Springbok Women Sevens to fine-tune in Amsterdam

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The Springbok Women Sevens team will be looking for some momentum and silverware at the Netherlands Sevens, the last leg of the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens World Series, in Amsterdam on Friday.

The South Africans are pooled with pacesetters, Canada and England, and will also face France at the event to be played at the NCRA Stadium in the Dutch capital.

For national Springbok Women Sevens coach Denver Wannies, there is more to be gained than just possible silverware over the weekend.
“We are playing against England and Canada, who are pace setters in the series, so it will be a good test to judge where we are, but I am also keen to see our opponents in next month’s World Cup in Moscow in action. Depending on pool results, we might even end up playing them,” Wannies said.

South Africa are pooled with China, Australia and Ireland in the Moscow showpiece and could meet China and Australia in Amsterdam, pending other pool results.

Wannies was happy with the team’s preparations for the weekend.
“We only have a small squad and bar injuries to two of them, I could pick the 12 players who were best conditioned and had the form going into the tournament. Our forwards will have to play well here and with more than a month left before Moscow, we will be looking to fine-tune certain aspects of our play.”

The series also featured rounds in Dubai, Houston and Guangzhou, with the South Africans reaching the final in the opening leg and finishing eighth in the USA. They did not play in China.

South Africa are currently seventh on the series log.

•The South African’s Pool B schedule is:

10h44 vs. England
13h50 vs. Canada
17h34 vs. France

All matches will be streamed online on the official website: wsws.irb.com

The Springbok Women’s Sevens team is: Mandisa Williams (Border, captain), Nosiphiwo Goda (Border), Benele Makwazela (Western Province), Zenay Jordaan (Eastern Province), Yolanda Meiring (Blue Bulls), Lorinda Brown (Eastern Province), Natasha Hofmeester (Western Province), Shona-Leah Weston (Blue Bulls), Nomaphelo Mayongo (KwaZulu-Natal), Mathrin Simmers (South Western Districts), Phumeza Gadu (Eastern Province), Veroeshka Grain (Western Province).

Issued by SARU Corporate Affairs

Virgin Active South Africa is the Official Health Club Partner to SA Rugby

Making a chest of it …

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Tank Lanning

So there I am cruising into the gym with my lightie on Monday afternoon … I had been quite good on the Sunday and pushed a 30 minute “Cleanse” on the bike to clear Saturday night’s cobwebs, and kept the traditional Sunday evening “Demon demolishers” to just 3 Savannah Lights while braaiing the burgers … So I was feeling pretty good for a Monday!

On the schedule that day was “Chest and back” as I alternate daily between weights and cardio, and try to mix up my weight splits … But you know how it is … You normally fall back to the old routine.

Enter stage left in the car park, a mate of mine called Neil Ellard, who was an Ikey team mate of mine back in the day. He went on to play for the Mighty Elephants and throw some good punches in the French and Portuguese club leagues. At around 2m and just under 120 kgs, he is a pretty big chunk of meat, and we have remained good drinking, braaiing and training mates … He is the “Cheerful Chunky” who has probably kept in the best shape since our playing days.

“What’s on the cards today Earl?” I ask fairly innocently, making small talk … “Chest” he says … “Cool, me too, I will see you upstairs for a few sets after I have checked Joe into V-Club” I reply fairly flippantly …

24 sets of between 6 and 12 reps later, going through 6 different chest exercises, and Tuesday became a completely sneeze free day! In fact, I was lucky to be able to brush my teeth and steer the car!

Sure you set up your routine so as to achieve your personal goals, but it is amazing what you can achieve when taken outside your comfort zone, and given a bit of a push by someone else. No doubt the reason personal trainers are in business … Although I have definitely seen those poor buggers paid to listen to horrifically boring stories rather than get the beads pushed!

Neil introduced me to two new exercises on Monday, and as is the case after you have been in the gym for a few years, they were variations on stuff I had done before, and actually shown to him by a personal trainer … These being the chest dip and seated cable fly …

Cable flyes

Seated-Cable-Flies

So as per usual, you stand or sit between two pulleys adjusted to shoulder height, grip the pulleys with your palms facing forward and, keeping a slight bend in your elbows, bring your palms together in front of you, contracting your chest muscles as you go. The variation, though, is that instead of just returning to the starting position, you first raise your hands (still together, but NOT interlocked, with arms straight out) above your head, then down to your knees, before returning to chest height, and then back to the starting fly position. Try that for a burn!

Chest dips

Chest-Dips

I had always thought these to be focussed mainly on triceps. But for a focus on the chest, hold yourself up on a dip bar and, making sure to keep your head down and your legs beneath you, bent at the hips and knees. Lower yourself by bending your elbows, and come back up to the starting position. The key is to make sure to keep the movement in your chest and not in your triceps. And being a fat bastard who cannot dip my entire mass, I obviously did this on a machine that gives you some assistance via a weight block.

