Return of the king
7 Feb 2011
Fourie du Preez will be the Boks’ key player this year as they seek to defend the World Cup.
In his most revealing interview yet, Du Preez talks to SA Rugby magazine about why the Springboks struggled in 2010, his big-match temperament, who should replace him as Bok scrumhalf when he retires from international rugby, why he wants to play in Japan, and who he thinks should be the next Bok coach.
We also speak to Heyneke Meyer and Bryan Habana about what makes Du Preez the best scrumhalf in the world.
‘If he doesn’t play the Boks are in serious trouble and the Bulls wouldn’t be the side they have been in the past couple of years, says Meyer. ‘People point out that he is integral to their game plan, which is true. There isn’t a better box-kicking scrumhalf in world rugby. But that doesn’t take into account his full value.
‘As the link between the forwards and the backs he is the most influential player on the park. Your decision-making has to be so sharp there, especially at international level where space and time are at a premium. No player can match his decision-making under pressure.’
Also in the new issue, on sale this week:
– Bryan Habana needs creative players around him if he’s to start scoring tries at Test level again
– Francois Louw refuses to believe that his World Cup dream is over
– Local businessman Robert Gumede on why he’s invested in the Lions, transforming the game, and the players he’d like to bring to Joburg
– Stirling Mortlock on what the Rebels hope to achieve in their debut Super Rugby season, why Danny Cipriani will excel, and his desire to get back into the Wallabies squad
– Alcohol addiction and excessive partying cost kiwi referee Steve Walsh his job in 2008. SA Rugby magazine finds out how he turned his life around
– JP Pietersen is confident he can regain the form that made him one of the world’s best wingers in 2007
– While the Test nations up north are coming to terms with the new law interpretations, the club structures and mentality will forever contrast the philosophy down south
– It’s been just over a year since Gareth Thomas became the first openly gay professional rugby player. In this candid interview, the former Wales captain talks about his new life, changing perceptions, and being portrayed by Mickey Rourke in an upcoming Hollywood movie
– The Olympic Games will transform sevens rugby
– Referees must stop interpreting the laws and start applying them consistently
– The three Pacific Island rugby nations will never be able to compete with the world’s best
– Jacques Cronjé on his World Cup snub, maturing, and going head-to-head with Sébastien Chabal at Racing Métro
Click here to subscribe to the print or digital editions
PLUS: Get your GIANT 2011 fixtures poster FREE with this issue (Super Rugby, Vodacom Cup, Varsity Cup, Six Nations, Tri-Nations, Sevens World Series, Currie Cup and World Cup fixtures)
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603 Comments
Pages: « 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 … 13 » Show All
7 Feb 2011, 12:54 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-100: he keeps talking of war thopugh Trans, doesnt he know apartheid finished in the 90s?
someone should tell him, perhaps you could cut and paste it to him?
7 Feb 2011, 12:54 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-100: And the Pdv hits keep on coming.
7 Feb 2011, 12:55 pm
@gunther(gunther)-90: Scoring a try means you only have to dot the ball down over the white line. Something an average, robotic and one-dimensional back can do…
7 Feb 2011, 12:56 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-101: You got really ugly chicks in NZ or is it just the ugly mugs that like rugby?
7 Feb 2011, 12:56 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-101: for someone who grew up in a “free environment” apartheid is on your mind a lot chap…
7 Feb 2011, 12:57 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-101:
No he is refering to battle generally. He considers the World Cup, a war. To an extent he is right. Bok coach job is a poisoned challice. He might be jobless after October if the Boks don’t win. It’s cut throat business. He is talking about survival.
7 Feb 2011, 12:59 pm
Bryan Habana with his Pink Boots and ‘Michael Jackson Teenage Hairstyle’ looked as though he had arrived at the game directly from the J&B Met the week before.
Mind you the way he is playing, he most probably did!
Perhaps if he stopped attending every ‘wannabe celeb function’ in Cape Town and focussed on his core vocation he perhaps could improve.
7 Feb 2011, 13:00 pm
@104 it was the influx of xhosa’s that has added the ugly value to NZ.
7 Feb 2011, 13:04 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-108: hahaha Xhosas in NZ? bwahahahaha funny guy
7 Feb 2011, 13:06 pm
Bryan Quota Habana
7 Feb 2011, 13:07 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-106: I dont think any coach is safe during a World cup year…though the more he makes reference to war the more I think the Bok team is in trouble.. if you take a seige mentality then theres the likelihood of falling into a very myopic plan, not conducive to a football team IMO..
