The Sharks won a physically demanding contest, overcoming a period with only 12 players on the field, to beat the Vodacom Blue Bulls 29-19 at Loftus Stadium on Saturday.
The Springboks will get the wheels in motion for the 2025 season when Rassie Erasmus and his management team host the first in-person coaches’ strategic session of the year followed by a three-day alignment camp with a group of 56 domestic players in Cape Town next month.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks will travel to Loftus Versfeld for Saturday’s second round Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with the Vodacom Bulls.
Two gripping South African derbies will take center stage in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship on Saturday as the competition reaches round 11, which also marks the first of two Origins Rounds where the players will celebrate their rugby roots by wearing their school or club socks.
Warren Gatland’s second tenure as Wales head coach has ended by mutual agreement. Cardiff Rugby head coach Matt Sherratt has been appointed to lead the Wales senior side for the final three matches of the 2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship.
The Springboks will wrap up their 2025 Castle Lager Rugby Championship campaign with an exciting fixture against Argentina at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, in London on Saturday, 4 October, in what marks the teams’ first encounter in the southern hemisphere showpiece on neutral territory.
The Vodacom Bulls consolidated their third place on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship standings as they held out a determined DHL Stormers outfit in a dramatic encounter for a nail-biting 33-32 win in their postponed round one fixture at a packed DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday.
Former England World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio described Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus as “naughty,” adding that the “sad reality is that no one in the world is challenging him.”
The battle lines will be clearly marked on Saturday when the DHL Stormers host the Vodacom Bulls in their highly anticipated Vodacom United Rugby Championship north-south derby in Cape Town. The Pretoria outfit will be looking to reduce the gap between themselves and the two top sides in the standings, while the hosts will be desperate to close in on the top eight to improve their playoff chances.