So being all “Chest befok” this week, now that I can sneeze and brush my teeth again, I thought I would list what askmen.com believe to be the top 10 chest exercises of all time:

Number 10 – Peck deck

Number 9 – Cable press

Number 8 – Cable flyes

Number 7 – Pushups

Number 6 – Chest dips

Number 5 – Cable crossovers

Number 4 – Dumbbell flyes

Number 3 – Dumbbell press

Number 2 – Flat flyes

Number 1 – Bench press

It was always going to be bench in the top spot, was it not? Enjoy …

Chest tape

MINNAAR PODIUMS AT FORT WILLIAM BRITISH DOWNHILL SERIES RACE

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Fort William, Scotland

IMG_8340.jpg IMG_8304.jpg IMG_8253.jpg IMG_8174_2.jpg IMG_8244.jpg IMG_8151.jpg IMG_8133.jpg IMG_8130.jpg

The small town of Fort William, Scotland was a buzz all week with sports events starting with the 102nd running of the Scottish Six Day Trial event and concluded on Sunday with the Saracen British Downhill Series race.   There is only one man in the world that could compete in both, and that of course is Steve Peat!  It was exciting to watch Steve assaulting the steep, rocky mountain stream trail at the foot of Ben Nevis on his trials bike, then go back to the mountain bike track to see Greg MInnaar and Josh Bryceland honing their craft!  Greg went on to podium in 4th, Josh in 6th, Steve in 28th and Santa Cruz rider Cedric Gracia whipped it up for 22nd .

A weary Steve comments about his week, “I’ve been coming up to the Six Day Trial with my Dad since I was a child.  It was great to come ride it for my second time, but it happened to overlap on the same weekend as the BDS.

I finished the trial in 107th place on Saturday, and on Sunday did my two downhill runs before the final with my Syndicate teammates.  And as you can imagine, my V-10 felt nothing like my Beta!  I put together a good run for the quali’s, but my body was physically sore.  Big thanks to the Syndicate mechanics, Sessy, and especially my Mum and Dad who came and supported me each day of the Six Day Trial!”

Greg felt happy achieving his objectives saying, “It’s been a good few days coming in to Ft. Bill to get my bikes set up and ready for the world cup season.  We finally found a set up I was comfortable on.  We came here more for preparation, so if you see it that way we achieved a lot this weekend and I was happy with my riding.”

Josh was also pleased, “The weekend was really productive and my bike is well set up for the world cup now.  I really enjoyed my time with the team and feel my riding is where it should be.”

Thanks to Si Paton and his crew for putting on a great race, especially with the changing weather conditions.  Next up for Syndicate is the first Enduro World Series in Punta Ala, Italy.  Everyone is really excited to launch this new series!

Virgin Active South Africa is the Official Health and Wellness Partner to Greg Minnaar

Dan Hugo for Women’s Health Magazine

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Posted by Dan Hugo

I’ve waited patiently till most April magazines are off the shelf. So as to minimize the teasing from the training peers…

As embarrassing as this saga is, I’m proud to represent the ‘sports’ category for Triathlon. The other four were a musician, model, actor and comedian I think.

Dan Hugo, Women's Health

Dan Hugo, Women's Health

Virgin Active SA is the Official Health and Fitness partner to Dan Hugo – Pro Elite Triathlete

Treu happy with improved series effort as South Africa finishes second in HSBC Sevens World Series

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Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu heaped praise on his squad as South Africa finished in second place in the 2012/13 HSBC Sevens World Series. New Zealand won the series, with Fiji coming in third.

The team needed to make the Cup quarter-finals in the last tournament of the current series, the Marriott London Sevens, to secure the second spot on the final log

This was done on Saturday in pool play with wins over Australia and France and although the team lost 19-14 to England in extra time of their Cup quarterfinal and 22-5 to the USA in the Plate semi-final on Sunday, Treu was a very happy coach.

“Obviously the aim was to win the series, but a range of crippling injuries and some inconsistent performances in Dubai, Wellington and Hong Kong cost us. It was very special though to be the only team on the circuit to win three tournaments and the only one to win consecutive ones,” Treu said.

South Africa finished 5th last year and Treu attributed the improvement to the players commitment and hard work.

“We lost so many players due to injury at crucial times, but still the squad kept on working hard to achieve the results. We had our two main playmakers, Cecil Afrika and Branco du Preez available for only four tournaments this year. The fact that we used 25 players is testament to the injury problems we had.”

Eight players debuted during the current HSBC Sevens World Series.

“I am pleased for the new guys and it is building depth with regards to the future. The series was tougher than ever and for us to win three tournaments was special. I believe our season was a success,” Treu said.

