Volume 19, Number 1502 May 2019

 

“Our stadiums are empty and participation in the game is dwindling. A school I am involved with in the Free State has not had a single game at under 16B level played all year because no other schools are able to field a full side!” - Brendon Shields writing on AllOutRugby

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Much Ado Over the New Bok Jersey

The Springbok jersey for this year’s World Cup was announced last week and it set off an outcry on social media. Most of the criticism was because the famed Springbok emblem has been reduced in size and moved from the chest to the sleeve. Again.

This happened in 2011 and in 2015 and, once again, the trolls were out in force on Facebook, on Twitter, in the Sports24 comments sections and wherever else the lunatic fringe hangs out these days.

Frankly, in this newsroom, we see it all as much ado about very little at all. Oom Rugby summed it up perfectly when he tweeted that this same outcry has happened every year since 2011

 

This, he wrote, is because the jersey must be consistent with World Rugby regulations for ALL competitors: Right breast – RWC logo; Middle – sponsor; Left breast – national emblem.

And contrary to popular belief, the national emblem is NOT the Springbok; It is, in fact, the Protea. The Springbok is a nickname, much like the Wallaby is for Australia, and in both cases it has been accommodated on the shoulder.

But, back to the real news, the new Springbok Rugby World Cup jersey design is a skin-tight offering from Japanese manufacturers, Asics, that is said to be the lightest jersey yet but also features grip print on the chest.

SA Rugby CEO, Jurie Roux, was effusive: “Every little detail counts and that includes all the focus and effort put into making this the most advanced jersey for the Boks to wear in Japan and support them in their quest to reach their goal.”

Players were interviewed about their requirements to give them the necessary advantages on the field‚ and the message was clear: they don’t want to be restricted by anything and want to feel “unstoppable”.

And that’s where the nickname of the jersey originates: “unstoppable”. We hope that that doesn’t turn out to be the management equivalent of a commentator’s curse.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

Yet Another Poor Super Rugby WeekendSouthern Kings Crash to the BottomSuperSport Rugby Challenge Kicks-Off

 

Big Weekend for Schools RugbySuper Rugby: Predictions for Round 12Learn to Love the Game Again

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Yet Another Poor Super Rugby Weekend

Going into the weekend, only one SA team looked likely to get a victory: one of the two contesting the derby at Newlands. And, on Friday that seemed to be an accurate prediction.

A Lions team without Warren Whitely and Malcolm Marx was always going to struggle against the Crusaders in Christchurch. If the half-time score was horrible for the visitors (17-3), the final score was even worse (36-10).

It didn’t help that the Lions only had 43% of possession and kicked away far too much of it. They had to make 159 tackles, missed 24 but still had two probable tries denied by the typically incompetent officials running the touch line – and it’s not just us, Justin Marshall banged on about it in the commentary box.

The first half of the Sunwolves clash with New Zealand’s Highlanders in Tokyo saw the visitors impersonating a steam-roller, running out to a 33 point lead with five tries. It left the home side with a mammoth task, made more difficult by a habit of turning over the ball on attack. Final score: 52-0.

Saturday morning saw the Chiefs on the end of a Barrett-inspired thrashing by the Hurricanes that started with three tries in less than 20 minutes. The Chiefs fought back but the home side were simply too strong: 47-19.

Then came the upset of the weekend: Waratahs gave up five easy log points in Sydney through ill-discipline to lose to what our editor insists is the worst team in the competition.

 

A red card after half-time left them a man short for most of the second half and a subsequent yellow card had them down to 13 for ten of those minutes. Final score: 15-23.

And then to Newlands where an equally unthinkable result happened: the previously table-topping Bulls lost in Cape Town to the Stormers. The visitors seemed utterly clueless on attack for most of the match and fell into the old South African pattern of kicking away good possession when put under pressure. Final score 24-23.

The final match of the weekend was in Buenos Aires, where the Jaguares hosted the Australian Brumbies. It was a hard-fought encounter but the home side emerged victorious: 20-15.

The result is a SA conference log that looks upside down, with the best team in the country languishing at the bottom. But there’s only a four-point spread from top to bottom so a lot can change in a single weekend.

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Southern Kings Crash to the Bottom

All the permutations discussed last week suggested that the Southern Kings had a reasonable shot at holding onto second last place in conference B of the PRO14 2018/2019. But it wasn’t to be.

In the first PRO14 encounter of the weekend, the Dragons overcame Welsh rivals, the Scarlets, to take four points from their final match of the season and surge past the Kings on the conference ladder. That meant the Eastern Cape side would have to defeat the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein to hand the wooden spoon back to the Welsh team.

It was a bridge too far. While the Kings did contest well in the early phases, the home team soon put some distance between them, forcing the visitors to chase the game. As usual, that scoreboard pressure resulted in a lot of mistakes and led eventually to a comprehensive nine-try thrashing: 61-25.

For the South African teams, these results bring to a disappointing end a thoroughly forgettable season of PRO14 rugby. While the Cheetahs managed eight victories in the season, they still finished second last in their conference some eight points adrift of the fifth placed Cardiff Blues.

In the other conference, the Kings finished dead last, for the second year in succession and managed only two wins all season long. Better will be expected from both teams when the 2019/2020 season kicks off later this year.

The results mean that, on Saturday, Munster faces Benetton in Limerick and Ulster entertains Connacht in Belfast, all for a chance to play a semi-final against either Glasgow Warriors or Leinster in two weeks time.

SuperSport Rugby Challenge Kicks-Off

Between our initial report two weeks ago and the actual kick-off last Friday night, there were a few changes to the programme for the SuperSport Rugby Challenge (SRC) 2019.

