Rassie: Frans nearly walked away

Rassie Erasmus has revealed that veteran Springbok prop Frans Malherbe considered retirement last year. The double World Cup winner was struggling with persistent back problems. “I had a meeting with him last year and Franna was close to retiring,” Erasmus told...

Bulls hold firm in Bok tug-of-war

The Vodacom Bulls have fought off a major raid from the Stormers to secure the long-term future of a Springbok forward. After weeks of negotiations and strong interest from the Stormers, Rapport claims the Pretoria-based club has managed to keep Cobus Wiese in blue...

Unbeaten Blitzboks book semi-final spot

The Blitzboks beat New Zealand at the Vancouver Sevens on Saturday to finish top of Pool A. South Africa, who had defeated Great Britain (21-5) and Spain (28-7) earlier in the day, scored three tries through Impi Visser, Shilton van Wyk and Siviwe Soyizwapi to take a...

Big blow for Tahs

The Waratahs have been rocked by a hamstring injury to Wallabies star Joseph Suaalii. The powerful outside centre suffered the injury during the team’s warm-up ahead of Friday’s Super Rugby Pacific clash against the Hurricanes in Sydney – a match the Waratahs went on...

Embarrassed Poms plummet down rankings

England have slipped further down the World Rugby rankings after a historic defeat to Italy in Rome on Saturday. Coach Steve Borthwick’s men, whose opening Six Nations win against Wales had lifted them to third in the rankings, have now fallen to sixth after suffering...

Italy elated, England gutted

Italy captain Michele Lamaro praised his side’s dogged defence as they earned a first-ever win over England on Saturday. Italy hit back from 18-10 down early in the second half of the Six Nations match to beat England 23-18 in front of almost 69,000 fans in Rome....