Former Springbok winger Cornal Hendricks dies at 37
Former Springbok winger Cornal Hendricks died on Wednesday evening.
He was 37.
Hendricks played 12 Tests for the Springboks between 2014 and 2015 and scored five tries.
Hendricks' Test career was cut short when he was diagnosed with a heart ailment in 2016.
He had signed a two-year deal with the Stormers before the condition prevented him from playing for the Cape franchise.
A deal with French side Toulon also fell through and he was forced to retire from rugby aged 27.
However, after receiving a second medical opinion, he made a comeback for the Bulls in 2019 and played for the Pretoria franchise until 2024, before moving to Boland who he still represented in the SA Cup this season.
Hendricks started his professional career at Boland in 2008, before moving to the Cheetahs in 2014 where he became a Springbok.
He also represented the Blitzboks from 2012-2014.
Tributes flocked in on social media after news broke of Hendricks' death.
It is believed that he died after suffering a heart attack.
Free State Rugby mourns the loss of an ex-Toyota Cheetah player, Cornal Hendricks.
Our condolences to his family and friends😔 🧡 @ToyotaSA pic.twitter.com/k5Rmxz4ybt
— Toyota Cheetahs (@CheetahsRugby) May 15, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Bavuma's brave team make giant leap for South African Test cricket
South Africa lost their shot at winning this World Test Championship in 2022, when their board announced the team were going to play 28 games in the next four years. They lost it for a second time during the spring of last year, when they packed their reserve team off to play a series against New Zealand because their centrally contracted players had to stay back and play in a franchise tournament. They lost it a third time when the team were bowled out for 138 on Thursday morning and they lost it a fourth when they let Australia's tail put on 134 runs for the last four wickets, leaving them needing 282 to win. Finally, after they had just about run out of ways to lose, they won. Advertisement Related: Markram steers South Africa to historic World Test Championship final triumph The last runs came hard and the winning ones seemed to be the most difficult of all. It was chaos on the outside of the old brick walls that surround Lord's on Saturday morning. It seemed every South African in the city seemed to be piling in to see their team win the World Test Championship and five minutes before the start of play the queues ran down and around Wellington Road, where the rush of latecomers forced the traffic wide to the other side of the street. But inside, the scoreboard moved like a stopped clock. 'We were trying to get it over and done with,' said Aiden Markram, 'but it just wasn't easy.' 'Even when we got it down to 10 runs,' Temba Bavuma said. 'You were on the edge, thinking anything can happen. I mean the belief was there, but it was pretty hard to accept that we were so close to winning something.' South Africa have blown too many big games to feel sure of scoring even the bare handful they needed here. Kyle Verreynne got himself in a hell of mess trying to pick off the very last they needed after the scores were tied. He ought to have been given out caught behind after he gloved the ball while he was trying to hit a ramp for four, but Australia had used up all their reviews. Besides, by that point even they seemed to have decided they ought to just let South Africa have it. After everything they have been through across the years, even Australians were not going to begrudge them this victory. Advertisement South Africa are not a great team, but they have just beaten one. Markram is not a great batter, but he played like one. Bavuma is not a great captain, but he has won a great victory, one which may turn out to be the most consequential in the team's history. After all those defeats in other International Cricket Council tournaments across the years, the consequences of losing this final were unthinkable. Now, the implications of winning could be incalculable. Bavuma drew an explicit comparison with the success of the Springboks, whose back-to-back World Cup wins under Siya Kolisi have done so much. Related: 'Chokers? This win squashes that': Bavuma hopes WTC victory can unite South Africa Bavuma is the first Black man to captain the cricket team and if previous generations fought against one strain of discrimination, he has had to confront another form of it by dealing with the lingering stigma attached to Black players in an era when so many white players have quit because they feel racial quotas are discriminatory. Advertisement 'For me to be recognised more than just as a Black African cricketer, but to be seen as somebody who has achieved something that the country wanted so much, that's something which will make me walk around with my chest out, and I just hope that it will inspire the country,' Bavuma said. And beyond. Bavuma spoke about how it was a victory for all the 'small' teams in Test cricket, which, these days, includes all nine Test playing nations apart from India, Australia and England. South African Test cricket is the canary in the mine and 18 months ago it had just about keeled over. Since then, they have found a way to win eight games in a row, a run that culminated in this famous victory. Bavuma and Markram both said they want to play more Test cricket. South Africa do not have a home series scheduled for another 15 months, when they will play Australia, again. 'What's important is to keep Test cricket as No 1 in South Africa,' said Markram. 'We understand all the dynamics in the cricket world, but for young players coming through, it has to be about wearing this baggy Test cap for South Africa.'
