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It's all systems go for today's Super 14 final between the Bulls and the Chiefs at Loftus. The battle between the top two teams of 2009 gets underway at 17h30 South African time.

South African President Jacob Zuma visited the Bulls squad on Friday in Pretoria to wish them well ahead of the Super 14 final.

The southern hemisphere rugby union championship climax is scheduled for Saturday evening before a sell-out 52,000 crowd at Loftus Versfeld, where the recently elected leader met the players.

Zuma is following in the footsteps of the first democratically elected South African President Nelson Mandela, who frequently visited South African teams ahead of major fixtures.

Home advantage, partisan support, playing at 1,800-metre altitude and a team packed with experienced stars are among the reasons why the Bulls are favoured to win a second Super 14 title within three seasons.

The Chiefs who are one of five New Zealand teams who compete annually for the trophy, are appearing in their first final and are hoping to become the fifth 'away' team to triumph in the 14-year competition.

Labels: johannesburg, rugby, sport

JOHANNESBURG- South Africa had exceeded its target revenue commitments for the 2010 Soccer World Cup by $500 million (R3.6 billion) and the excess was expected to reach $1 billion, Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 local organising committee, said last week.

Revenue commitments had already reached $3.5 billion compared to the targeted $3 billion, Jordaan said at a meeting to review preparations for the World Cup.

"We may reach $4 billion given the indication of more commercial partners."

Companies have already invested up to $150 million in the event.

Jordaan said South Africa's business perspective was to secure all of its revenue for the next four years.

He said the greatest challenge facing the country in preparation for the World Cup was the provision of infrastructure.

In this year's budget, the government had allocated R17.4 billion to improve the efficiency of public transport and building of stadiums ahead of the tournament.

The other challenge was the scarcity of match tickets.

Jordaan said there would be about 3 million tickets available to the expected 350 000 tourists and fans in the entire country.

"If we are lucky, we [South Africans] can get 1 million tickets," he said.

Jordaan said the major problem with tickets was not price but availability. Therefore, fan parks were proposed around host stadiums in nine cities, in other African countries and abroad.

New build stadia include the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.



Some of the challenges included visitors' accommodation, transport and logistics.

Adam Brown, the organising committee's senior executive manager of match events, said the issues were based on capacity, as there was not enough accommodation for visitors.

"There are about 55,000 rooms required for the World Cup," Brown said. He said there were 25,000 rooms contracted from hotels, with 19,000 contracted back in 2003, when the World Cup bid was announced.

"We have also signed a memorandum of understanding with SANParks for the Kruger National Park to commit between 2,500 and 3,000 rooms from their lodges and bed and breakfast facilities" said Brown.

He said there were about 1,500 bed and breakfasts contracted across the country.

The majority of the rooms would come from hotels but they "are expecting about 35,000 rooms from hotels and the rest from lodges and B&Bs", he said.

Southern Sun's managing director, Helder Pereira, said the hotel had sold 74 percent of its 12 000 rooms to world football body Fifa for the World Cup. However, 2009 would be more demanding than 2010 for the South African hospitality industry.

"There will be huge accommodation requirements in 2009: the British Lions tour, the FIFA Confederations Cup as well as the elections."

Labels: 2010, development, nelspruit, sport, world cup

NELSPRUIT- Team Total's Etienne Lourens' and Andre Vermeulen's moment of glory in winning the SASOL Rally in Nelspruit in their Toyota RunX turned into a nightmare when they inadvertently fell foul of the Class S2000 rules.



During a routine, post-rally inspection of the class-wining cars, it was found that Lourens’ car did not comply with the rules in that his rev limiter was set at 8800 rpm instead of the permitted 8500 rpm. The name of the manufacturer on the brake calipers had also not been machined off as required by the regulations.

While the extent of the advantage gained from these oversights, if any, is open to debate, Lourens had no prior knowledge of the infringements as his car is prepared by Toyota Motorsport, together with the Castrol Toyota cars of Serge Damseaux and Johnny Gemmell.

As a result of the infringements Lourens was penalised by 10 minutes, dropping him from first place to ninth overall.

Andries van der Walt, Motorsport Manager of Team Total, said after the event that while the team was understandably disappointed, Lourens and Vermeulen had put in a brilliant drive on the event to follow on from a podium finish in the Cape Rally, leaving the team more determined than ever to be successful in the 2007 season.

Class wins in Class N4, by Fernando Rueda and Gerhard Snyman, and Class N3 by the Houghton brothers, further underlined the team’s competitiveness, said van der Walt.

Labels: nelspruit, sport