The Valke, Leopards and Eastern Province were on the winning side in the opening round of the Carling Currie Cup First Division.
Boan Venter, a former Toyota Cheetahs prop who now plays for Edinburgh, earned his first Springbok call-up on Sunday as Bok coach Rassie Erasmus named a group of 45 players following the completion of the team’s first week of training in Johannesburg for the forthcoming international season.
Former Junior Springbok Women’s captain Leigh Fortuin and flanker Nobuhle Mjwara will earn their first starts for South Africa in the final match of the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup 2025 against Madagascar at Stade Makis in Antananarivo on Sunday.
Leinster Rugby proved too good for the Vodacom Bulls in front of a 40 000-strong crowd in wet and cold conditions at Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday night in the Grand Final of the cross-hemisphere showpiece, outscoring the men from Pretoria by four tries to one for a 32-7 victory and their first title since the 2020/21 season.
Will the Vodacom Bulls be third time lucky or can Leinster break their Vodacom United Rugby Championship drought?
Ricardo Duarttee and Mfundo Ndhlovu, who were members of the Blitzboks’ HSBC SVNS World Championship winning squad, have been included in the Springbok Sevens ‘A’ squad for the Rugby Africa Sevens Cup in Mauritius, where Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman will get a glimpse of what the future holds for the sevens programme.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus planned to continue with the team rotation policy that delivered impressive results last season with 11 victories in 13 Test matches, as he looks to build squad depth and experience with an eye on this season and further ahead to the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Tickets go on sale for the Springboks' defence of their Castle Lager Rugby Championship crown – with two Tests against Australia in August – via Ticketmaster on Friday, 13 June at 09h00.
A new name will be engraved on the Carling Currie Cup First Division trophy in the last weekend of July, and all six teams will be eager to get their charge off to a strong start when the competition kicks off on Saturday.
The Springbok Women left Stade Makis in Antananarivo with smiles on their faces, knowing that much was gained from their gutsy victory over Kenya in the second round of the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup in Madagascar.