Author: Benson Hendrix

The Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) recently approved a new strategic plan, operations plan and is restructuring the continent’s regional competition model. Central to this restructuring of African rugby is the new four-year strategic plan that is hoped will provide stability to African rugby, especially for smaller or potentially more politically unstable nations, and to increase participation in elite-level competitions.

Currently there are 660,000 rugby players throughout Africa, and the goal of this new plan is to increase that number to 800,000 in the next four years.

Africa has long been led in the Rugby Universe by the multi World Cup champion South African Springboks, which given the sporting divide between rugby, favored by the white South Africans, and soccer, favored by the indigenous South Africans. This divide appeared to carry on throughout much of the continent, with soccer being the prevalent sport.

“This is a big step forward for the game in Africa, which is a strategically important growth Region for the IRB with nearly a third of the world’s playing population,” said International Rugby Board Chairman Bernard Lapasset.

“I am delighted that we have opened the way for a new vision for Africa. I would like to thank the CAR Member Unions for their commitment to growing the Game across Africa and the IRB for their support throughout this process, a process that will ensure that Rugby can welcome new members to the family from new communities across Africa,” added Abdelaziz Bougja, CAR President. (more)

Continue reading “African Rugby Confederation Plans for 2016 Olympics” →

In the last few weeks I’ve noticed a wonderful thing, some of y’all have been subscribing to my blog and my RSS feeds!  You like me, you really like me! 🙂 And because you’ve taken the time out of your lives to visit my little bit of the Internet, I wanted to say “Thank You” for taking the time to read what I’ve been saying so far.

Since I’ve told you a little bit about myself, I’d like to know a little bit about y’all.  If you feel like leaving something in the comments below, I’d love to read it!

Thank you again!

Benson

What else can be said? An unfortunate choice of words for returning Cardiff Blues star Jamie Roberts, back on the pitch after a five-month layoff resulting from a wrist injury…

“I’m sure if I am involved on Saturday probably after five minutes I’ll be blowing.”

Wow!  At least ask for dinner first!

Granted this had more to do about his fitness, but come on.  

(As a PR pro I’m even willing to speak about media relations at these clubs for no cost, just cover my fees… 😉 )

All joking aside, congratulations to Mr. Roberts for his triumphant return to the world’s greatest game.

“I’m gonna knock you out. Momma said knock you out…”

LL Cool J

The hearing’s been held, and the verdict is in – fourth round TKO for Munster’s Paul O’Connell. After careful consideration at a hearing in front of the European Rugby Cup powers that be, the current lock for Munster, and formerly for the British and Irish Lions lock, O’Connell has landed a four-week ban for his recent swing at (if that’s what you want to call it) at Ospreys flanker and 8-man Jonathan Thomas.

Did O’Connell get enough time? While the decision has already been made, there is plenty of room for debate on this issue.

Watch the video below, courtesy of Munster Rugby, and judge for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/v/B1j1czTHW-s?fs=1&hl=en_US

O’Donnell had just returned to action after suffering from an infected a groin injury. The injury forced him to miss both Ireland’s 2010 summer international match (also called “Test”) series, as well as the recently concluded autumn tours by New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Samoa. Prior to this he had seen quite a bit of action for not only Ireland, but also the previously mentioned British and Irish Lions.

Thomas, the versatile forward for Ospreys and the Wales National teams, has racked up over 60 appearances for the Welsh National team since his debut in 2003, including appearing in two Rugby World Cups. Welsh rugby players have usually been incredibly tough on the field – think Scott Quinnell, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams. So I was surprised to see Thomas drop as quickly as he did when O’Donnell gave him the reverse, behind the back, overhand jam, nothing but net clothesline.

The Associated Press reported recently that the “B” samples of two South African Springboks players who had previously tested positive for methylhexaneamine banned performance enhancing substances came back from the labs with another positive result.

The two players, wing Bjorn Basson and hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle, will have to face an investigation and eventual tribunal in South Africa. The pair tested positive after South Africa’s 23-21 win over Ireland last month.

According to the story:

“Basson and Ralepelle failed random doping tests for methylhexaneamine after South Africa’s victory over Ireland on Nov. 6 and were sent home from the tour. They blame a sports drink used by the squad.”

Right, it’s a sports drink’s fault. The next think you know they’ll tell you the Devil made them do it. Look guys, it’s OK if you’re going to try and cheat. Really it is, after all if you’re not cheating then you’re not trying. But your end of the bargain is, when you get caught, to fess up to it.

“Come back home to the motherland, or lose your chance to play for it.”

That was the gauntlet thrown down by the English Rugby Football Union to all of their players under professional contracts with non-England based teams around the world. Come home or lose your space on the national team.

Seems pretty cut and dried if you ask me, if they mean it.

One star seems determined to find out.

England’s former stud fly-half Jonny Wilkinson appears ready to call England’s bluff. He’s prepared to sign a renewed contact with French Top 14 pro team, Toulon – where he signed a year and a half ago.