@Transformation(Transformation)-105: just helping you with the struggle Trans…I know you strive to be an ANC YOuth League Leader…
7 Feb 2011, 13:11 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-111: tl tl tl i’m so far removed from the youth league, Gunther is more the youth league connect…
7 Feb 2011, 13:12 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-112: oh ok… ANC Senior Citizens League Leader then
7 Feb 2011, 13:13 pm
@Frankly speaking(Frankly speaking)-103:
hahaha..
you are a bigger idiot than I though you were.
How mmany tries did the multi-dimensional non-robotic backs of the stormers score last year.
now stop being a doosie
7 Feb 2011, 13:17 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-100:
poops will go to war if anybody tries to mount a cannon on his canoe.
he’s only just replaced it
7 Feb 2011, 13:20 pm
@gunther(gunther)-115: trust you to be thinking of mounting things on my canoe… finally out of the closet grunter, good to see…
7 Feb 2011, 13:23 pm
@Frankly speaking(Frankly speaking)-89: Van den Heever 8. Hougaardt (on the wing) 7. Meisiekind 5. Zane 5. Dippenaar 1. Steyn 5. Fourie 2.
Happy?
7 Feb 2011, 13:24 pm
Benni has eaten himself into a financial pickle, it seems:
Benni fined R2.4m by Hammers
2011-02-07 10:17
Email | Print
Benni McCarthy (AFP)
Johannesburg – Embattled former Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy was again fined almost £200 000 (R2.4 million) by his relegation threatened club West Ham for failing to meet fitness targets.
McCarthy was deemed too large for a Premier League player, especially for a club fighting relegation, and was ordered to work on his fitness. Failure to meet his target would result in hefty financial penalties.
The former SA national team player did meet his target but was left out of the 25-man West Ham squad for the second half of the season.
Hammers boss Avram Grant believes the weight loss has slowed the striker. “He reached the targets but I think that affected his movement,” said Grant.
“He’s a very good player and one of the best finishers in training that I have ever seen, and I have had some good players. But now we need players with movement and the advantage of being quick, and we have others.”
McCarthy was challenged at the beginning of the season to lose 2.2lb in weight for five or six weeks or face a fine of one week’s wages each time he failed.
He reached his target of 13st 5lb by October after ballooning to more than 15st at one stage and his body fat went down from 24.2 percent at the end of last season to 16 per cent by mid-August. A professional athlete is expected to carry from five to 12 percent.
Meanwhile, his agent Rob Moore, told the Daily Mirror that McCarthy wanted to play and did not want to just sit around and collect his cheque. McCarthy earns £38 000 a week and appears to have been fined five times in his long-term weight battle.
”Avram has a job to do and the team are in a difficult position, so you can’t blame him for making decisions he believes in, but Benni has had hardly any game time and it’s inevitable he would get a bit disheartened.
”He’s at the level of fitness and weight the club prescribed and they are happy with that. But he is 33 years old and we have to be realistic,” Moore told Daily Mirror.
7 Feb 2011, 13:28 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-94:
“You can’t go to war and mount a cannon on a canoe”
Brilliant – sheer genius from the Maestro.
7 Feb 2011, 13:30 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-116:
poops.
we are talking about canoes here?
real ones.
nobody mentioned closets or anything else
If there is something you want to get off your chest however just remember you are amongst family here ony keo.
We have seen so much from you, I doubt you could shock us anymore
7 Feb 2011, 13:30 pm
@cab(cab)-119: I’m not sure I agree though. I’d hate to find myself up shitcreek without a canon.
7 Feb 2011, 13:31 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-121:
lol, they all cooked in the canoe. its great stuff.
7 Feb 2011, 13:32 pm
@gunther(gunther)-120: really grunter, dont try and backtrack now..
though from your last comments I think the backtrack is right up your alley… maevis is really a man isnt she?
7 Feb 2011, 13:33 pm
The return of the kickking more like it
7 Feb 2011, 13:39 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-118: Eish Benny. Leave the burgers alone already!
7 Feb 2011, 13:40 pm
@KevinRack(KevinRack)-124: True. Box kick baby!
7 Feb 2011, 13:42 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-123:
poops.
maevis is my domestic executive.
she is a xhosa princess.
you seem to be dreaming about something else entirely
7 Feb 2011, 13:44 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-125:
apparently his nickname at the hammers is the Great Gatsby…
7 Feb 2011, 13:45 pm
@gunther(gunther)-128:
Another Gunther classic.
7 Feb 2011, 13:48 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-126:
Wiehet gewen van die Kings and Cheetahs?
7 Feb 2011, 13:49 pm
@gunther(gunther)-128:
7 Feb 2011, 13:50 pm
BTW isnt there somebody else that can pose for the Mag cover?
7 Feb 2011, 13:50 pm
@gunther(gunther)-128: And when his coach spoke about “posing a threat on the edge of the box”, Benni initially thought he was referring to the proposed health warnings on MacDonalds packaging.