Firstly, and probably most importantly, the field has been expanded to sixteen with the addition of a Zimbabwe Academy side. Secondly, the venue for Sunday’s double-header changed to the Buffalo City Municipality Stadium due to last week’s heavy rains in Mdantsane.

This forced changes to the schedule and the one we published last week had to be changed to accommodate an extra fixture. As a result, there were eight matches this past weekend rather than the planned seven.

The results were as follows, beginning with the match on Friday night:

Pumas 26 – 21 Blue BullsGriquas 52 – 10 ValkeFree State 40 – 31 SharksBoland 34 – 6 EP ElephantsGriffons 34 – 27 LeopardsNamibia 23 – 40 Golden LionsEagles 7 – 62 Western ProvinceBulldogs 41 – 16 Zimbabwe Academy

This weekend, all eight matches appear to on Saturday with all but one starting at 2pm. The exception is Leopards vs Golden Lions at the Fanie du Toit Stadium in Potchefstroom, which kicks off at 4pm.

Check the schedule to see if there’s a fixture near you.

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Big Weekend for Schools Rugby

This weekend will be one of the biggest on the schools calendar, with the Wildeklawer Festival and big derby games in Cape Town and Joburg taking place. There‘s a useful piece on SARugbyMag.com by Theo Garrun that offers the details. But briefly:

“The Wildeklawer weekend has become a gathering of just about all the top rugby schools in the country. The games are on Thursday and Saturday at Hoërskool Diamantveld in Kimberley.

“Saturday sees the first leg of the derby double-header between Jeppe and KES in Joburg, while in Cape Town SACS host Bishops, and Rondebosch travel to Wynberg for the first of their respective annual double-derby clashes.”

But given that we’re based in Joburg and that both our editor and our technical guru are Jeppe old boys, we’re kind of focused on that match. As Garrun notes, both protagonists are fresh from good victories this past weekend: Jeppe hammered Pretoria Boys’ High in a 14-try spectacle, 57-35, while KES beat Affies 33-29.

The stage is set for another epic clash between the two old foes when they meet in Kensington (the Jeppe home ground) this Saturday at about 12:30pm.

Public Service Announcement: If KES scores at all in the match, you may hear some verbal abuse hurled at the referee by our very own editor, who, we are reliably informed, will be in the crowd. Avoid him at all costs.

Super Rugby Predictions for Round 12

LOL. We had you there for a second. In the early days of this newsletter we tried our hand at the prediction game but it didn’t end well so we decided to leave that task to those with the chestnuts to take it on.

That said, we feel obliged to mention some of the obvious permutations at play in a weekend during which our editor’s favourite team gets a bye – that’s the Lions in case you hadn’t figured that out by now. Looking at the rest of the conference, the Bulls and the Jaguares seem most likely to move up on the table after this round.

But that’s our strictly amateur view. As the pundits at Rugby365 point out, this has been a whirlwind season and making the right predictions for Super Rugby fixtures has been a nightmare. They continue:

“But if you like your predictions with a solid dose of data rather than heart, we’ve got you covered. Using sophisticated algorithms from one of New Zealand’s leading stats men, we give you predictions for winning teams and margins. But use these at your own risk and don’t blame us if it all goes horribly wrong.”

Quite. We haven’t decided yet but it may well become a regular feature – if only the entertainment value it provides – to provide a link to predictions of the pundits in and around the rugby world.

This week, we’re giving the team at Rugby365 some time in the spotlight with its predictions for round 12of Super Rugby.

Learn to Love the Game Again

There’s a rather poignant piece by Brendon Shields running on AllOutRugby at present that is worth a look. His thought process was triggered by watching a video of a schoolgirl rugby player passing the ball to a teammate just before the line rather than being selfish and scoring the try herself.

What was interesting was not the act itself but the back-story to the act, which is elaborated on the Tweet featuring the video. Shields reckons that watching the video made him realise why rugby union is in such a mess:

“Our stadiums are empty and participation in the game is dwindling. A school I am involved with in the Free State has not had a single game at under 16B level played all year because no other schools are able to field a full side!

 

“Off the field, things are just as dire. The New Zealand rugby union announced a big financial loss this year, while on social media we have superstars who would rather tell us why Elton John and Nigel Owens are going to hell than use their platforms to grow the game.

“The Twitter video pulls the entire thing back in line. It shows us what rugby can do and what it’s supposed to be about.”

Shields describes the act of passing the ball to a teammate to score as “a great and age-old gesture that shows maturity and respect to her mates”. He relates that back to what rugby has always been about, perhaps more so than any other sport: friendship, building character and, above all, family.

We won’t spoil the rest of his commentary and insight with you because that would deprive him of much-deserved click-throughs.,

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For your weekend viewing pleasure

Apart from Super Rugby (schedule alongside) and schools rugby this weekend, there is plenty more to help satisfy your craving for rugby action this weekend. Our Ultimate Rugby app informs us of fixtures in the English Premiership and French Top14 as well as semi-finals qualifiers for the PRO14.

And for good measure, back home, there’s another round of the revamped SuperSport Rugby Challenge.

But, as usual, we’ll focus on the Super Rugby. As noted elsewhere, the Lions have a bye and the first match this Friday is again in Christchurch where the champion Crusaders host the Sharks.

Then we have to wait until Saturday afternoon for another match with local interest when the Bulls entertain the Waratahs at Loftus. Later that night, the Jaguares welcome the Stormers to Buenos Aires.

Thanks for reading our newsletter. We need feedback to improve it – and only you can give us that feedback. Please take the time to send us an email. We want to hear from you – good, bad or ugly, a pat on the back or a kick in the butt. Remember to look us up on Twitter, where you'll find many of our contributors on our timeline.

The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters.

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