I know this is already a bit old, but damn it’s funny! Watching Andrew Symonds ramming into an unsuspecting streaker, who by the way was getting away from the Gabba security team. I’d say this will be one of those master card moments that will live on for years to come… Best part: The Indian players high 5′ing each other on behalf of Symonds’ effort!

Enjoy!

Technorati Profile

Jean de Villiers

Jean de Villiers was born in 1981 on the 24th of February in Paarl, South Africa. Jean started as n wing and moved closer to the scrum form there where he now calls the centre position home. He plays for the Stormers Super 14 franchise and the Western Province Currie Cup team.

A product of Paarl Gimnasium, like previous springbok Marius Joubert and current Boks back-row star Schalk Burger, de Villiers made his first impact at international level in the South African Sevens team, playing a major role in teams that finished second in the 2001-02 World Sevens Series and third in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Also in 2002, he made his first international impact in the 15-man game at the U-21 Rugby World Cup, scoring four tries in the tournament for the victorious Junior Springboks.

He made his first senior-level appearance for the Springboks in November 2002 against France, but suffered a major knee injury early in the game.  After a lengthy recovery  he became a vital player in the Springboks’ 2004 rise, which saw them regain that year’s Tri Nations trophy.

Jean de Villiers is a lethal attacking force for the Springboks and there will be alot of attention paid to him at the World Cup. de Villiers is a master at reading the game and a true asset to any team!

Bob Skinstad

Bob Skinstad was born in Bulawayo Zimbabwe 1976. Bob was schooled at Hilton College and moved on to Stennbeosch University.

When at university Bob excelled at every level and it is where his true talent was recognized.Skinstad regularly played at either flank or number 8, he even played centre on the odd occasion - imagine that. A 194cm, 106kg centre with the force of a forward and the skills of a back. Bob represented South Africa at all levels. In 1995 he played for the national under-19’s and captained the u-21’s in 1996 and 1997. Skinstad made his SA Sevens debut in 1997 and played a key role in the team’s progress to the World Cup final in 1997, he also made his 15 man international debut that same year.

Skinstad was a member of the brilliant WP under-21 teams of 1996 and 1997 and among his teammates were Corne Krige, Louis Koen, Percy Montgomery, Breyton Paulse, Robbie Fleck, Hottie Louw and Selborne Boome. Skinstad, a prolific try-scorer made his Western Province debut in 1996 and captained the side in 1998.

Skinstad comepleted one of the great comebacks of world rugby this year, when he came back to participate in the Super 14 with the end goal of playing in the Rugby World Cup. In 2007 as part of the national squad he has not only played, but proved to be an able back up to John Smit, leading the team on the trip to Australia and New Zealand. Skinstad is positive and upbeat about the South African Squad and their chances in the upcoming tournament in France

Schalk Burger

Schalk was born in Port Elizabeth on the 13th of April 1983. Schalk plays flank for his province and his country. Burger is half man half machine weighing in at a 110kg ans standing 193cm tall.

After playing for the Under 21 Springbok side that won the U21 Rugby World Cup in 2002 and then captaining it in 2003, Schalk was selected for the senior Springbok squad. He made his debut against Georgia in 2003 at the Rugby World Cup and has since been regarded as one of the World’s top flankers along with Richie McCaw.

Schalk Burger was awarded the covoted IRB’s Player of the Year award in the 2004. In addition, he claimed the 2004 Absa South African Rugby Player of the Year award.

Burger’s fitness is remarkable, he is rarely rested throughout the Stormers’ Super 14 campaigns, South African test matches or the Currie Cup. Schalk is always one of the leaders when it comes to getting around the pitch and he is more often than not the player who made the most tackles in a particular match.

In the Springboks’ June 17 Test against Scotland, he suffered a neck injury. The following day, it was confirmed that he would require cervical fusion surgery and would be out of action for at least the remainder of the 2006 season. The injury and the required surgery are serious enough that White told media, “I don’t want to jump to conclusions - but there is a chance he may never play again.”Burger’s father told a Cape Town radio program that the injury was between his sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae, adding, “Although the operation is difficult the fact that the injury is lower down his neck is good for a future prognosis of making a full recovery.” The South African Rugby Union released a statement on 24 June, the date of the surgery, indicating that the surgery was successful and that Burger would undergo six to eight months of rehabilitation with plans to return him to the game.

Following Surgery, Burger returned to the Vodacom Stormers line-up on January 13th 2007, playing 55 minutes as the Stormers lost to the Bulls. Despite the loss, Burger did show flashes of the brilliance. After a shaky start to the 2007 Super 14 season, Burger inspired the Stormers to their first win of the campaign against the Chiefs as the Stormers recorded their first points of the season in a tense 21 - 16 victory at the Newlands Stadium.

Although Burger has been offered substantial amounts to go play in England, most recently he was linked to Harlequins. He has stood firm in his decision to play out the remainder of his contract with the Cape side Western Province and the Stormers.

