Volume 19, Number 414 February 2019

 

“Maties got murdered in the scrums and lineouts, and, just like New Zealand would do, they won.” - Jake White waxing lyrical on AllOutRugby

Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za

And We’re Back into Super Rugby

Slightly over half a year ago, South African Super Rugby fans – those who didn’t watch the game live – woke up to the bad news that the Lions had lost their third successive Super Rugby final. That they made it to the final at all was considered, in some quarters at least, a minor miracle given the state of rugby in the country over the past three years – but that’s a story for another day.

Well the merry-go-round begins all over again tomorrow morning – always assuming that we get this issue out on Thursday [We lost 12 critical production hours to load shedding and power faults this week – Ed].

This year the competition runs completely uninterrupted, week after week until the final on Saturday 6 July. That’s roughly four-and-a-half months of top class international club rugby.

For us rugby fans, it is a wonderful and a mouth-watering prospect but for the players, it can be – and will be – extremely gruelling.

That said, we hope to watch every game, even the ones in Argentina where, hopefully, the Lions can chalk up a win come Saturday. On that subject, it seems that Swys de Bruyn has pulled out all the stops and named a strong line-up for the opener against Jaguares at the uncomfortable time of 23:40.

 

More generally, and as usual every year this time, SA Rugby Magazine has compiled an interesting list of the  15 backs and 15 forwards that its brains trust believe will be players to watch during the season. We can’t really quibble except to say that not enough Lions are mentioned.

That’s enough chatter. It all begins tomorrow morning on a television screen near you at 08:35 when Chiefs play Highlanders in Waikato. That will be followed by Brumbies versus Rebels at 10:45 from Canberra.

And those are just the appetisers, with five matches scheduled for Saturday – see the last page in this issue for details.

 

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

Six Nations Upsets the Form BookCheetahs Still in With a SniffDream of Retaining Title Now on Life-Support

 

And The Psychological Warfare Begins...SANZAAR Reduces Super Rugby Referees PanelWhat Did We Learn from #SuperHeroSunday?

Page 1

Page 2

Normal Service Resumes in Six Nations

After a couple of upset wins (England over Ireland and Wales over France) in the first round, normal service resumed this past weekend. It all began on Saturday with Ireland’s return to winning ways against a gallant Scottish side.

In a what was a tough and topsy-turvy match, the visitors were made to graft but eventually got the job done at Murrayfield as they beat Scotland 22-13. It was a fast-paced encounter and Ireland were deserved winners due to fewer unforced errors and outscoring the hosts by three tries to one.

Meanwhile, also on Saturday but over in Rome, Wales ground out a win against Italy, after opting to rest most of their first-choice players for the encounter. It showed in the way that the visitors battled to build momentum on attack. And the win put the Welsh top of the Six Nations tree on Saturday night.

But that didn’t last as, on Sunday, the English thumped an utterly woeful travelling French side. While the Jonny May hat-trick of tries inside the first half-hour set England on their way, the French were truly awful on the day. The PlanetRugby analysts suggest this was due to coach Jacques Brunel’s muddled selections as the back three were constantly exposed by the hosts’ kicking game.

For those with a somewhat masochistic outlook on life, Sky Sports Rugby's stats guru, Rhodri Jeremiah, takes a closer look at what stood out after the round.

 

Picking Apart Scotland’s Performance

Over on RugbyPass, Kiwi columnist Ben Smith – not the All Black – has analysed the Scotland match against Ireland and he thinks he knows what went wrong: the hosts were too lateral on attack. He illustrates his analysis with extensive pictorial evidence and it’s hard not to buy the logic.

He writes that, for all the possession Scotland had in the match, they could not land a blow with ball in hand, most typified by a 25-phase possession on Ireland’s five metres line on the stroke of half-time that failed to yield any points.

Which is odd because Ultimate Rugby is reporting that the Scots had only 41% of the possession in the match. Of course, that doesn’t mean that when they had the ball, the hosts tended toward a lateral attack plan which eventually, and almost always runs out of space.

But back to Smith’s insightful analysis. In general terms he reckons that the Scottish outside backs are talented and are dangerous runners, but they haven’t figured out how to hunt as a pack or work in multiples to take apart edge defences in the simplest of ways – draw and pass. He illustrates his logic with a detailed breakdown of several passages of play in the game. It’s really worth a read.

Page 3

Page 4

Champagne Rugby Returns to Varsity Cup

If you missed the first week of the 2019 FNB Varsity Cup, you wouldn’t have missed much as most of the teams appeared to be finding their feet. But this past Monday saw a return of the champagne rugby.

As Michael Pedro reports on EWN, there were wins for Maties, Wits and Shimlas and the Tuks vs UJ match was postponed to the following day thanks to load shedding. When it did happen the next day, UJ were handed their second rugby lesson in as many weeks.

But it was the Maties thrashing of Ikeys that grabbed most of the Varsity Cup headlines this week. As Pedro put it: “While Maties were a class above their opponents, UCT didn’t help themselves in conceding soft turnovers and not making the most of the few chances they had to put points on the board.”

A favourite rugby commentator, Tank Lanning, is involved at Ikeys and he Tweeted his disappointment after the game. To which columnist, Dan Retief, responded that he had been “...impressed with the way Maties played - plenty of pace, space, skill and pass and sustained intensity…”.

It’s Staring Us in the Face - Jake

Front Row Grunt (aka Tank Lanning) highlighted an interesting opinion piece by our editor’s old school chum, Jake White. In a Tweet Tank writes: “Not sure Jake could have timed his column any better as he compares the Maties to the All Blacks, calling on SA to make the most of this unbelievable asset.”