News24
5 hours ago
- News24
DStv may soon offer a package only featuring sport
According to the latest annual results, DStv subscribers continue to dwindle. Households were struggling financially, and many have no choice but to give up their DStv subscriptions. MultiChoice has lost R1.7 billion in subscription revenue over the past two years. MultiChoice, which will soon be taken over by French broadcasting giant Canal+, is considering introducing a separate sports offering to viewers. This comes after the pay-TV service lost 2.8 million DStv subscribers over the past two years. MultiChoice released its latest annual results this past week, showing how DStv subscribers continue to dwindle. Showmax, the entity's streaming service, is growing, but not at the rate that MultiChoice projected. In South Africa, the pay-TV giant now has only 1 million DStv subscribers left in its Premium offering – the one that includes channels like M-Net and kykNET. The loss of 1.2 million subscribers in the past year alone is more than the total premium subscribers DStv now has. On DStv Compact, MultiChoice has 2.1 million subscribers remaining, and 4.7 million on cheaper packages, such as DStv Family, with less content. Tim Jacobs, MultiChoice's chief financial officer, says they have lost R1.7 billion in subscription revenue over the past two years. MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela said households were struggling financially and many had no choice but to give up their DStv subscriptions. MultiChoice will decide before the end of this year whether it will offer the SuperSport channels as a separate DStv package. This would lower the price of all DStv packages that currently contain sports channels. Sports enthusiasts would then only pay for sports and not for entertainment and news channels. These packages are expected to be expensive because the cost of sports broadcasts is driven up by local and international sports rights for rugby and soccer, among other things. Regarding the creation of separate sports packages – something DStv subscribers have been asking for for years – Mawela said they considered it annually when looking at package structures. Referring to Britain's Sky pay-TV service, Mawela said consumers got a basic package that they could add sports packages and general entertainment channels to, according to their preferences. We are now accelerating the project to decide which direction we will take it in the coming year. But, yes, we are considering all options as part of a broader product offering. Calvo Mawela Regarding Showmax, Mawela said some of their initial assumptions around the streaming service had not worked out as expected. MultiChoice also said it was not affordable to maintain the cash injection of the past two years for the creation of new content for Showmax. Jacobs said the challenge for Showmax was that 'although it is doing relatively well, the level of growth is still not what we had in our original business plan'. The one thing we are absolutely clear about is that the level of Showmax's expenses is not sustainable. Tim Jacobs He said future price increases would be made up of a 'combination of how many consumers subscribe at certain price levels and, secondly, what our competitors are doing in the market compared with our prices'. A bright spot is that parents who enjoy watching their children's competitive school sports can continue to do so. The SuperSport Schools application recorded growth of 46% over the past year and now has 1.2 million registered users.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
South Africa get last laugh after 'pathetic' move as brutal Aussie sledge backfires
South Africa are being hailed around the cricket world after beating Australia to claim a historic World Test Championship title. And Proteas captain Temba Bavuma - who along with centurion Aidan Markram have written themselves into cricketing folklore - revealed after the momentous victory that the Aussies tried to get in South Africa's heads with a sledge about them being 'chokers' on day four at Lord's. Wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne hit the winning runs just before lunch on day four to complete South Africa's chase of 282 and spark emotional scenes at the home of cricket. But it was a majestic century from opener Markram - who finally fell just before then end - and a gritty captain's knock