Bryan Habana

Bryan Gary Habana was born on the 12 June 1983 in Benoni, South Africa. He weighs 90kg and is 1.79m tall. His first test was 20 Nov 2004 against England at Twickenham. Bryan Habana has already won some impressive silverware. Named as South Africa’s player of the year for 2005, Bryan is also one of the 5 nominations for IRB’s World Rugby Player of the Year.

Scoring 13 tries in his debut season for Golden Lions Currie Cup side, Bryan Habana was noticed by the Blue bulls coach Heyneke Meyer. Subsequently Bryan signed for the current Currie Cup and Super 14 champions, the Blue Bulls, and got picked to tour with the Boks for their year-end tour to the Northern Hemisphere.

Habana scored after 5 minutes of coming off the bench against England. He also went on to score 2 long range tries against the Scotland.

Bryan Habana vs a Cheetah

Bryan Habana runs the 100 meters in about 11 seconds. A cheetah can reach a top speed of 70 mph. “In a straight race, the cheetah wins comfortably but in every other way, it’s losing,” Habana said.

The cheetah chosen to run against Habana was a 2 ½-year-old female named Cetane. She was orphaned at birth after poachers killed her mother. She’s been raised in captivity by the De Wildt center, and for the most part is quite tame.

Habana was given a head start - but still lost. To keep the cheetah from attacking Habana on the race course - a leg-of-lamb lure was used to keep Cetane’s focus elsewhere.

Rugby World Cup 2007 Fixtures 

All times GMT unless stated)

3 The record number of times Australia have won the World Cup (1987, 1999, 2003).

373-6 The highest team total between two Test-playing nations at the World Cup, scored by India against Sri Lanka in 1999. Sri Lanka hit the overall highest World Cup score (398-5) against Kenya in 1996.

36 Canada’s score against Sri Lanka at the 2003 World Cup, the lowest team total in the history of the tournament. Canada also made 45 against England in 1975, and Namibia made the same score against Australia in 2003.

188* South African Gary Kirsten’s score against the United Arab Emirates at the 1996 World Cup. India’s Sourav Ganguly came close to passing it at the 1999 World Cup when he smashed 183 against Sri Lanka.

1 732 The number of runs Sachin Tendulkar has scored in 33 World Cup matches. He averages 59.72 in the competition, and has a top score of 152. Next on the runs list is Pakistan’s Javed Miandad with 1 083.

673 The number of runs Sachin Tendulkar scored at the 2003 World Cup, the most in any tournament.

4 The record number of World Cup centuries scored each by Sourav Ganguly, Mark Waugh and Sachin Tendulkar.

55 The number of World Cup wickets taken by Pakistan’s Wasim Akram in 38 matches. Glenn McGrath is next on the list with 45 in 28 matches, and could break the record at the 2007 World Cup.

7-15 Glenn McGrath’s record bowling figures against Namibia at the 2003 World Cup. In the same tournament, Andy Bichel took an even more impressive 7-20 against England. The only other bowler to take seven wickets in a World Cup match is the West Indies’ Winston Davies, against Australia in 1983.

23 The number of wickets Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas took at the 2003 World Cup at an average of 14.39. Brett Lee took 22 wickets (at 17.90) and Glenn McGrath 21 (at 14.76).

4 The number of bowlers who have taken a World Cup hat-trick – Chetan Sharma (India vs New Zealand, 1987), Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan vs Zimbabwe, 1999), Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh, 2003) and Brett Lee (Australia vs Kenya, 2003).

Springbok coach Jake White admitted that Bismarck du Plessis’ outstanding performance for the Sharks at the weekend influenced his decision to select him as the replacement for Pierre Spies.

Du Plessis’ omission from the squad elicited some criticism given that he had impressed in his limited game time on the Australian leg of the Tri-Nations. Bismarck scored two tries in last weekends Currie Cup victory for the Sharks.

Well done Bismarck!

After the huge success of the IRB sevens series in 2007 there have been no changes made to the 2008 venues.

The series will once again kick off with the tournament in Dubai then Adelaide, San Diego and Edinburgh.

“The inclusion of these exciting new locations into the series proved popular and also served to foster the growing global appeal of Rugby Sevens. Each Tournament was a resounding success with over 25,500 fans attending in Adelaide while San Diego’s attendance of 25,000 was a record for a USA Sevens event,” said IRB Sevens Manager, Beth Coalter.

“The series climax in Edinburgh was also a huge success with the competitive action on the field backed up by an attendance of almost 30,000 over the two competition days to see New Zealand lift the title.”

New Zealand won the series on the last day in Scotland which indicates just how tight the title race between New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa was throughout the competition.

IRB Sevens Series 2007/08 Schedule:
Dubai - Nov 30/Dec 1
South Africa - Dec 7/8
New Zealand - Feb 1/2
USA - Feb 9/10
Hong Kong - Mar 28/29/30
Australia- Apr 5/6
England - May 24/25
Scotland - May 31/June 1