Bulls mentor Heyneke Meyer has been linked to the job.

WP and the Stormers have confirmed Rassie Erasmus, who was being touted as a possible couch, will see out his contract with the Cape union which expires at the end of 2010.

It’s sad to hear a talented person losing the plot cos of alcohol. I just read a report about Steve Walsh, the New Zealander Rugby ref who has lost his job cos he likes the sauce too much. That’s a damn shame. Although he was one of the guys we all loved to hate, he was still a competent referee. Let’s hope he can get it sorted out and we see him on the field again soon.

Heres a few excerpts:

Speaking to Radio Sport, Walsh said he had only himself to blame.

‘I did something that was completely unacceptable, and pretty much drunk through the night and arrived at the conference for a 9 o’clock start and was definitely under the influence of alcohol,’ said Walsh.

‘I was asked to leave, which I did, and pretty much as a consequence of that and me owning up to my mistakes, the rugby union weren’t prepared to give me another chance. The upshot is I’m finished refereeing in New Zealand.’

Walsh said the pressure of refereeing had begun to get to him.

‘I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but sometimes I found that I used to drink to relieve those pressures. In the last couple of years I haven’t really enjoyed rugby, [but] in the middle of last year I started to enjoy it again for the first time in two or three years, and that’s just an upshot of personal pressures I’ve felt and I haven’t dealt with very well.’

Walsh said he wanted another chance and was disappointed when his employers turned him down.

‘They weren’t prepared to buy into that type of counselling and help,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t looking for another chance. I was looking for a last chance. Whether they didn’t believe I could do that, I’m not sure. But in the end they weren’t prepared to go down that route.

‘I take personal responsibility for what I did and it was totally unacceptable. I’m continuing to get help and if I want to get back into any walk of life I need to make sure these things don’t happen again.

‘I still have some unfinished business in refereeing and hopefully down the track I will be given an opportunity by somebody. I’d just like to get back on the field at some stage I suppose.’

Saved by a technicality

Cape Town – The disciplinary hearing against Chiefs No. 8 Sione Lauaki was on Monday dismissed on technical grounds as the citing for a dangerous tackle was not received within the prescribed 12 hour period after the match ended.

If you haven’t seen the tackle yet its amazing to think that this tackle didn’t constitute ‘exceptional circumstances’.

In exceptional circumstances, the Judicial Officer can allow citings that were made more than 12 hours after the end of the game.

The Judiciary Officer in this case, Dekker Govender, could not find exceptional circumstances to allow the hearing to continue. I find this to be a travesty of justice. This had to be one of the worst high tackles I’ve seen in a long time and warranted more than just a yellow card in my opinion.

Lauaki was cited for dangerous play after a high tackle on Bulls winger Bryan Habana in the first half of last Saturday’s Vodacom Super 14 match at Loftus Versfeld.

The Chiefs player was yellow carded by match referee Craig Joubert. The Bulls won the game 33-27.

Hennie Daniller scored with 4 minutes to go to secure a 20 – 13 victory for the Cheetahs over the Crusaders in Bloemfontein today.

The Crusaders were forced to make many more tackles than the home team as the Cheetahs put in a gutsy display against the New Zealanders.

The Cheetahs have raised their game considerably over the past few weeks. Stand out players were Naas Olivier at flyhalf, and man of the match Hennie Daniller who hardly put a foot wrong all day from fullback.

Leon MacDonald sunk a kick in the last seconds of the game to secure a bonus point for the visitors.

Heyneke Meyer is being lined up as the coach for the new Eastern Cape based South African rugby franchise, the Southern Kings.

Stormers coach Rassie Erasmus had been been linked to the job in however, Meyer’s better coaching record puts him in pole position for the role. The Southern Kings will play their first game on 16 June against the British and Irish Lions.

The Kings will play the tourists in the new Nelson Mandela Bay stadium.

“We hope it will be a strong side that is selected, says Cheeky Watson who heads up the franchise. That is why I asked that Davids(convenor of selectors) should work with Peter de Villiers (Springbok coach).

“If there are players Peter would like to see in action (with an eye towards the Lions series), they can be picked.”

Watson would like to see players with their roots in the Eastern Cape in the side.

“We have to be realistic. Not many of the current players (at SWD, EP and Border) will be picked,” he said.

I was reading a favourite rugby blog of mine recently and came across this post.

The post involves Nottingham Rugby Club using 1000 Blow up spectators to fill the empty seats in their grandstand and create an illusion of a well attended match. While I support anything that promotes rugby anywhere, this is just a daft idea. Surely it’s easier to just let spectators come watch for free, rather than PAY a company to provide blow up spectators? Hell, even PAY the spectator to come watch, heaven forbid they may actually enjoy the game and spend the money they are paid on a snack at half time.

I’d be interested to know how much the company, Airheads,  that provides the blow up people, charges. I had a look at their website but couldn’t find anything.

I’d hazard a guess that spending half as much per ‘head’ on a real person (school kids will do ANYTHING for money) will probably go a long way further to getting bums on seats.

The crowd was unusually quiet that evening

It certainly didn’t help the events on the field, the home Team went down 15 – 14 to the Chiefs.

So I like to go through the blogs at Afrigator, and I noticed something the other day. They have this tag cloud at the top of the page about what Africa is talking about. So I thought wouldn’t it be interesting to have an article that had all that shit written into it, and see if it would benefit the hits to my blog. Just an interesting thought mind you, more fun than anything else. So I cut and pasted the tag cloud here and thought I’d have a little fun with it.

If these words constituted a story it would make interesting reading.

• Apparently we are talking about corruption in the constitution, we want to read more about the Sharks and WP, we’d like Microsft to come up with an Easter Apple called Alex which could sms Russia for diamond Chelsea books.
• The prime minister loves cricket and chicken pirates.
• There should be a Coke Vs Cat festival in the bush.
• The Church is into development of club rugby.
• The Internet in Korea took an easter weekend while Liverpools ability to cope with intelligence took a tumble.
• Jacob Zuma balled an easter egg this sunday with Barack Obama to deal with the Recession.
• People in Joburg want premier league t shirts, and are concerned about Security at the World Cup… and the apartheid it’ll bring with their ‘vrouens’.

Before you think I’m completely fucken insane, this is the tag cloud I based it on. It was a little boring so I spiced it up.

“corruption constitution Read more sharks wp microsoft Easter apple alex sms russia diamond chelsea Books prime minister cricket chicken pirates my dad V Festival coke bush Cat church development club rugby The Internet korea easter weekend liverpool intelligence cope tumblr jacob zuma balls easter sunday barack obama recession capabilities logo xbox jhb t shirt premier league elections Security world cup vrou apartheid champions league”
You can get to see your very own Afrigator tag cloud here.

IOL sport is reporting that former Springbok Rugby Coach Jake White may be in line to coach the Stormers from next season.

That would rock. First move if he took over would to actually get a decent kicker in the team one would hope. Then maybe get some decent props in. I’d first try get Daan Human back from France, apparently he is kicking some arse there.

Anyway I guess its all conjecture until it actually happens. I must admit I think Rassie Erasmus has been a let down this season. The team don’t seem to have any plan and surprisingly, cos I fucken LOVE RUGBY and I’m a Stormers supporter, I’ve actually missed a few of their games this season and NOT CARED. Before you label me a fair weather supporter, I must tell you I’ve supported this team through thick and thin, and now it’s just become a joke.

You can read the article here.