from the hobbled Bavuma (66) that lay the platform for the Proteas to lift their first senior world trophy in the men's game. It saw the South Africans get the last laugh after they were roundly criticised for a controversial Test move in 2023 to field a second-string side on a tour of New Zealand. In a move labelled 'pathetic' at the time, the Proteas sent a heavily depleted squad to New Zealand so their stars could stay home and play in the country's T20 league instead. South Africa were subsequently thrashed 2-0 by the Black Caps, but then went on to complete eight wins in a row to claim an unexpected Test title in a stunning 18-month turnaround. And Bavuma - who played bravely on with a hamstring injury throughout the final - said the landmark WTC victory was extra special as it saw them shed the notorious 'chokers' tag that the Aussies reminded them about at Lord's. 'The tag of us being chokers, that came about this morning,' Bavuma said after the win. 'One of their players threw out the fact we could still get bowled out ... I definitely heard that.' Man of the match Markram added: 'It will be great to not have to hear it again, that's for sure.' Saturday's victory was only South Africa's second ICC title in all, coming 27 years after they won the Champions Trophy back in 1998. Many of their gutwrenching defeats in major tournaments have come at the hands of Australia so this one will feel extra special. Starting day four on the cusp of history at 2-213, this largely unheralded South Africa side took just one session to tick off the 69 runs required. And it saw them achieve greatness that Proteas legends such as Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Shaun Pollock and AB de Villiers never could. RELATED: Cricket world stunned as rival joins Glenn Maxwell in immediate exit Mitchell Starc's sad career call after difficult decision with wife Bavuma's leadership was hailed after the triumph, with the skipper's decision to send Australia in to bat after winning the toss vindicated. He also delivered with the bat despite being hampered by a hamstring injury throughout the match. 'I wasn't at 100 per cent fitness, but I felt that I was good enough to still do the job," Bavuma said afterwards. 'It was a tough decision ... it was very much an egotistical call, but I was happy to deal with whatever consequences came of it.' For the Aussies, captain Pat Cummins admits they'll have to go back to the drawing board and flagged potential changes to their batting lineup for the upcoming West Indies tour. In particular, the top order gamble of Marnus Labuschagne opening with Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green batting at No.3 failed to pay off as they only contributed 49 of Australia's 419 runs across both innings. 'I don't particularly know why, but it does feel like a little bit of a fresh start," Cummins said. "You fast forward, you know, a couple of years (and) you start maybe thinking about who's going to - and hopefully we make the final - but who's going to be in that team and maybe do we want to get some games into them? "Do we feel like now's the right time to change? Or do we hold with the team that got us to the final? I think we'll kind of got a couple of weeks before the first Test in the Windies, so I think we'll sit down and have a bit of a think after we digest this game. But for me, I think a new WTC cycle in some ways, does feel like a bit of a reset.' The Heroes of the game ft. KG, Temba and Aiden Markram. The attitude and character shown by them was so remarkable. Well deserved to win!🏆#WTCFinal — Rushikesh (@whyrushii) June 14, 2025 🚨 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘! 🇿🇦South Africa finally wins their first ICC trophy in 2️⃣7️⃣ years. 🏆Captain Bavuma & Co. made it happen! 💥What a thrilling final it was — South Africa conquered the mighty Aussies! 💪A historic moment for the Proteas. ✨#CricVerse | #AUSvSA | #WTCFinal — CricVerse (@CricVerse23) June 14, 2025 For the first time all 3 formats of the cricket world cups are held by 3 different teams. ODI: Aussies. T20I: Ind. & finally the coveted Test: South Africa. #WTCFinal #WtcFinal2025 — aranab (@iAranab) June 14, 2025 Selecting out of form players over and over again is what cost the Aussies this final. Nothing else. Change it up already. This boys club needs to end now please. #WTCFinal — Alex Trovato (@alexdimov8) June 14, 2025 with AAP
