🇿🇦 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORNÉ STEYN - ONE OF THE GREATEST NUMBER TENS WHO EVER PLAYED THE GAME 🎉 Some players get one big moment and spend the rest of their career being remembered for it. Morné Steyn got two, twelve years apart, against the same opponent, in the same position on the field, with the same result. Born on this day, 11 July 1984, in Cape Town, he turns 42 today. Between those two moments sits one of the most complete careers any fly-half has ever put together. Happy Birthday, Morné. The man they once left out of the team is now spoken about among the greatest number 10s the game has ever seen. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #MornéSteyn #Rugby #Birthday

🇿🇦 BINDER EYES SACHSENRING RECOVERY AFTER FRUSTRATING SPRINT 🏍️ Brad Binder crossed the line in P12 at the Sachsenring Sprint on Saturday, a result that did little to lift a difficult weekend so far for the KTM man in Germany. The South African had started from the fifth row after a tough Saturday morning, and while he picked his way through traffic where he could, the 13-lap dash never gave him the room to make a real statement. Marc Marquez controlled the Sprint from lights to flag, resisting a late surge from brother Alex Marquez to claim his fourth Sprint win of the season and extend his run of Sachsenring dominance. Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the podium, closing the gap on championship leader Jorge Martin to just 13 points heading into the summer break. For Binder, the day was about damage limitation rather than statement-making. But speaking after the race, he made clear his focus has already shifted to Sunday. JAY | JPS SAYS: "Sprint Saturdays haven't been kind to Brad this year, but the Sachsenring has a habit of rewarding patience on a Sunday. Thirty laps is a different beast entirely." The point is a fair one. A 15-lap Sprint leaves little margin for recovery once track position is lost, but Sunday's German Grand Prix will run to 30 laps, giving Binder considerably more time to work tyre strategy and race craft in his favour, areas that have often played to his strengths across his KTM career. It comes at a significant moment for the number 33. With his long-standing factory Red Bull KTM seat set to end after this season, and a likely switch to Tech3 alongside Maverick Vinales on the cards for 2027, every strong Sunday performance between now and the summer break adds to his case heading into a new chapter. Sachsenring has produced mixed fortunes for Binder before, but the raw optimism in his message after Saturday's Sprint suggests a rider looking to convert opportunity into result when the laps count for more tomorrow. #RedBull #KTM #Sachsenring #MotoGP #SprintRace BradBinder

🇿🇦 THE SPRINGBOKS GETS THE WIN OVER AN INSPIRING SCOTTISH TEAM!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏅 POLLARD - Man Of The Match! 👏🏻 It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win! Can't see this Scottish team lose against any other team in this tournament!! #NationsChampionship #RSAvSCO #Rugby #JustPlainSport

🇿🇦 CONGRATULATIONS TO RASSIE ERASMUS ON BECOMING THE MOST CAPPED SPRINGBOK COACH 🏉 Coaches don’t usually last in South African rugby. The job chews through good men in three years or less, undone by one bad Rugby Championship, one refereeing controversy, one boardroom whisper campaign that turns into a headline. Rassie Erasmus has been in and around the Springbok setup for eight years now, and on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld, against Scotland, he takes charge of his 55th Test as head coach. Nobody has ever done that before him. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #RassieErasmus #Springboks

🇿🇦 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ULI SCHMIDT - THE BOELIE WHO BECAME A HEALER 🎉 There are rugby players you remember for the scoreboard. And then there are those you remember for the sound they made when they hit a ruck — the ones whose reputation walked onto the field a full ten metres before they did. Uli Schmidt belongs firmly in the second category. Born on this very day, 10 July 1961, in Pretoria, he turns 65 today. And what a strange, brilliant contradiction of a life it has been. Happy Birthday, Uli. The man they called “die Boelie” now spends his working days healing people instead of hurting them. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #UliSchmidt #Rugby #Birthday

🔥 THEY WENT FOR HER THROAT, BUT CAITLIN CLARK JUST KEPT BREAKING RECORDS 🏀 Caitlin Clark added another line to her résumé on Friday... The WNBA named her Eastern Conference Player of the Month for June, the second time in her career she's won the award, and only the second Indiana Fever player ever to do it. The first was Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings, who won it three times. The numbers behind it are absurd. Over 10 games in June, Caitlin Clark averaged 21.9 points, 8.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds, shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from three. She ranked fourth in the league in scoring and second in assists. Indiana went 7-4 and ran the WNBA’s best offense over that stretch, averaging a league-leading 95.5 points a game. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #CaitlinClark #WNBA #Basketball

🇿🇦 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATJANA SMITH - THE GIRL NEXT DOOR WHO BECAME SA’S GREATEST OLYMPIAN 🎉 Tatjana Smith, born on this day, 9 July 1997, in Johannesburg, turns 29 today, and the touch in Paris is where most people’s memory of her career ends. It is not where the story starts... 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com Happy Birthday, Tatjana. From all of us at Just Plain Sport, thank you for a world record still standing, four Olympic medals, and a retirement written entirely on your own terms. 🎂🏊‍♀️ #JustPlainSport #TatjanaSmit #olympicgoldmedalist #happybirthday

🇿🇦 SA’S JAVELIN QUEEN JO-ANÉ DU PLESSIS RETURNS TO MONACO AFTER CAREER-SAVING SURGERY Two days before the South African Championships, Jo-Ané du Plessis woke up and her left calf would not work. There was no pain. No warning. Just a leg that had stopped answering. She had spent months building toward that weekend in the best shape of her life, and by the time she understood what was happening, the meet was already gone. An emergency MRI delivered the verdict. A tear in her L5/S1 disc had allowed fluid to leak out and compress the nerve root running down her leg. There was no rehab pathway, no conservative option, no waiting it out. She needed an urgent microdiscectomy, and she needed it immediately.. 🎙️ FULL STORY on JustPlainSport .com #JustPlainSport #javelin #JoAnéduPlessis #MonacoDiamondLeague @joanevdyk