The player used were Chris Dry, Philip Snyman, Frankie Horne, Warren Whiteley, Cornal Hendricks, Kyle Brown, Stephan Dippenaar, Paul Delport, Tshotsho Mbovane, Steven Hunt, Bernado Botha, Cheslin Kolbe, Cecil Afrika, Jamba Ulengo, Pieter Engelbrecht, Brando du Preez, Ruwellyn Isbell*, Seabelo Senatla*, Justin Geduld*, Warren Whiteley*, Werner Kok*, Reuben Johannes*, Kevin Luiters* and WJ Strydom* (debutants).

Milestones of the series are:

•South Africa winning three tournaments in Las Vegas, Tokyo and Glasgow

•Frankie Horne extended the South African career record for tournament to 50. They were all consecutive, another milestone.

•Cornal Hendricks finished the season as the team’s leading try scorer with 38 tries, fourth on the overall list behind Brent Russell (46), Fabian Juries (41) and Cecil Afrika (40). His 190 points was also the most by any player this season.

•Kevin Luiters, Ruwellyn Isbell, Seabelo Senatla, Justin Geduld, Warren Whiteley, Werner Kok, Reuben Johannes and WJ Strydom all made their debuts for South Africa during the series.

Issued by SARU Corporate Affairs

Virgin Active South Africa is the Official Health Club to SA Rugby

SA U20 aiming for convincing Namibia performance

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The SA Under-20 team will be aiming for a convincing performance against the senior Namibia side when the two teams clash at 14:50 on Saturday at the Paul Roos Markötter Stadium in Stellenbosch.

It will be the last outing for the Junior Springboks before they head off to France where they will defend their IRB Junior World Championship title next month.

The squad spent the past week in Cape Town in preparation for the match, but they will have to make do without the services of several first-choice players who have all been ruled out of action  because of injury. Jan Serfontein, Sergeal Petersen, Handré Pollard and also Dries Swanepoel will all watch the encounter against Namibia from the sidelines.

Despite the absence of Pollard, Serfontein (both 2012 JWC winners) and the elusive Petersen, SA U20 coach Dawie Theron can still on the attacking skills of Springbok Sevens stars Seabelo Senatla and Justin Geduld as well as Cheslin Kolbe (DHL Western Province).

The SA U20 backline was in good form in Argentina recently, helping the team to score 12 tries against the Los Pumitas despite losing the series 2-1. Theron will especially hope that his forwards will be able compete aggressively against a Namibian side who will pose a huge physical challenge upfront.

The SA players return to their respective provinces on Sunday and will assemble again on 26 May before flying out to France three days later.

The teams are:

South Africa Under-20:

15. Cheslin Kolbe (DHL Western Province)
14. Luther Obi (Platinum Leopards)
13. Justin Geduld (SARU contracted)
12. Rohan Janse van Rensburg (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
11. Seabelo Senatla (SARU contracted)
10. Robert du Preez (The Sharks)
9. Stefan Ungerer (The Sharks)
8. Aidon Davis (EP Kings)
7. Jacques du Plessis (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
6. Ruan Steenkamp (Vodacom Blue Bulls, captain)
5. Dennis Visser (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
4. Irne Herbst (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
3. Marne Coetzee (The Sharks)
2. Jacques du Toit (Toyota Free State Cheetahs)
1. Andrew Beerwinkel (Vodacom Blue Bulls)

Replacements:
16. Sti Sithole (DHL Western Province)
17. Mike Willemse (DHL Western Province)
18. Jannes Kirsten (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
19. Roelof Smit (Vodacom Blue Bulls)/Kwagga Smith (MTN Golden Lions)
20. Percy Williams (MTN Golden Lions)
21. Sylvian Mahuza (Platinum Leopards)
22. Jacques Rossouw
23. Luhan de Bruin (Toyota Free State Cheetahs)

Namibia:

15. Justin Nel
14. Malcolm Moore
13. Divan Visser
12. Eneill Buitendag
11. Johan Tromp
10. Theuns Kotze
9.  Arthur Bouwer
8. PJ Van Lill (captain)
7. Munee Tjiuza
6. Rohan Kitshoff
5. Joe Mururua
4. Ian Van Wyk
3. Jaco Swanepoel
2. Callie Swanepoel
1. Johnny Redelinghuys

Replacements:
16. Rathony Bekker
17. Shaun Du Preez
18. Hauta Veii
19. Stefan Neustadt
20. Awie Thompson
21. PJ Walters
22. Jacques Nell
23. Shaun Kaizemi

Kick-off time: 14:50, Saturday 11 May 2013, Paul Roos Markötter Stadium, Stellenbosch

Issued by SARU Corporate Affairs