In sport we are well aware of the use of endorsements because most of the top sportspeople are endorsing some of the biggest brands out there.

It was therefore quite exciting to notice our very own Springbok as well as the official team apparel supplier Canterbury SA feature in a US R&B video.

Bobby Valentino, a US R&B singer also known in the industry as Bobby V, features in a music video to promote his song “Let’s get it” wearing a Springbok-emblazoned green and gold jacket.

We are not implying that this was a sponsored video or that Valentino is, in fact, endorsing these two brands.  (Goodness knows, none of our representative rugby teams are even “getting it” these days!)

It may just be that the appearance of the Springbok and Canterbury SA logos in the video is quite coincidental.  BlitzBokke.com has not been inside a Canterbury store for a while so we cannot say whether the jacket the singer is wearing is even part of the official Springbok supporters clothing range.  Nevertheless, it is heartening to see the Bok feature in the video.

(Continues below)

Have a look at the YouTube video:

(Cheers Katarina Knowles for the heads up)

Needless to say nobody had this piece of advice for Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice who (as Sport24 reports): is in hot water after posting a homophobic slur on her Twitter page, according to a report in Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph.

Rice, a triple Olympic gold medalist, posted a bit of trash talk after the Wallabies defeated South Africa on Saturday in Bloemfontein in their Tri-Nations clash, tweeting:

“Suck on that faggots. Probs the best game I’ve ever seen!! Well done boys.”

According to the Telegraph, Rice removed the comment from her Twitter page and emailed an apology to the newspaper.

“I made a comment on Twitter last night in the excitement of the moment.  “I did not mean to cause offence and I apologise. I have deleted it from the site.”

(Source Sport24.co.za)

Shame on you Stephanie Rice.

Korea overcame partisan support and a strong challenge from hosts China in the Cup final to emerge worthy 38-17 winners to win the first of two ranking events in the IRB Asian Rugby Sevens Series and also grab the early psychological high ground.

The victory will pour cold water on the theory that Korea are a spent force in Asian rugby circles, and will firmly establish their credentials as serious contenders for a gold medal at the Guangzhou Games in November.

Despite being relegated from the elite division in the HSBC Asian Five Nations 15-a-side championship earlier this year and finishing fifth at last month’s Asian Under-20 Championship, Korea showed plenty of bottle to ward off all challengers in Shanghai.

They knocked out much-fancied Japan 33-12 in the semi-finals before storming to victory past China in a high-scoring final where they always looked in control. Mercurial Korean back Kim Won Yong, last year’s player of the tournament, again tormented his opposition in Shanghai with a hat trick of tries to help propel Korea out to a 24-7 lead at halftime, a gap that China was unable to bridge.

Korean coach Kim Yun Ki looked ahead to the Asian Games saying, “We currently have four of our sevens players playing in the Top League in Japan this weekend. We will get those players back and have a month to prepare for the Games including playing in Borneo. I believe that with these players in the team we will be even stronger in Guangzhou.”

The win over Japan will be a welcome boost to Korea who seem clearly focused on winning an Asian Games gold medal. The result will be an eye-opener for the rest of the chasing pack, especially Japan.

Another loss to Japan for Hong Kong

Japan had stormed back from a 17-0 deficit to defeat arch-rivals Hong Kong 22-17 in the Cup quarterfinals.

The victory continues a grim losing record for Hong Kong who has lost their last four outings against the Asian powerhouse – twice in the regional sevens competition last year, in the gold medal final at the East Asian Games and on the second day at the Hong Kong Sevens in March.

Hong Kong head coach Dai Rees refused to be downhearted by the loss to Japan and firmly believes the two sides remain potential rivals for the coveted gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November.

“At the end of the day, we are still the top two teams in Asia,” Rees said. “But the curse continues, our losing streak against Japan goes on. We played very well, but against a side like Japan, you have to nail that one per cent and we didn’t do that today.”

Hong Kong scored three early tries to take a 17-0 lead. They could have gone ahead 24-0 but a breakaway try was disallowed and they were called back for a scrum inside their 22. Japan won the scrum and scored a length-of-the field try just on halftime.

“That was a bit unfortunate as we could have put the game beyond them,” Rees said. “Then the momentum swung their way soon after the break when we missed a tackle to concede a soft try.”

Malaysia’s Fijian onslaught

Malaysia fielding a Fijian brigade easily booked their berth in the Cup semi-finals with a 28-0 victory over India while home team China gave their supporters plenty of cheer as they rolled over Guam 31-0.

Defending Shanghai Sevens champions South Korea had a more arduous path to the final, coming up against stiff opposition from a gutsy Sri Lanka outfit before scraping through to a 21-14 victory.

Korea upped the tempo and their game in the semi-finals against Japan breezing through to a 33-12 victory while in the other semi-final, China buoyed by support from the home fans edged out Malaysia 19-12.

In the third place playoff, Japan defeated Malaysia 27-5 to clinch the bronze medal.

Hong Kong finished fifth in the tournament by winning the Plate competition with a comprehensive 52-5 victory over Guam. They had earlier defeated Sri Lanka 42-12 in the Plate semi-finals.

