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"It's a fairly sobering business for the All Blacks to wake up on a Sunday morning, it's unusual for them, to look at a game and go, but we were out-played. We were out-thought, we were out- played. Ireland were better in every department..." - Gregor Paul of the New Zealand Herald Volume 1, Number 16 22 November 2018 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za

A Superb Win in Scotland

Make no mistake, the win on Saturday at Murrayfield was a huge step forward for this Springbok team. We knew that it would be a tough assignment and it certainly lived up to that billing. As the RugbyPass Online Editors put it:

“The Springboks have come away with a hard-fought 26-20 win over Scotland at Murrayfield on the back of a man-of-the-match performance by flyhalf Handre Pollard.” “We focused really hard and worked on all the things Remember what Oom Rugby so kindly pointed out that didn’t go right last week. We made a couple of last week on Twitter – that, before the match, plans and we stuck to them and I think we managed Scotland had lost only once at Murrayfield and that the period when Willie le Roux was in the sin-bin was against New Zealand, by only five points. On the quite well.” way to that record, the Scots defeated: , Ireland, Wales, Italy, Samoa, , France, Speaking of that yellow, do yourself a favour: England and Fiji. Google the phrase “rugby referee inconsistency”. I got around 200,000 results and it’s been a problem So a tough match was expected and that’s exactly for years, even decades. To illustrate this, watch the what Scotland provided but to lay that victory at the incident for which Willie received yellow. Now feet of one player is too simplistic, even though he watch the incident (at 22:48 on the match clock) in thoroughly deserved the Man of the Match award. It the Ireland vs New Zealand clash in which Sam was a solid team performance, with virtually every Whitelock DID NOT get yellow for a deliberate player making telling breaks, tackles and steals. knock down.

To be fair, RugbyPass does quote But for me, the moment of the match was the one that captain Siya Kolisi on more than just Pollard’s set the tone: the first South Africa try by Jessie Kriel. performance: “Today was very tough, all credit to A team try for certain but it got the Springboks into Scotland. You can see with their record, they’ve only the lead and although the Scots managed to equalise lost one out of 10 games [at home]. We knew how a few times, South Africa never went behind and held big a challenge it was. on for a fabulous victory despite the trademark Scottish resilience.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

Ireland knocks over New Zealand Making a Mockery of the Game A Silent Assassin Beckons in Cardiff Fight the Allure of Filthy Lucre For the Love of the Game This Weekend’s Rugby Action

Page 1 Ireland knocks over New Zealand

For only the second time in their history, Ireland last weekend defeated the All Blacks in a rugby test – In this still, Sam Whitelock was clearly off side, off watch it in full here. To understand the magnitude of his feet and interfering by knocking the ball out of this win, we must consider the history: since 1905, 's hands. Ireland got the penalty but not the the two teams have met 31 times. yellow card, which the offence clearly deserved. This Until the exhibition match in November was before the rash of penalties Barnes did award. 2016, Ireland had never won. And two weeks later a Eventually, the English referee did give the All full strength New Zealand thumped the Irish 21-9 in Blacks a team warning but not too long after that, . This past weekend, and at the same venue, Whitelock was again off his feet interfering with the the shoe was on the other foot. ball - in the red zone this time. But once again he In truth, Ireland never looked like losing the match escaped sanction. and exerted so much pressure on the All Blacks that they forced numerous uncharacteristic errors on the part of the visitors. Indeed, in one sustained period of the first half, New Zealand gave away four or five penalties in their own red zone.

After the game, JW Coetzee Tweeted again: “Sorry New Zealand. You got beaten in Wellington, beaten in Dublin, got given a game on a platter in and needed a controversial ref in . You are nowhere near as good as you're telling us you are.”

This period of what can only be described as cynical Interviewed on the Off The Ball (OTB) Breakfast play and the Irish commentary team’s astonishment Show, former Irish international, Alan Quinlan said: that it went unpunished moved JW Coetzee to post the Tweet above. To say the All Blacks were cynical “The interesting thing to me is that they expected to is an understatement, witness the frame below: win and there was a distinct lack of panic. And the loose trio of Peter O'Mahony, and CJ Stander was immense. The All Blacks also got away with a lot of penalties and should have had a yellow for a deliberate knock on by Sam Whitelock.”

In another epsisode of OTB, Gregor Paul of the New Zealand Herald said: "It's a fairly sobering business for the All Blacks to wake up on a Sunday morning, it's unusual for them, to look at a game and go... We were out-thought, we were out-played. Ireland were better in every department..." -

Page 2 Page 3 A Silent Assassin Beckons in Cardiff With three out of the four matches of the 2018 Castle Lager Outgoing Series behind him, SA Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus is not resting on his laurels after two wins and a narrow loss. He describes the Wales rugby team as a ‘silent assassin’.

The Boks finish their four-match tour on Saturday at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, where they have not won since 2013. This, together with Wales’ unbeaten run of eight matches, prompted Erasmus to call the Welsh as his team’s “most difficult opponent” of their Tour. Meanwhile, announced that Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has received a Citing He also believes ’s team will be a Commissioner Warning for an incident that happened force at next year’s World Cup. “I think the World in the 31st minute of the Test against Scotland on Cup is going to be an open race next year,” Erasmus Saturday at BT Murrayfield. told reporters in Cardiff. “Obviously the clear favourites are New Zealand and Ireland, but Wales Erasmus said it was a good thing to know the are one of those teams who is hovering around.” outcome so early in the week: “He’s our captain and Getting back to Saturday, Wales will also be on a to have him available from the beginning of the week high after having thrashed Tonga 74-24 last week and is good because sometimes these things can take a beaten Australia the week before. while as they look for clarity.”

