De Klerk’s inclusion in the squad increases the size of the group currently preparing for the first Test in Auckland to 36 players, after Springbok hooker Bongi Mbonambi remained behind in South Africa earlier this week to attend to family matters.
The Springboks will face their archrivals, the All Blacks, at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday 6 September, before travelling to Wellington for their second match on the tour at the Sky Stadium on Saturday 13 September.
Adam MandevilleBBC News NI
Stephen ReaWhen Stephen Rea moved from Belfast to New Orleans in the summer of 2004, he struggled to find a bar where he could watch Premier League football.
A friend suggested he contact an Irish pub called Finn McCool’s, owned by a couple from Belfast.
When he emailed to ask whether they were showing the Chelsea vs Manchester United game, the owner replied: “Come on down and meet the lads.”
Those “lads” went on to form a football team that would turn into something more like family than friends when Hurricane Katrina hit a year later.
Stephen Rea“We were all ex-pats, and we had no community or family, so we were each others’,” Mr Rea said.
The group, from countries including Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland, France, the Netherlands and South Africa, started playing monthly friendlies in preparation for the first ever competitive match, which was scheduled for September 2005.
But at the end of August Hurricane Katrina swept in, killing nearly 2,000 people and displacing about one million.
It was the most expensive natural disaster in United States history and caused destruction along the Gulf of Mexico’s coast.
In New Orleans, the failure of the levee system left about 80% of the city under water.
On 27 August 2005 Mr Rea was sitting in Finn McCool’s with his teammates, discussing the next day’s match.
“Most of us were acting like it was a normal Saturday,” he said.
They knew the hurricane had hit Florida and claimed nine lives but with Florida three states away, the teammates were not overly concerned.
“Living in New Orleans, you get very blasé about hurricanes.”
Houston ChronicleOne of his teammates mentioned that their friendly might be called off.
They turned out to be right,” Mr Rea said.
“Katrina took a jog to the east, right at the last minute.
“You could feel it in the air that something was coming.”
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Mr Rea’s phone started to ring. It was his then-wife’s family, frantically phoning to check if they were OK.
They decided to evacuate, along with a friend who was staying in the city temporarily – a “young Irish lad” who if they had not helped would have tried to leave on a bike.
Because of their last-minute departure, it took hours for the trio to get out of New Orleans.
They spent more than three months living away from New Orleans before they could move back.
“There was no electricity in much of the city,” Mr Rea said.
“No traffic lights, no hospitals, no schools. Dentists were setting up in the zoo. It was like the wild west.
“The National Guard were everywhere, it was like being back in Belfast in the 1970s.”
Stephen ReaDuring this difficult period, Finn McCool’s Football Club provided a form of relief.
“We had an email chain with all of us, and that was a great help,” says Mr Rea.
“Right after the hurricane, we didn’t even know who was alive.”
All were soon accounted for, but they had other losses to deal with.
Most of the players had lost their houses in the flooding, and many had also lost their jobs.
“One of the guys spent two days on his roof. He had to be evacuated by helicopter,” he said.
That November, one of the players organised a Thanksgiving dinner for the team.
“I doubt I will ever have a better Thanksgiving in my life,” said Mr Rea.
“It was the most emotional, the most poignant celebration we will ever have.”
Stephen ReaBy December, the team started training again.
Within a couple of years, they were promoted. Not long after, they won the league.
The team is still going strong today and Mr Rea is still playing.
“I’m no longer a box-to-box dynamic midfielder,” he said.
“I just come on for the last 10 minutes and try not to get injured.”
McLaren’s MCL39 is proving to be an excellent all-rounder – but the thing it likes best is medium-speed corners, and there’s a lot of those at Zandvoort. The result, in qualifying, was Oscar Piastri pipping Lando Norris to pole, as the papaya cars locked out the front row.
Behind them, it’s more of a Stroopwafel-fight. Max Verstappen will start third – but Isack Hadjar did a magnificent job to join him on the second row, ahead of George Russell and the Ferraris.
On race day there will be different tyre strategies in play, and capricious weather around to mix things up. So let’s take a look at the tactical options the teams have when the lights go out…
Linsanity forever: The GameTime crew remember when Jeremy Lin took the NBA by storm for a few weeks in Feb. 2012.