The top six teams decided over the two ranking legs of the series – the other being the Borneo Sevens in October (30-31) – will win a ticket to the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens next March. But this time there is the added incentive of winning the mind games before the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

“All the top teams will be vying for honours at the Asian Games and the Asian Rugby Sevens Series will be a useful build-up to the Asian Games and also an indicator of how they will go in Guangzhou,” said Jarrad Gallagher, the International Rugby Board’s regional general manager for Asia.

Japan have been seeded number one at the 12-team Shanghai Sevens which will take place this weekend at the Shanghai Rugby Football Club. Defending champions South Korea are the second seeds while Hong Kong, runners-up to Japan at the East Asian Games final last December, are the third seeds. They each head one of the three preliminary pools.

Shanghai Sevens defending champions, Korea

With the corporate club season just about to kick-off in Japan, many of the top players have not been included but the favourites are confident that they still have enough firepower to lift the Cup title on Sunday.

“A number of their key players have not been released by the clubs, but I suspect the Japanese management is also taking this opportunity to look at a few new faces before the Asian Games,” Gallagher said.

Japan is pooled with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in the preliminary round.

Korea

Defending champions South Korea will be looking to get its back on track in Shanghai. The former Asian powerhouse has struggled to find its feet in recent times. At the HSBC Asian Five Nations this year, South Korea finished bottom of the elite Top Five competition to be relegated to Division one next year. They also finished fifth in the Under-20 Asian Championship in Bangkok last week.

“The Koreans will most likely field a very strong side as they bid to regain their standing in Asia,” Gallagher said. “They need to do well in the next couple of events so as to regain their focus before the Asian Games.”

The Koreans are bracketed with Chinese Taipei, India and Guam on the opening day.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong will also be missing a couple of key sevens specialists – Mark Wright and Rowan Varty – who are both plying their trade in Japan. They will also be missing last year’s captain and scrumhalf Jeff Wong who is still recovering from knee surgery.

But head coach Dai Rees is confident his team can go all the way. “Our aim is to contest the Cup final in every tournament we play in before the Asian Games,” Rees said.

Hong Kong are arguably in the hardest pool, drawn with China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. China, as host of the Asian Games, will undoubtedly be intent on wining top honours in Guangzhou and have brought a full-strength squad to Shanghai.

After the opening round robin competition, the top two teams in each pool plus the best two third-placed teams will advance to the Cup quarterfinals on Sunday.

“It will be an interesting competition. While teams will undoubtedly want to do well, there will also be an element of not wanting to show their hands too early before the Asian Games,” Gallagher said.

Pool A: Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore

Pool B: South Korea, Taiwan, India, Guam

Pool C: Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Sri Lanka

The Springboks host the Wallabies in a Vodacom Tri-Nations Test at Vodacom Park tomorrow.

Ackerman, the founder of Pick n’ Pay, praised the team on its comeback victory last week and wished them well for the forthcoming match.

“It took enormous courage from you to come back the way you did last week,” he said.

Ackerman spoke of some of his setbacks in life – in sport and business – and told the team that it was important to bounce back.

“I know what its like to take reverses. It’s different for you guys because your setbacks make the headlines. To come back from 14-0 down needed something special and it was amazing. If you have passion, guts and focus you will always find a way to make a success of what you do.”

“Whatever you do in life keep your head in the clouds but your feet on the ground. I wish you well for tomorrow, it will be a hard game but I believe you will win,” Ackerman said.

In it the BlitzBokke coach wrote of his annual professional development trip further south (in fact on the other side of the globe) to, Melbourne, Australia.

“Every year I go on at least one professional development trip and, even as I write this column, I’m sitting waiting for a flight to Australia where I’m going to be shadowing some of the country’s best sports coaches in Melbourne.” Paul wrote in his article for the International Rugby Board (IRB).

He continued: “The city is an unbelievable place to visit but it’s also a stronghold of AFL (Australian Rules Football) and I’m going to be visiting three clubs, Collingwood, North Melbourne and the Melbourne Demons, to share the knowledge and experience of their coaches.”

The coach then expanded on his decision to visit the Melbourne Storm Rugby League club.

“There is so much that Rugby Union and Sevens in particular can learn from other sports like these. Whether you’re coaching rugby, AFL, Touch or hockey the same underlying principles come into play: you have to make your first-up tackles, you have to defend well, you have to work hard, you have to be organised and you have to make sure that everyone knows their own role in the team or the squad.”

He added: “More specifically I’ll be looking at the aerial prowess of the AFL players and see how I can relay that back to my Sevens team for restarts. We’ve seen how Samoa and Australia have really grabbed the ascendancy in that area on the Sevens World Series so I’ll be interested there.”

Here at BlitzBokke.com HQ, what we like about Paul is that he is a coach who (1) is able to learn from anybody and any code of sport in order to improve himself as a coach and (2) apply this knowledge to the benefit of his team and his charges.  He has been doing this for a number of years since taking charge of the BlitzBokke and we salute him for it.

