Former champions South Africa will look to hammer home their credentials as potential tournament winners by beating two-time quarter-finalists Samoa at the Parc des Princes today in their World Cup opener.
South Africa, the 1995 champions, with coach Jake White at the helm have built themselves into one of the few teams capable of stopping the All Blacks.
It is a far cry from the humiliating spectacle of 2003 where they only managed to reach the last eight.
That bitter experience certainly left a mark on the veterans of that campaign.
"We have spent four years waiting for this. It has been a long time coming," said hooker and captain Jon Smit, who will lead the Springboks for a record 43rd time today.
Even though Samoa may not seem the toughest task to tackle -- especially given the 'Boks have a record of five wins out of five against them scoring 257 points against just 58 -- White has assembled an experienced line-up with 609 caps between them.
Numbered among them is dashing fullback Percy Montgomery -- who missed the 2003 debacle -- and venerable prop Os du Randt, the only surviving member of the 1995 squad.
White is not underestimating the Samoans.
"Remember the 2003 World Cup when Samoa caused England problems in the pool games," White said. "Not so much the result [England won 35-22] but the way in which they played before being dominated. We expect them to start against us in the same way."
Meanwhile the Samoans had to be "rescued" by residents of Paris after arriving in the French capital without enough money to feed themselves, the New Zealand Herald reported yesterday.
The newspaper said an "extraordinary rescue package" was put together by residents of the Haute de Seine district when they found the Samoans could not afford to pay for meals in a city as expensive as Paris.
Residents took the players out for meals and drinks and arranged sightseeing trips after learning of their plight. The director of sports in the Haute de Seine, former rugby player Patrick Tachdjian, said citizens were happy to rally to the Samoans' aid.
"We just did what we could when we heard about the Samoans' difficult situation," he said. "It was something we were happy to do, to help them."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but