7 Feb 2011, 13:51 pm
@Mighty Horua(Mighty Horua)-130: We got our arses handed to us alright. Philip Burger and his boys tore into us big time in the first half. Kings played a little better in the second, but it was already over rower. We sat in the rain watching our team take a beating. 45 – 17 to the Cheetahs. It was good for the Kings tho. They realize there is still plenty hard work ahead.
7 Feb 2011, 13:55 pm
@Pypkan(Pypkan)-60: Brilliant – BRILLIANT post mate!! Well said!
Absolutely sick of the over-commercialisation of everything – nothing is sacred to the greedy, corporate, over-zealous capitalist vermin! SASOL had their logo much lower down…
Anyways – you, me and a girl called Sue – ie ALL OF US – have the power over these f#ckers! DON’T but the jersey! BOYCOTT the jersey! Keep your old SASOL Bok jersey, or any other old jersey you may have – DO NOT buy the merchandise with the Absa logo on. And don’t open any Absa bank acounts…
Hurt them in the only place the f#ckers care about – their pockets!
7 Feb 2011, 13:56 pm
At least they hammered the Bulls!
7 Feb 2011, 13:58 pm
@Nick Armstrong(Nick Armstrong)-135:
Go join Afriforum! They have a campaign against ABSA!
7 Feb 2011, 13:59 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-133:
“caution contents will make objects in your mirror larger than they appear”
sadly he had no idea that Benni’s outstanding finishing abilities applied mainly to happy meals.
apparently Benni has blamed his bosses Israeli accent mistaking the words protein shake for burger ‘n shake.
fortunately poops doesn’t play for the hammers or he would have tried to bugger the sheik.
Avram responded that Benni eats like a Palestinian in a hummus jacuzzi.
I expect this to get ugly.
7 Feb 2011, 14:02 pm
@Mighty Horua(Mighty Horua)-137: How’s that going?
Any figures on how many bank accounts were closed?
7 Feb 2011, 14:06 pm
@gunther(gunther)-138: Now I see why Benni (or Ben, as he is now called) was considered one of the biggest signings in Hammers history.
7 Feb 2011, 14:06 pm
@Taahirah(Taahirah)-139:
Ive got no idea how far Afriforum got with closing down ABSA
Some of Keo’s bloggers mustve been pissed when they saw Ramos presenting the Bok jerseys
7 Feb 2011, 14:09 pm
@gunther(gunther)-138: HAHAHAHAHA
@ “Avram responded that Benni eats like a
Palestinian in a hummus jacuzzi.” bwahahaha
7 Feb 2011, 14:09 pm
@Mighty Horua(Mighty Horua)-130: Cheetahs. Nie seker wat die score was nie. Dis baie swak dat daar net gekonsentreer word op WP, Sharks Bulls en Lions se voorbereiding…
7 Feb 2011, 14:11 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-140:
massive indeed.
it’s true that they have started calling him Ben.
“there’s only two Big Ben’s
there’s only two Big Ben’s”
rings out around the terraces…
7 Feb 2011, 14:11 pm
@Nick Armstrong(Nick Armstrong)-135: get over yourself man, it’s just a national team jersey ffs!
7 Feb 2011, 14:13 pm
@ Mighty Horua – I detect a political edge to the tone of your posts… I’m not interested in making this political..
It’s to do with b#stardising the Bok jersey! Why couldn’t they simply place the logo in the same place, same size, as SASOL…???
Anyways – if you wanna buy one of their jerseys – go ahead – buy one… For those who do take a principled stand against the over-commercialisation – based on nothing but short-sighted greed – of the jersey – then simply DO NOT buy it…
ESPECIALLY – do NOT buy the jersey with the Bok on the sleeve – ie the RWC jersey… Again – the only thing these corporate vermin – and their lackeys administering the game understand – is their pockets – so hurt them there! BOYCOTT the merchandise!
7 Feb 2011, 14:16 pm
@ Transformation – I see tradition obviously holds no sway with you… No worries – each to their own. To true Bok supporters – they will not like what Absa/SARU have come up with…
As pypkan pointed out – from a professional design perspective – it LOOKS SH#T too!!
7 Feb 2011, 14:18 pm
@Tegejo(Tegejo)-143:
Rosso het laat weet dat die Kings op hul hel gekry het!
45 – 17
7 Feb 2011, 14:21 pm
@Nick Armstrong(Nick Armstrong)-146:
mighty only buys counterfeit crusaders jerseys.
7 Feb 2011, 14:22 pm
@Nick Armstrong(Nick Armstrong)-146:
No political tone!
Over the past 30 years ABSA has poured money into SA rugby – and if it wasnt for them – SA would play regular test matches vs Namibia and Kenya
I say let them put their logo whenever they want!
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