Latest news with #StevenKitshoff
The Citizen
23-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Boks to kick off 2025 season: What you need to know about the Barbarians
The invitational side will play on SA soil for the first time this weekend. Steven Kitshoff, Malcolm Marx and Anton Peikrishvili of the Barbarians, following a match against Argentina at Twickenham in 2018. Picture:The Springboks open their 2025 season in Cape Town on Saturday with a match against the invitational side, the Barbarians. It is not a Test match, but the world champions are sure to be tested by a team packed with internationals. Here are a few things you need to know about the Barbarians. Who are the Barbarians? The Barbarian Football Club, known as the Barbarians (or BaaBaas), are a British-based invitational team, founded in 1890. The team play in black and white hooped jerseys, though the players wear socks from their own clubs or provincial teams. The Barbarians have no home ground or clubhouse. They are a touring team who play at the invitation of clubs or unions. Overseas the team have played in 25 countries, most recently Tunisia, Spain, Georgia and Portugal. Why was the club formed? In the late 1800s the rugby season finished in March in Europe so William Carpael decided to invite a group of players to join him on an end-of-season tour to the North of England. This he saw as an opportunity to play with friends from various clubs who were normally opponents. It was such a success that he formed the Barbarian Football Club to continue touring on an informal basis and the first tour took place in December of 1890 playing Huddersfield and Bradford. 'Best try ever scored' Ask any rugby historian to name the best try ever scored and he or she is likely to say Gareth Edwards' try for the Barbarians. In a match between the Barbarians and All Blacks at Cardiff Arms Park in 1973, regarded by many as one of the best games ever played, Edwards of Wales scored a try in the corner considered one of the best ever. The Barbarians won the match 23-11. History against South Africa Saturday's meeting in Cape Town will be the first time that the teams clash on South African soil. There is, however, a proud history between the Barbarians and the Springboks, going back to 1952 when they first clashed. In eight meetings, the Barbarians have won four times, the Boks three times while there has been one draw – the most recent outing, which was played at Wembley in 2016 and ended 31-all after a thunderous 80 minutes. Interesting facts Former Springbok hooker Schalk Brits, who played for the Lions, Stormers, Bulls and Saracens, is the South African who has represented the Barbarians the most – eight times. Tony O'Reilly of Ireland made 30 appearances for the club between 1955-62 and scored 38 tries Traditionally at least one uncapped player is selected for each match. The costs incurred by the Barbarians in assembling a squad for each game or tour are paid out of the gate receipts from the match, or matches, played.
The Citizen
17-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Springboks ready for a changing of the forward guard in 2025
A number of exciting rising front row talents are set to get an opportunity to stake their claim for the Springboks over the coming international season. The Springboks are set to witness an end of an era and a changing of the guard in one of their strongest departments, the front row, over the coming international season. Injuries, retirements and age mean that a large contingent of Bok front row heroes from the past two World Cup wins will likely be on their way out, opening the door for some exciting new talent to step into the breach. The biggest loss was the forced retirement earlier this year of veteran loosehead prop Steven Kitshoff, who was unable to recover from a serious neck injury. His long-term Stormers and Bok front row partner Frans Malherbe has question marks hanging over his career due to neck and back injuries that have plagued him since the previous World Cup. Veteran struggles Another veteran, Sharks prop Trevor Nyakane, has also been plagued by various injuries, and along with Malherbe, look like they won't feature for the Boks this year. With them set to be 38 and 36 respectively by the time the next World Cup roles around in 2027, will they have a chance of forcing their way back into the Bok mix? Heading into the start of the international season in two weeks' time, two of the Boks' rising front ranking talents, the Bulls' Gerhard Steenekamp and soon to be Stormer Ntuthuko Mchunu, are also out of action with injuries. It is thus an exciting time for new talent and Lions prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye and Stormers prop Neethling Fouche will likely benefit and get a chance to show what they can do in the games against the Barbarians, Italy and Georgia in the coming weeks. Another one benefitting from the injuries is former Cheetahs and current Edinburgh prop, Boan Venter, who was added to the Bok squad this past weekend and he will be in line to make his debut along with Ntlabakanye and Fouche. Bulls utility forward Jan-Hendrik Wessels is also set for an extended run, after impressing for his franchise in the absence of Steenekamp, while he is also held in high regard by Bok coach Rassie Erasmus. Third choice hooker At hooker the Boks are still anxiously searching for a reliable third choice option, especially with Bongi Mbonambi heading into the twilight of his career. Deon Fourie covered that position at the World Cup in 2023, but is injured, while Joseph Dweba and Johan Grobbelaar, who have featured over the past few years, have both missed out on selection. That has opened the door for former Cheetahs and current Scarlets hooker Marnus van der Merwe to step in, and he will likely make his Bok debut and get a huge opportunity to stake a claim for the third choice slot over the coming season. Speaking at a Bok press conference last week, Erasmus admitted that we would see a lot of change in the front row this season. 'Kitsie has retired. Frans is not likely to play for us this season and Trevor definitely not. We have brought Asenathi in, and we have been working really hard behind the scenes with the Lions to get the best out of him,' said Erasmus. 'A guy like Neethling is 30 now and that is a lekker age for a tighthead. Thomas du Toit is doing really well on that side [in England], he's one of the top players there. Wilco [Louw] is also doing really well, and Ntuthuko Mchunu unfortunately has a knee injury now. 'I think it is natural that some of the older guys will either retire or fall off the pace. But we don't want to change our game and not keep that forward power. So hopefully the guys who get that opportunity will take it. We will definitely have other guys playing there this year.'
