Petersen: Amakhosi Ready to Rise to the Challenge Against Arrows

Kaizer Chiefs captain Brandon Petersen says his side are ready for the challenge ahead of their MTN8 opener against Golden Arrows.

Amakhosi made the perfect start to their 2026/27 campaign with a 3-1 victory over newly promoted Kruger United last weekend.

Amakhosi will now shift their focus to the MTN8, where they host Golden Arrows at the FNB Stadium on Sunday evening. fishroad-app.com

Petersen says confidence is growing within the squad ahead of the new season, with the club’s new signings settling in well and the players embracing the coach’s philosophy.

“The mood in the camp is great,” Petersen told his club’s official website.

“The new guys have been settling in nicely and we are adapting to the coach’s style. So far, so good. After our performance against Kruger United we are all enthusiastic about the season ahead.

“Playing them is always a tough challenge. They are well structured and tactically disciplined.

“We know we’ll have our work cut out, but come Sunday, I know the guys will be up for it.”

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Ahead of today’s MTN8 clash against Durban City, Orlando Pirates captain Nkosinathi Sibisi has urged the club supporters to be patient with the new players, especially the younger ones,

The Buccaneers, who won the competition for the fourth time in a row last season, will begin their title defence with the clash against The Citizens at the Orlando Amstel Arena this afternoon (kick-off is at 3pm).

Having decided against giving his new arrivals a start in the 2-0 victory against Milford FC at the same venue last Saturday, Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou is expected to name several of his new signings in the starting line-up.

‘Please be patient’

And speaking to the media during the MTN8 in Randburg earlier this week, Sibisi called for patience from the club fans.

“I think it builds excitement for everyone; it builds excitement for our supporters to say we have new players coming in, but it’s still touch and go,” said Sibisi.

“It’s going to be a long season and, as I have said, we need to be patient with some of the boys because there is huge potential.

“We don’t need to rush them because I don’t think everyone is your Relebohile [Mofokeng], your [Mbekezeli] Mbokazi, your Mohau [Nkota],” added Sibisi.

“So, I am pleading with our supporters to please be patient with these boys. There is a lot to come with the season.

“I know there is pressure to win trophies and everything, but having said that, let’s be patient with some of the boys, and I am sure they will deliver by the end of the season,” concluded Sibisi.

No Jurgens for City

Pirates and City registered contrasting results in their opening matches of the new season last weekend. Pirates had the better of the two outcomes, producing a comfortable 2-0 win against Premiership newcomers Milford in Orlando last Saturday.

City suffered a 1-0 defeat away to Sekhukhune United. Khalil Ben Youssef’s side will be looking to bounce back to winning ways when they face Pirates this afternoon.

However, they will have to do that without midfielder Kyle Jurgens who is serving a one-match suspension after accumulating four yellow cards carried over from the previous campaign.

All Blacks coach Dave Rennie said his team needed to improve after they beat the Stormers 38-21 in the opening match of their South African tour at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday.

The teams were deadlocked at 14-14 before wing Rieko Ioane scored an opportunist try in the 68th minute, followed in quick succession by tries by fellow wing Leroy Carter, fullback Josh Moorby and replacement prop Asafo Aumua.

The tourists will play two more matches against local franchises before the first of four Tests against the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg on August 22.

“We know we need to be better – and we will be,” said Rennie.

He said the All Blacks conceded too many penalties. They also had two yellow cards against them and were down to 13 players midway through the first half.

But Rennie said the players showed character in the way they responded.

“When we had the ball we were really dangerous,” said Rennie. “We knew the Stormers would bring a lot of line speed and the dewy conditions made things difficult at times. We weren’t quite clinical enough.

“We expected a lot of aerial attacks and we probably didn’t deal with that as well as we wanted.

“We felt if we could hang on to the ball we could eventually find space and beat them and we were very clinical late in the game.”

‘Build depth’

Neither team was at full strength for a match watched by 47,130 spectators.

The Stormers were without nine players who are members of the Springbok squad for the Test series, while Rennie gave opportunities to many of the fringe players in his 44-man squad.

The All Blacks included only six of the 23-man match-day squad selected for New Zealand’s most recent Test, a 40-21 win against Ireland in Auckland on July 18.

Lauaki and flyhalf Josh Jacomb both made All Blacks debuts off the bench.

