Murray becomes a worldwide Webb

The Cup is Coming Home's resident illustrator Murray Webb is set to take on the world with the awarding of exclusive global distribution rights of The Murray Webb collection of rugby related T-shirts, Polo shirts and related merchandise such as caps and mugs to a Singapore company.

Oh dear, not again

He’s gone and done it again. Springbok coach Peter ‘the clown’ de Villiers is back in the gun, this time for publicly supporting Jacobus ‘Bees’ Roux, the Bulls prop accused of murdering a Pretoria policeman.

Kiwi boss to quell Sanzar ructions?

Sanzar has a new boss, and a question central to his tenure is whether he will be able to quell the mutterings from the South African Rugby Union about abandoning their TRI-Nations partners and heading north to find new playmates.

‘Girl Blacks’ close in on greatness

There may be some who are indifferent to women’s sport, but they could hardly be unimpressed by the current New Zealand women’s rugby team. Not only are they the defending Women’s Rugby World Cup holders, they have won the last three Cup tournaments and are on track to once again take home the coveted crown of women’s rugby supremacy.

Singing the Soweto Blues

Something unusual happened in Soweto on Saturday night, a test match between the All Blacks and the Springboks played in good spirits; Schalk Burger kept his fingers to himself, not a yellow card in sight and the only casualty was to the pride of Welsh referee Nigel Owens who took a tumble at the hands of Bok’s flanker Juan Smith.

Paranoid? No. It’s just that everyone is against us…

The news that South Africa is considering breaking away from SANZAR, the body which manages the complex rugby relationships between South African, New Zealand and Australian rugby, will surprise few. We examine the Boks' apparent paranoia and conclude that there are definitely two sides to this story.

It’s war says SARU President

“A winning Bok coach is a superman; a losing Bok coach a clown, I’ve learned to take both with a pinch of salt." Which is it for Boks coach Peter de Villiers?

Perfecting perfection between the peaks

While Steve Hanson is striving to "perfect it even better" with the red-hot All Blacks, Aussie coach Robbie Deans says he'll have his band of gold in "the optimum state" by Rugby World Cup time in 2011. But as he returns to his old stamping ground in Christchurch for this weekend's big TRI-nations match, such a state seems a long way off.

De Villiers safe, for now

The South African Rugby Board has today said it has confidence that its beleaguered Springbok rugby coach Peter de Villiers can get things back on track after his team’s three successive defeats in the opening TRI-nations matches against New Zealand and Australia. But in sport we all know what the dreaded vote of confidence can come to mean.

Kiwi-cum-Aussie snapper banned

A Kiwi-cum-Aussie photographer is in big trouble after he snapped pictures of the All Black’s game plan for Saturday night’s test match against Australia. Scott Barbour has been banned from any further coverage of the big match build-up and the media ruckus may not be over yet.

More RWC tickets up for grabs

A further batch of Rugby World Cup tickets will go on sale at 9.00am New Zealand time on Monday 26 July, but restricted to those who may have missed out during the first phase of the RWC ticketing programme. These “second-chance” packs are made up of leftover venue and team packs, including some mini-packs where, for example, tickets for two or three of a team’s four pool matches might still be available.

Not so happy hooker

Former Wallabies hooker Brendan Cannon has been mortared after describing Springbok coach Peter de Villiers on Australian television’s Fox Sports as a clown and implying he was a puppet. Read on to see who might be pulling the strings.

Twenty20 rugby crash tackled into touch

Plans to introduce a new, shortened form of rugby from 2012 appear to have been crash-tackled even before making the field after failing to muster support from either the International Rugby Board or SANZAR, the governing body for South African, New Zealand and Australian rugby.

Munster the ultimate victors after epic sporting showdown

The BBC said Joe Rokocoko’s late, late try “spared the All Blacks’ blushes” against Munster last night. Sorry, no it didn’t. There would have been no blushes in defeat because there would have been no embarrassment in losing to the inspired, electrified, relentless, passionate and ultimately magnificent team of Munster men on this unforgettable autumn night at the legendary Thomond Park.