IOL News
26-04-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
‘Expert' Williams embarrassed himself by insinuating Kitshoff retired because of Springbok Bomb Squad
Steven Kitshoff Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff retired from rugby this year due to a neck injury. Photo: LEON LESTRADE Independent Media Image: LEON LESTRADE Independent Media Comment by Mike Greenaway Australian rugby pundit Matt Williams' claim that Steven Kitshoff's career-ending neck injury could be Bomb Squad-related is like a drowning man frantically reaching for an imagined life raft. Williams, the former coach of New South Wales and Scotland, has made a post-rugby name for himself as a pundit in Irish media. And one of the rods he loves to bear is his hatred of South Africa's use of six or seven forwards in the famous Bomb Squad. Williams argues that it is not only against the spirit of the game, but is also likely to cause injuries. He says that tiring forwards in the team in opposition to the Boks suddenly have to face a fresh pack of forwards, and thus are vulnerable to injury. Williams has been shot down in many quarters, but has also garnered support from teams poor in forward depth, like Scotland. The matter seemed to have been put to rest when governing body World Rugby conducted an investigation into the matter, and recently ruled that there were no medical grounds to outlaw the concept of a Bomb Squad. But Williams won't let the matter go, and his ridiculous assumption in a podcast this week that Kitshoff's retirement could be related to his role in the Bomb Squad has eroded his credibility as an expert rugby critic. If he had done his homework, he would have found that Kitshoff's injury was from a freak accident in a Currie Cup match in which the Springbok was starting for Western Province. Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was quick to pour cold water on Williams' unfounded claim. Erasmus said on social media this week: 'No man! How can a 6/2 or 7/1 split contribute to Kitchie's injury? Do you know? No, you don't.' Nee wat !! How can a 6/2 or 7/1 split contribute to Kitchie's injury ? 'Do we know' No you dont 🤫 — Johan Erasmus (@RassieRugby) April 16, 2025 I interviewed Williams several times when he was coach of the New South Wales Waratahs in the early days of Super Rugby. He is a man of letters (he holds a university degree), and I found him to be sincere and engaging. But his failure to let go of his stance on the Springboks favouring forwards on their bench – a stance copied by Ireland and France – is disappointing.
Washington Post
25-02-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
South Africa prop Steven Kitshoff retires from all rugby because of a serious neck injury
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africa prop Steven Kitshoff announced his retirement from all rugby Tuesday because of a serious neck injury that he said in an interview last year left him 'two millimeters' from death. Kitshoff made the announcement in a statement from his South African domestic team, the Stormers.
BBC News
25-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
South Africa World Cup winner Kitshoff retires
South Africa's double World Cup-winning prop Steven Kitshoff has been forced to retire from rugby after suffering a serious neck news was confirmed in a statement released by his Stormers team on 33-year-old sustained the injury in September 2024 while playing in a Currie Cup match for Western Province South Africa and subsequently revealed that he was "two millimetres from death".Capped 138 times by the Springboks, Kitshoff played for Ulster during the 2023-24 season before returning to home side was part of South Africa's World Cup winning teams in Japan in 2019 and France in 2023."After undergoing initial conservative therapy, the decision was taken to have stabilising surgery," read the statement from the Stormers."Following an extensive rehabilitation process he has been left with significantly reduced rotation of his neck and the advice from a specialist neurosurgeon was that there would be a high risk of another injury should he continue playing."Kitshoff's distinguished career began with the Stormers as an 18-year-old, the front-rower making his debut for the club in 2011, before collecting his first international cap five years spent two seasons with French club Bordeaux, in addition to his spell with Ulster."It is obviously incredibly disappointing for my career to end in this way, but unfortunately the risk to my wellbeing was simply too high," he said.
