Opening game of the season, the Sharks of Durban taking on the Chiefs of….New Zealand?

Yes, thats how sport works outside of the USA. Sure you can play against your countrymen but that isn’t nearly as fun as mixing in the other countries as well. The Sharks are one of 5 South African professional teams that play not only for the domestic championship (alongside several other lesser teams as well) but in the Super 14 League of teams including Australia and New Zealand. (Argentina is due to join shortly bringing the number of teams even higher)
The game opened up as a rather boring game with each team kicking the ball back and fourth and back and fourth…it actually …

Before seeing Invictus, the new movie about the 1995 South African rugby team, I would have told you that Rudy was the greatest sports movie ever made. Having now seen Invictus I still think Rudy is the greatest sports movie ever made….not because Invictus was worse, but because Invictus isn’t a movie about sports, it is a movie about South Africa.
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, I won’t spoil it for you but I will offer a small summary. Starring Matt Damon as the captain of the Springboks (the national rugby team of South Africa) and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela (if you don’t know who he is then shame on you) the movie describes …

 We’re talking about Rugby this week so it seems right to actually explain how its played. No, Rugby is not Football without pads. Yes, it is rumored to have its origins on a soccer pitch at Rugby College in England. Actually, versions of the game go back hundreds of years despite only being codified in 1845.
Despite being even less popular in the USA than soccer, it is a surprisingly simple game to be able to follow as a spectator. The best way I know to explain it is to imagine 30 grown men, on a big field, playing an organized version of kill the man with the ball. The basics are simple. With the ball in your hand you can …

Missed Cricket Part I?  Click Here.
And that is the information we knew upon entering the final day of a five day test match against England. On day 4 South Africa ran up a large lead in runs which they assumed (correctly in this case) that England would not be able to catch up to the rather large lead with only a single day of play remaining. Toward the end of day four, with more wickets (outs) remaining in their 2nd inning, South Africa “declared” they were finished and started the Brits on their second inning of batting. Remember each team has to COMPLETE two innings, and the sooner SA started England on their second inning, the sooner South Africa could …