What is remarkable is that the former Springbok coach wrote his piece days before Maties thrashed Ikeys [see previous story – Ed] and after watching Wits receive similar treatment the week before. Here are a few snippets from an opinion piece you really should take the time to read in full:

“Wits were there, playing with spirit, passion, guts and emotion. But even though everything looked like it’s supposed to, Maties were always going to win that game. That’s exactly how New Zealand rugby operates.”

And…

“Maties got murdered in the scrums and lineouts, and, just like New Zealand would do, they won.”

And...

“The things the All Blacks pride themselves on, Stellenbosch oozes. The traditions, the blazer, the jersey and what they represent.”

And, as Jake puts it: “It’s staring us in the face.”

 

Page 5

Page 6

Pieter-Steph: Player of the Year, Again

Given that two of the five nominees for the 2018 SA Player of the Year award were past winners, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Malcolm Marx, there always at least a 40% chance that one of them would be a repeat winner. The odds the du Toit would get the nod only increased if you considered the seasons of Marx and the other three nominees: Aphiwe Dyanyti, Franco Mostert and Handré Pollard.

By his standards, Pollard had an indifferent season and last year’s winner, Marx, had his troubles finding his jumpers in the line-outs during the season. Dyanyti played sublime rugby in 2018 but being named World Rugby Break-Through Player of the Year 2018 probably counted against him.

Mostert too had a stellar season so it really was only a two-horse race. This was illustrated by a glance at the international season statistics of the two players, which shows that they were neck-and-neck with du Toitperhaps shading Mostert is areas such as metres gained.

Until, that is, you remember that Mostert operated as a tight forward while du Toit was a loose forward free to roam all over the park.

But the powers that be at SA Rugby didn’t see it that way and handed the latter his second Player of the Year award in three years. The man himself was typically frank in accepting the award, saying that it feels even better this time around.

He Added: “There’s a lot I can improve on. I want to become a stronger ball-carrier and make more line-breaks. I can also do more to secure the ball at the rucks, and ensure that the opposition battles to make the steal.”

Catching Up on Major League Rugby

With Super Rugby 2019 set to kick-off this weekend, we thought it opportune to touch base on what has happened in the first three rounds of the USA’s Major League Rugby competition.

And it is more than just a little surprising: New Orleans Gold (aka NOLA Gold) have chalked up three-wins-from-three matches and are currently sitting pretty on top of the table.

What makes this at least a little intriguing, is that last year, the team only managed three wins in the whole season and ended the year solidly in second last on the table. And yet, so far this season they have beaten the reigning champions and the runners-up as well as the newcomers from Toronto.

As a highly partisan individual, our editor reckons it was the three players with South African roots that made the difference: Tristan Blewett, Vincent Jobo and JP Eloff. But truth be told, they’re all quite young and there’s a New Zealander with a bit of experience named Kane Thompson in the side too, along with a couple of Australians.

Whatever the reasons for the turnaround of NOLA Gold’s fortunes, the results so far this season have certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons. And while it’s still early days, they could well end this season solidly in the play-offs and with a shot at the title.

How England Stymied the Irish

As unpalatable as an England win is in this newsroom, it is nevertheless useful to the greater good of the game to understand exactly how England managed to defeat the much fancied Irish two weeks ago. As regular readers will already know, Oom Rugby a favourite rugby analyst in this newsroom, not only because he offers insightful comment of his own but  because he helps to expand our horizons by linking us to others who do the same.

Last week he Tweeted that some fans think rugby is just about space but, he added, if we do not move the chess pieces around first, we do not get space. And he linked to what he called a fantastic piece showing manipulation of players to create opportunities.

The link took us through to a small independent title that run a fascinating analysis of how, exactly, England beat the Irish so unexpectedly almost two weeks ago. The Rugby Magazine describes, in exceptional detail how the English targeted the Irish back row to keep them out of the game.

 

Here’s a snippet: “A word often used in Rugby is targeted. They ‘targeted our number 10’, for example. It’s nothing new and something that’s been in the game for many years and while it often has illegal connotations, a late hit, a bit of sledging, it can be as simple putting a player in a position he doesn't want to be in.

“Against Ireland we saw [England] put key players in the Irish 15 under immense pressure. Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw and Johnny Sexton were obviously on the end of some pre-organised mayhem but so to were the Irish back row and I believe England went out with a phase play game plan that actively targeted Ireland's back row of Josh Van De Flier, Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander.”

The piece then delves into the intricacies of exactly how it was accomplished using photos and video clips to illustrate the points. And while Irish coach Joe Schmidt will learn from the experience, the analysismay well give other teams insight into how to tackle the Irish come the World Cup.

, 

Page 7

For your weekend viewing pleasure

As mentioned in our page one story, It’s mostly about Super Rugby this weekend with two matches on Friday morning and five on Saturday. But three of those should be of fanatical interest to South African rugby fans.

Firstly, at 12:55 our time on Saturday, Sunwolves welcome the to their alternate stadium in Singapore. It should be a cracker and given that the home team has already made its plans to use Super Rugby as an extended trial for the World Cup, there could be a lot of experimentation.

A couple of hours after that that match concludes [17:15 to be precise - Ed], the north-south derby between the Bulls and the Stormers kicks off at Loftus. If the warm-up match two weeks ago is anything to go by, that too should be a cracker.

Then there’s the final match of the weekend, very late on Saturday night because the Lions are visiting Buenos Aires and will want to, finally, come away from Argentina with a win.

Don’t forget that the FNB Varsity Cup is on Monday and things are really hotting up there.

 

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.

Page 8