Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, has made three changes to his starting 15 to face New Zealand in a Tri-Nations test on Saturday. Percy Montgomery will start at fullback, with Conrad Jantjes on the reserves bench. JP Pietersen replaces Odwa Ndungane on the right wing and Bismarck du Plessis stands in for the injured John Smit. In other changes Schalk Brits is among the reserves and Ruan Pienaar replaces Bolla Conradie on the bench.
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SA Rugby has demanded an apology from former All Black Craig Dowd, who described de Villiers, as a "puppet".
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Meanwhile, match referee, Mat Goddard will be meeting with both coaches to defuse some of the agro between the teams.
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Good ! news from the under 18 Craven Week: The Blue Bulls suffered a 34-12 defeat to Western Province.
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Vodacom Western Province coach Allister Coetzee could shed no light on rumours that Dylan des Fountain and Ross Skeate are planning to take up overseas contracts. This after hooker Tiaan Liebenberg left for Toulon just over a week ago and confirmation that Francois van der Merwe is set to join him. Coetzee says his focus is on the Currie Cup...
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Former Proteas bowler, Shaun Pollock, says South Africa have a good chance of getting an elusive test series victory in England. The first test gets underway at Lord's today. England skipper Michael Vaughn says it's huge and can even be compared to an ashes series...
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British rider Mark! Cavendi sh sprinted to victory in the fifth stage of the Tour de France. German rider Stefan Schumacher is still wearing the leader's yellow jersey. Tour favourite Alejandro Valverde crashed yesterday, but managed to get back onto his bike. Team Barloworld's Robert Hunter finished sixth and is 36th overall.
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Graeme Solomons and Hank McGregor finished a dramatic first stage of the Isuzu Berg River Canoe Marathon together after the 62km first stage from Paarl to Zonquasdrift, raced on a very full and rising Berg River. They shattered the stage record with a time of 3 hours 45 minutes.
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Some of the world's top golfers, minus Tiger Woods, are involved in the Scottish Open, which gets underway today. It's the final European Tour event before The Open starts at Royal Birkdal! e next week. Former world number one Ernie Els is hopeful of repeating his past success in the tournament…