For the Love of the Game

Our publisher, Mark Rothschild, recently sent us a link to a video compilation on the Real Rugby YouTube channel. The clip featured ten of the 100 Greatest Springbok Tries between 1949 and 1989, the post war amateur era.

But that’s just the teaser. The channel has been active for about three years and contains clips featuring wonderful rugby history, largely South African.

For example, the cursory glance I gave it revealed some Be warned: the Joost clip is well over an hour. that definitely require deeper investigation: 30 Great Springbok Tries Against The All Blacks, 20 Great Springbok Tries Against England, 2000 to 2009 along with similar titles for compilations against Australia, France, Ireland and Wales. There may be others too.

There are also great player focused compilations, particularly of two of the greats of recent time: Jonah Lomu - The Ultimate Rugby Player and Joost Van Der Westhuizen - The Fearless Champion.

Page 4 Page 5 Making a Mockery of the Game Fight the Allure of Filthy Lucre

Writing the other week in his column on All Out Strictly speaking, filthy lucre was originally defined Rugby, Tank Lanning took huge issue with the scrum as money obtained dishonestly. But when rugby was feeds with which scrum halves are getting away these only beginning to embrace professionalism, the days. He uses Faf de Klerk’s feeds in the French match establishment was hostile toward players who left for almost two weeks ago as an illustration but insists that foreign shores to make a more lucrative living. all teams are doing it. This was particularly true in South Africa where the “And as a coach, I would take this from a referee every allure of Euros or Pounds was very strong. Now, single day. Hell, I might even introduce it as an option however, professional rugby has been accepted and at my next scrum session. Coaches and players must many of the administrative bodies have themselves push the legal envelope. Richie McCaw taught us been professionalised so as to be run as businesses in that,” he writes, with huge dollops of irony. their own right – albeit with almost as many failures as successes.

But according to Jamie Lyall on RugbyPass, Scotland is facing the same problem now, because of, or despite, being in a strong position in world rugby in recent years. He writes that “Scotland is bringing a knife to a bazooka fight in an unwinnable war to keep star players”.

“But as a custodian of the game – a game that ‘aims to promote a fair contest for possession while also giving an advantage to the team putting the ball into the scrum,’ this is simply unacceptable. And for the so- called best referee in the world to let it go, is also unacceptable. “The worry is that now, with Scotland scalping big “We simply have to see the scrum return as a fair opponents while playing delicious rugby, with contest. Otherwise all we have is rugby league. The Edinburgh and Glasgow on a mission to become days of the hooker striking on opposition ball are long forces in Europe, and with the union richer than ever, gone, but the 2018 version of the scrum laws has at the tide is not slowing.” least made the strike on your own ball compulsory, But there is another way to look at this, as Lyall which was intended to eliminate the need for a skew himself concedes: “Losing Russell, Hogg and – if he scrum feed… Hah!” goes – Jones is not disastrous for Gregor Townsend. Tank goes on at some length, to the extent of citing the “Having three of his front-line backs and key actual laws of the game in this regard. And he’s right leaders...in exile is not ideal, but they will be playing about the laws needing to be policed more consistently for three of the best clubs in Europe. They will get but may be wrong about “...beating those poor whistle- better and bring their learning back to the camp.” men about the ears.” Precisely.

Page 6 Club Rugby in South Africa

For the uninitiated, there are essentially two largely The match brought down the curtain on one of the most amateur club-level rugby leagues in South Africa: the memorable seasons in years, with large crowds Gold Cup, for private rugby clubs; and Varsity Cup for commonplace across the country as club and community clubs affiliated to the country’s institutions of higher rugby showed a resurgence in popularity. education. Subsequently, the final line-up for the 2019 Gold Cup Both are fed a seemingly endless stream of talent from has been confirmed. Adjusted to dovetail with changes schools and, by dint of affiliation to provincial to domestic and international calendars, the competition structures, some of that talent finds its way into kicks off on Saturday 9 March and concludes on Sunday provincial academies. 14 April. While the draw is still to take place, the 16 teams that will be contesting the 2019 Gold Cup have Getting back to the non-university part of grass-roots been announced: club rugby in the country, the 2018 version of the Gold Cup wrapped up about two weeks ago with a nail- Gauteng: Naka (), Roodepoort (Golden biting final match in the Boland town of Worcester. Lions), Springs (Valke) & East Rand United (wildcard, Valke)

Limpopo: Rhinos (Blue Bulls Limpopo)

Mpumalanga: Secunda ()

North West: Impala ()

Free State: Bloemfontein Police () & Welkom ()

Northern Cape: Sishen ()

KZN: College Rovers ()

Eastern Cape: Swallows (Border) & Gardens (EP)

Western Cape: Durbanville-Bellville (WP), Progress George (SWD) & Worcester Villagers (Boland).

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Page 7 This Weekend’s Rugby Action

This week, the PRO14 resumes for a couple of weeks with the Cheetahs welcoming Treviso (aka Benetton) to Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday afternoon (14:30). Then, on Sunday, the host Connaght in Port Elizabeth – probably at the NMMU Madibaz Stadium (8,000 capacity) rather than the 46,000 seater Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Also on Saturday, the November Tests (called the Autumn Internationals in Europe) continue with a full line-up of six matches (schedule alongside in SA times).

The [English] Gallagher Premiership also continues and the French Top14 picks up where it left off three weeks ago. Some of the matches may be broadcast locally but if you really want to see them you’ll probably need an internet connection, a VPN and an overseas streaming provider.

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