In his article Treu concludes:

“More than anything, though, it’s an opportunity to learn, to grow as a coach and to expand on the skill set that I can then impart onto some of the most exciting, young and talented players South African rugby has to offer.  I will try anything once, if it helps us in our quest for Commonwealth gold. Against all the odds…”

We’re right behind you Paul.

Coach Paul Treu with his extended family in Melbourne, flanked by wife Jody and daughter Skyler (Pic: Katarina Knowles)

About 19 minutes into the Womens’ Rugby World Cup game between Australia and England, with England leading the Aussies 7-0, England’s winger Fiona Pocock was making a bee-line for a clear try after a neat hand-off of the opposition.  With a clear line beckoning, out of nowhere came her opposite number, Australia’s Nicole Beck and just flattened the poor Englishwoman .

You can say what you want about women’s rugby but there is no lack of commitment and intensity when it gets to this level.

Cheers to RugbyDump.com for capturing and sharing this.

Back home we have the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Fund who looks after the needs of rugby players who suffered serious injuries playing the game.

The Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund pays homage to two young rugby players who died playing the game they loved.

In 1980, Western Province fullback Chris Burger broke his neck and died in a Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein. This led to the founding of the Chris Burger Fund by then WP captain Morné du Plessis and his teammates. Petro Jackson, a young player from Kylemore in Stellenbosch, died during a match in 1989, prompting (the pre-unity body) SARU to establish a similar fund in his honour. In 1992, the two Funds were united to form the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund, as it is still known today in its 30th anniversary year. For more information on the Fund, click here

Locally, as far as we know, there is no such support for players who suffer serious injuries playing the game we all love.

Recently a local player called Ben Kende suffered serious spinal injuries while representing HK in U.20′s World Cup qualifiers.

This is when RugbyAsia Channel (RAC) stepped up. The online channel, who provides the latest television rugby action, news, games, interviews from grassroots to club and international teams from around Hong Kong and the wider Asia region, came up with a novel idea to produce Hong Kong’s very first Rugby Calendar. They roped in some of the Territory’s finest players, brought in a professional photographer and put together what promises to be a hit amongst rugby supporters and local lasses alike. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the calendar will be donated to Kende.

The Hong Kong Rugby Calendar will be available in October 2010.

Here’s a preview of how they did it:

Click here to visit RugbyAsia Channel

De Villiers was addressing media in Bloemfontein ahead of the Boks’ final Tri-Nations match, also against the Wallabies, at Vodacom Park on Saturday.

“We have yet to achieve anything,” de Villiers said.

“It was nice to get the win because it changed the mood in the change room and also put smiles on the faces of our fans again. But we still have a lot of work to do,” he said.

The coach singled out defensive organization as one of the areas that needed attention during the week.

“We have a brilliant defensive system in place,” he said. “When we analyse defensive lapses we have to look further than missed tackles or mistakes that are made by individuals. We have to look at what events in the play led to that situation. It could be that the opposition was quicker on attack than we anticipated or a that player was out of line in the defensive pattern.  The Wallabies put us under pressure and forced us into mistakes. We have to go back and look at what we can do to better deal with that pressure”.

De Villiers added that the players attitude would also be an important factor in this weekend’s Test.

“The win has changed the mood in the camp and the guys need to build on this from a mental and physical point of view. This is where a positive attitude towards the match will be very important. The Wallabies are world class and we will have to have the right attitude to beat them again, especially on attack”.

De Villiers praised his team for their spirited fight-back in the Loftus Test.

“To come back from 7-21 down showed the character of this team. I am pleased that we did not go into defensive mode towards the end of the match and showed a willingness to attack until the end,” de Villiers said.

Meanwhile, the Springboks are waiting on news on the availability of three injured players – Butch James, Jannie du Plessis and Flip van der Merwe – who underwent scans in Bloemfontein on Monday morning. All three missed out on the Monday training session and news on their condition is expected from the medical team on Monday afternoon.

Today, Monday 30 August 2010 we checked again and we’re happy to announce that BlitzBokke.com is rated as the:

7th most popular Sports Blog in South Africa!

Needless to say the South African Blog Awards system has had a lot to do to add to this increase, but on the local front we have also helped by increasing our daily offering to a DAILY post… even in the Sevens off-season.  Seeing that so much is happening in the Sevens off-season, we have added news and stories from the South African domestic season as well as the international Tri-Nations and even the current Womens’ World Cup… and more.

To all of you out there in Internet-land who have been logging on to BlitzBokke.com for our daily posts…. a very BIG thank you!

Bam! There we are @  Number 7 on the Amatomu ratings!

We have just re-ignited our Twitter account (@BlitzBokke) so we’re hoping that this will just add to the overall internet ratings.

Cheers all and let’s keep our online support network for theSpringbok Sevens Team GROW to greater heights.

You’re THE BOMB!  Bokke Bo!

Mike Jansen

(Hong Kong)

Yes we’re even friends with the Poms. United for Sevens Rugby! (Pic: www.bbc.co.uk)