Rennie said the tour was an ideal opportunity to build depth in the All Blacks ranks.

“(Springbok coach) Rassie (Erasmus) has been doing it for eight years. We’re a couple of months into it but we’ve brought over a good squad,” said Rennie.

“Not a lot of the guys who played tonight (will) have big minutes in the Test series but we got some good footy, some tough footy into them tonight. They’ll be better for that.”

Rennie said there would be multiple changes for the team that plays the Sharks in Durban on Tuesday.

“Tours like this are great for us to build depth. Heading into a World Cup next year we’ll know a lot more about the players we’ve got here.”

Scorers:

Stormers: Tries: Deon Fourie, Seabelo Senatla, penalty try. Conversions: Yaqeen Ahmed (2).

All Blacks: Tries: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Simon Parker, Rieko Ioane, Leroy Carter, Josh Moorby, Asafo Aumua.Conversions: Beauden Barrett (3), Josh Jacomb (1)

Despite an overwhelmingly positive record against Argentina, and the narrative of their one-off Test in Buenos Aires on Saturday being a “warm-up” for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, the Springboks refuse to underestimate their mercurial opposition.

Instead, they are focusing on their most recent defeats and tough clashes with the South American nation.

The Springboks are on an 11-Test winning streak. They have also won their last three matches against Argentina and 11 of their last 12 meetings.

‘Quality side’

However, coach Rassie Erasmus strongly opposed the idea that the game was a warm-up for the series against the All Blacks.

He referred to their 32-19 away defeat to Argentina in 2018 as “the biggest hiding our coaching team had here”.

Erasmus also said their most recent meeting, a 29-27 Springbok victory in London in October, pointed to a tough contest on Argentina’s turf on Saturday night (kick-off 9pm).

Flanker Elrigh Louw likewise reflected on South Africa’s 29-28 defeat in Argentina in 2024, which he was part of.

“They are a real physical, quality side. So I think we learned our lessons, and we were well prepared,” Louw said.

Both teams will be without key players as South Africa left a contingent behind to train for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series – starting with the first Test in two weeks – and Argentina are without several core players due to European club commitments.

Argentina will field four debutants in the game.

Inexperienced Springboks front up for Argentina

Erasmus has named five Springbok players returning from injury, including Siya Kolisi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morné van den Berg, Eben Ezebeth and Lood de Jager.

The last two have each only played one match for their franchises in 2026.

Furthermore, eight Springbok players have fewer than 10 caps, and 11 have 14 caps or fewer under their belts.

Cobus Wiese, the second-least capped Springbok with just four Tests two his name, said he had learned much from the vastly more experienced Etzebeth and De Jager, who have 141 and 73 caps respectively.

Elrigh Louw giving his all for the Boks

Louw, with just 14 Tests, scored a try in his only Test for the Boks so far this year – against Scotland in the Nations Championship.

He said he was glad to be back in the Springbok picture after a career-threatening knee injury that kept him out of action for 10 months.

“It was quite a big injury and devastating for me at the time,” he said.

“But there was a lot of support behind me. At home, the family helped me get back. Obviously, medical staff, etc, helping me at rehab.

“The motivation to be back in the Springbok squad was more than enough for me to continue working hard and [then] play rugby to the best of my ability.”

The South African opener smashed 65 off 37 balls, hitting six fours and three sixes before being run out off having been starved of the strike in the closing stages.

His opening partnership of 52 with Mitchell Marsh set the platform for a total of 169-7 that always looked beyond Phoenix.

On the other side, Donovan Ferreira captained Phoenix but could only manage 3 off 7 balls as Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts shared six wickets between them to dismantle the home batting lineup.

Sean Dickson top-scored with 34 off 27 but Phoenix were always behind the required rate, finishing on 124-8 with Jordan Thompson’s late sixes merely reducing the margin of defeat.

Carse took 3-17 from his 20 balls and Potts followed with 3-22 as the pair bowled with control throughout. Phoenix were effectively eliminated by the powerplay, reduced to 23-3 inside the first 22 balls.

The result moved Sunrisers up to second in the table with a significant net run rate boost. For Ferreira, it was a difficult night at the office as Phoenix became the second men’s team knocked out of the 2026 Hundred.

Photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

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