Former NBA point guard Jeremy Lin announced his retirement from professional basketball in an Instagram post on Saturday night.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to compete against the fiercest competitors under the brightest lights and to challenge what the world thought was possible for someone who looks like me,” he wrote. “I’ve lived out my wildest childhood dreams to play in front of fans all around the world. I will forever be the kid who felt fully alive every time I touched a basketball.”
Undrafted in 2010, Lin averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists across a nine-year NBA career spanning 2010-19. Lin catapulted himself into international fame while playing for the New York Knicks in 2011-12, including an 11-game span in February in which he averaged 24.6 points, 9.2 assists and 4.1 rebounds. The shocking stretch earned the nickname “Linsanity.”
Lin became a full-time starting point guard the following two seasons in Houston before logging short stints with the Lakers, Hornets, Nets, Hawks and Raptors. He also played for teams in the Chinese Basketball Association, Taiwan Professional Basketball League and the NBA G League.
Jeremy Lin played 9 years in the NBA.
Former NBA point guard Jeremy Lin announced his retirement from professional basketball in an Instagram post on Saturday night.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to compete against the fiercest competitors under the brightest lights and to challenge what the world thought was possible for someone who looks like me,” he wrote. “I’ve lived out my wildest childhood dreams to play in front of fans all around the world. I will forever be the kid who felt fully alive every time I touched a basketball.”
Undrafted in 2010, Lin averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists across a nine-year NBA career spanning 2010-19. Lin catapulted himself into international fame while playing for the New York Knicks in 2011-12, including a 10-game span in February in which he averaged 24.6 points, 9.2 assists and 4.1 rebounds. The shocking stretch earned the nickname “Linsanity.”
Lin became a full-time starting point guard the following two seasons in Houston before logging short stints with the Lakers, Hornets, Nets, Hawks and Raptors. He also played for teams in the Chinese Basketball Association, Taiwan Professional Basketball League and the NBA G League.
Trusting her natural ability, and the work she is doing with coach Wim Fissette to further improve, has also been the key to Swiatek turning around her season.
After a slump by her lofty standards at the start of the year, the former long-time world number one started the final major of the season as most people’s pick for the trophy.
The recently crowned Wimbledon champion, who won the US Open in 2022, underlined her credentials on the American hard courts with victory at the Cincinnati Open.
Swiatek was far from her best against 29th seed Kalinskaya, with a low serve percentage particularly damaging, and her relief was demonstrated by an animated celebration.
“I’m happy that I came back, kept being positive and figured it out,” Swiatek added.
In the other night-session match, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia made light work of Greece’s Maria Sakkari after the pair took to court at 11:15pm local time.
Haddad Maia, seeded 18th, moved fast to wrap up a 6-1 6-2 victory, booking a last-16 match with Wimbledon runner-up Amanda Anisimova.
World No 1 Shi Yuqi survived two match points on Saturday to book a world championship final meeting with Thai titleholder Kunlavut Vitidsarn, as top seed An Se-young was upset on the women’s side of the draw.
Chinese star Shi battled back from 18-20 down in the second game to beat Canadian youngster Victor Lai 13-21, 22-20, 21-16 and keep his bid for a first world title alive.
“I felt an emotional release when this one ended,” a breathless Shi said after 80 gruelling minutes on court.
“Lai played exceptionally well indeed. Although I trailed and faced sustained pressure throughout, I remained in a remarkably composed state.”
Lai, a 20-year-old student at York University in Toronto, told reporters his “unbelievable” run to a bronze medal in Paris might just convince him his future lies away from kinesiology.
“The past couple of years have been school but I think after now and this year I will focus more on badminton and put school to the side,” he said.
Dutch multi-distance star Sifan Hassan has set a race record to claim victory in the first running of the Sydney Marathon as a World Majors Series event on Sunday. She ran the 42km in two hours 18 minutes and 22 seconds. Ethiopia’s Hailemaryam Kiros produced the fastest marathon run in Australia to win the men’s event in 2:06:06, as Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge fell short of the podium in the men’s category
