Author: Toby Shapshak

With two injury-enforced changes, the Springboks to face Argentina in Durban have a new look about them. Is this the beginning of the next World Cup defending team, Toby Shapshak asks Andy Capostagno. Andy Capostagno has been talking and writing about South African rugby for more than three decades. He’s been my emotional support person for rugby since I was lucky enough to meet him when I was unexpectedly made the sports editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper many moons ago. Welcome to Stuff Rugby. Listen to Stuff Rugby on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Previous episode: Springboks blow All Blacks away:…

After the bitter defeat at Eden Park, a wounded Springboks side blew the All Blacks off the Wellington pitch with a triumphant 43-10 win, the biggest ever defeat for New Zealand at home or away. Ouch. But the real pain, Andy Capostagno tells Toby Shapshak, is that All Blacks legends can see the country just doesn’t have the depth of talent it needs for the modern era. Andy Capostagno has been talking and writing about South African rugby for more than three decades. He’s been my emotional support person for rugby since I was lucky enough to meet him when…

After a game to forget at Eden Park, Rassie Erasmus wasted no time in announcing his Springbok team on Monday morning. Gone are two former captains, Jesse Kriel and Eben Etzebeth, as well as veterans like Handre Pollard, Willie le Roux, and Damian de Allende. This is not the team Rassie planned, and some big names have been omitted, Andy Capostagno tells Toby Shapshak. Andy Capostagno has been talking and writing about South African rugby for more than three decades. He’s been my emotional support person for rugby since I was lucky enough to meet him when I was unexpectedly…

If the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 300 were an action movie hero, it would be Jason Statham. Smooth and debonair in polite society, but brutal and unstoppable in the action sequences. All while being easy on the eye. I’m not a traditional motoring journalist. While both my older brothers were petrolheads and fiddled under the bonnet of their cars, I was never bitten by that bug. I’ve never been a petrolhead, nor – to be frank – have I ever really cared much for cars. Until electric vehicles (EVs) arrived. Now I’m a batteryhead. But there is a category of…

Digital crime continues to “soar” in South Africa, with digital banking fraud nearly doubling in volume over the previous year, according to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) in its Annual Crime Statistics for 2024. “The 2024 statistics highlight that digital banking fraud remained the most dominant channel, accounting for 65.3% of reported incidents,” Sabric found, with cases almost doubling, from 31,612 in 2023 to 64,000 in 2024. Meanwhile, losses increased from R1 billion to over R1.4 billion, it reported. “In 2024, digital banking crime continued to soar following the sharp upward trend from 2023,” the report found. “Digital banking fraud…

There will be no bigger test this year than the Springboks v All Blacks at Fortress Eden Park, where New Zealand haven’t lost for 30 years, Andy Capostagno tells Toby Shapshak. Andy Capostagno has been talking and writing about South African rugby for more than three decades. He’s been my emotional support person for rugby since I was lucky enough to meet him when I was unexpectedly made the sports editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper many moons ago. Welcome to Stuff Rugby. Listen to Stuff Rugby on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Previous episode: Springboks go big for Wallabies at Ellis…

Hiring Gweneth Paltrow to be Astronomer’s spokes-celebrity after its CEO was humiliatedly outed for having an affair at a Coldplay concert is a pure stroke of marketing genius. That Paltrow has been “consciously decoupled” (or, as the rest of us would say, divorced) from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin just adds spice to what is the social media story of the year so far. One always has to add “so far,” given how outrageous such occurrences are when they happen – this being the year of the Jeffrey Epstein revelations – you can’t help but fear we’re just getting started. All Astronomer…

The usual giant players are joined by a few just as giant youngsters for the first Test against the Wallabies at Ellis Park. Coach Rassie Erasmus named his team on Monday, a world-first, Toby Shapshak jokes with Andy Capostagno. Andy Capostagno has been talking and writing about South African rugby for more than three decades. He’s been my emotional support person for rugby since I was lucky enough to meet him when I was unexpectedly made the sports editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper many moons ago. Welcome to Stuff Rugby. Listen to Stuff Rugby on Apple Podcasts or…

Despite a stronger showing in the third Test against the British and Irish Lions, the Wallabies are still a work in progress. The Springboks, meanwhile, are the strongest they’ve ever been, Andy Capostagno tells Toby Shapshak. Andy Capostagno has been talking and writing about South African rugby for more than three decades. He’s been my emotional support person for rugby since I was lucky enough to meet him when I was unexpectedly made the sports editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper many moons ago. Welcome to Stuff Rugby. Listen to Stuff Rugby on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Previous episode:…

One of my favourite apps for many years was Instapaper (Android/iOS). It filled a niche in my digital consumption that few other apps could. Back when connectivity was scarce, Instapaper spotted a need and offered a great and simple solution. If you wanted to read an interesting article or webpage later, you could save it to Instapaper using a browser extension, and then read it later in the app. The app helpfully downloaded a version of the story for offline reading – often when you didn’t have internet access. Over the years, I evolved how I used Instapaper. At first, I…