Players who are lucky enough to play professionally in France are likely to make more money, with Top 14 teams rumored to have a salary cap approaching double what English professional teams have, 8 vs. 4 million pounds.  But Wilkinson says it’s not about the money, it’s about living in the south of France (and can you really blame him?)

Wilkinson told the UK Telegraph, ““I am happy where I am, it fits the bill for me. I am enjoying the experience and I’m learning a hell of a lot. I can understand where they [the RFU] are coming from and what they’re saying. I’m just one player in this sort of situation.”

While not the starting fly-half for England anymore, Wilkinson had seen playing time coming off of the bench, and was recently surpassed by New Zealand’s Dan Carter for all-time points scorer.

Personal View: I understand why the English RFU wants to pull back all of their top players to England before the 2011 World Cup.  In closer proximity they have more time to train together and become a stronger team. This is the same argument that I made when Georgia beat the U.S. recently.  However, these players still have to take advantage of the opportunity provided by them from higher paying overseas teams.  One way around this might be for the RFU to put its own money where its policies are, and compensate the players it forces back from overseas.

According to ESPN Scrum, Steph Brennan, the former physiotherapist with London’s Harlequins rugby team who was an integral part of the team’s “Bloodgate” scandal, is appealing his ban from rugby, which turned into being disbarred in September.  He’ll be appearing before the High Court in London on Tuesday to appeal his disbarment from rugby. If his appeal succeeds he might be able to find a team to finally take him in; if he fails, this will probably be the end of his career. 

This is quite the downfall from someone who was on the cusp of working with the English National Team until the incident in question.

For those who are unfamiliar with the event – Harlequins’ Welsh wing Tom Williams used fake blood capsules to exit the field during a 2009 match with Leinster so Harlequins could bring kicking specialist Nick Evans (who was already disallowed from returning to the match) back onto the field.

Previous Bloodgate stories can be seen here and here.

Brennan was responsible for providing the fake blood capsules and helped facilitate the fake cut to Williams’ lip by former team doctor Wendy Chapman.  According to the investigation into “Bloodgate” Brennan had admitted to faking blood injuries with Harlequins five times.

While everyone should have the opportunity to work at the job they love, they have to realize the responsibility that comes with that opportunity. Brennan lost this opportunity because of his stupidity and willingness to set his ethics to his profession aside, and he needs to ride the pine for a few more years before he’s given another opportunity.  Hopefully the High Court will see the wisdom in this and not cave. 

The South African Springboks fell short in their revenge match against the fabled Barbarian Football Club this weekend in Twickenham Stadium, London.  The South Africans fell to the invitational team, 26-20 in a game that resembled more of a blow-out until the last ten minutes on the field.

As expected, and not a surprise to any reader of the SuperSite and anyone other than the overrated pseudo-player himself, “Rugby Super Duper Overrated Part-time Player” Gavin Henson did not take the field for the Barbarians. However, the Barbarians were fielding a team that might be better described as a Southern Hemisphere All-Star team, consisting of six New Zealanders and six Australians, including All Black winger Joe Rokocoko and Australian wing Drew Mitchell and Australia’s other wing James O’Conner filling in at fullback.

The Barbarians poured on the offense in the first quarter of the match, jumping to a 19-3 lead in the 22^nd minute thanks to two tries by weakside wing Drew Mitchell in the fifth and 20^th minutes, and a try and two conversion kicks by fullback James O’Conner. Mitchell’s second try in the 20^th minute capped a five-minute scoring flurry for the Barbarians.  The Baa-Baas (as the Barbarians are known throughout the Rugby Universe) added another try by Italian replacement lock Quintin Geldenhuys midway through the second half to cement the victory.

The match really wasn’t as close as the score indicates.  The Barbarians were still up 19-3 going into the half, and while the Springboks were able to tighten the score to 19-10 just after halftime, it took a final ten-minute attacking push from the South Africans to finally pull the score to a respectable six-point loss at the end of the game, thanks to a unconverted Botha try in the 69^th minute, and a try by replacement hooker Bandise Maku, that also went unconverted just before time expired.

Personal Note: The Springboks didn’t appear to take this match as seriously as the rest of their matches in their Anglo-Celtic tour, much to my disappointment. I have to question the wisdom, as I so often do for this particular coach, of Springboks coach Peter DeVillers for essentially replacing his entire 21-11 winning starting lineup from the previous week’s match against England.  Only three players from that squad took the field against the Barbarians, including Bakkies Botha, who one could only hope wouldn’t headbutt, or mount, or try to bite the ear off of anyone on the Barbarians side.

Years ago the Barbarians would have been planned for as much as any other international match. The Barbarians were created as kind of an All-Star Invitational team where the players were given the honor to play for the team.  It was created and grown in the true spirit of rugby, where people could get together to just play for the love of the game.  And in recent years, it strikes me that this lack of planning for them is a slap in the face to the organization.