“Purely looking at results in 2019, South Africa must be seen as the current form team having drawn with the All Blacks in New Zealand and having won .” – Volume 19, Number 34 Rugby365.com 13 September 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za

Mission Accomplished But With a Stutter

Going into to last week’s friendly international match Eventually, the committed defence led to a penalty between Japan and South Africa in Japan, the home for the visitors and a quick foray into Japanese side had something no other team on the planet has territory led to Mapimpi’s third try. had in recent time against the visitors: a 100% win record. But the Springboks appeared determined to A little while later, a schoolboy error by Francois consign that uncomfortable statistic to the history Steyn after he replaced Pollard led to a turnover and books for good. a Japanese try out wide. In a blink of an eye, the dream of holding the Japanese scoreless was over. It didn’t take long for the visitors to score: Cheslin Final score 7-41. Now the Japanese have a 50% win Kolbe went over in the corner after a sustained attack percentage against the Springboks. in the Japanese red zone. About 15 minutes later, the other wing, Makazole Mapimpi crossed for the second But there would have been heart palpitations in the and he also scored the third try in the 30th minute. Springbok coach’s box in the 65th minute when The half-time score was 0-22 after Handré Pollard Trevor Nyakane limped off. It was a worry because slotted a penalty. the depth at tighthead is seriously questionable with Frans Malherbe in the squad. Fortunately, news Early in the second half, the Japanese launched a came out the next day that Nyakane’s injury is not sustained period of attack on the Springbok line, serious. turning down three kickable penalties in the process while the South Africans did their best impression of Something else that emerged later was Springbok “they shall not pass”. coach Rassie Erasmus saying that his side deliberately played without the ball for large parts against Japan in order to prepare for the All Blacks. But the cynical people in this newsroom are saying it’s just an excuse for kicking away so much quality possession. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, as a result of the emphatic win over Japan, the Boks have moved above Wales in rankings but that’s not quite as impressive as it sounds. The Welsh have now lost back-to-back Tests to Ireland and have dropped from first to fifth in a matter of weeks while Ireland have jumped into the top spot.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

The Final: a Tale of Two Halves Fixtures Revealed for 2020 Blue Win SA Rugby U21 Championship Another RWC1995 Hero Bites the Dust SA Rugby Women’s IPL Champions Crowned Are the Boks the Form Team in RWC2019?

Page 1 The Currie Cup Final: a Tale of Two Halves Remain in Currie Cup Premier Division

One of the biggest and most frequent criticisms – at Well that’s a bit of a mess. All we have been least in this newsroom – of rugby commentators on labouring under the illusion that the team that wins television is their tendency of speak in clichés. But the Currie Cup First Division will get a shot at never was one particular overworked platitude more playing in the Premier Division. true than in the Currie Cup Premier Division final on Saturday: it really was a game of two halves.

Without delving into the fact the EVERY game has two halves, in considering the final match of this year’s Currie Cup, it is inescapable: won the first half 31-7 but lost the second half 0-21.

A closer look at the first half, reveals that Lions’ scrumhalf and flyhalf made far too many poor decisions and they weren’t helped by a pack of forwards that showed very poor execution generally Turns out that no, the morons who make these and particularly when setting up driving mauls in decisions have decreed that the Jaguares are welcome Cheetahs' red zone. The coach would have had his to play in the First Division but will not be allowed, heads in his hands every time they coughed up the under any circumstances, to embarrass the teams of ball when only a few metres from the try-line. the Premier Division. Given that Jaguares’ senior And as bad as Lions were in the first half, Cheetahs team won our Super Rugby conference this year – were almost as bad in the second stanza as the that’d be a certainty. visitors ran in three unanswered tries. In the end, It is imbecilic because the whole point of a Lions couldn’t undo the damage that they aided and promotion/relegation system is to reward high abetted in the first half. standards in teams from lower leagues by promotion As a result, Cheetahs hung on to enough of the first to higher leagues and, in so doing, improve the half advantage to win the Currie Cup for the sixth overall quality of rugby in the country. Excluding time in their history. Final score: 31-28. All in all, it Jaguares from that system is cutting your nose off to was a terrible advertisement for South African rugby. spite your face. Utter stupidity.

If that’s a sign of things to come, both teams are So, the totally unjustified promotion/relegation match going to be hammered in their next tournaments. For that took place last Friday night was between the Cheetahs, that would be PRO14, which begins in a team that finished last in the Premier Division few weeks and for Lions, it’s Super Rugby, which (Pumas) and the one that came in a very distant kicks off at the end of January. second in the First Division (Griffons). We didn’t bother to watch it because, quite frankly, neither team deserves a spot in the Premier Division. But for anyone who wants to know what happened, Pumas absolutely thrashed Griffons 49-5, with most of the scoring happening in the second half (it was 11- 0 at half-time).

What that match exposed for all to see was the chasm that has been allowed to form between the Premier Division and the First Division. On that evidence it doesn’t look like any team other than the South American Jaguares would be able to bridge that gap.

Page 2 Page 3 Blue Bulls Win SA Rugby U21 Championship SA Rugby Women’s IPL Champions Crowned

The final of the SA Rugby U21 Championship took As noted in our last issue, this past weekend was place in Bloemfontein on Saturday as a curtain-raiser finals weekend for SA Rugby’s Women’s Inter- to the Currie Cup Premier Division final. As noted Provincial League. Two matches were played: in the last week, the two teams to make it through were A section, Western Province faced Border while the Blue Bulls and Western Province (WP). B section final was an encounter between South Western Districts (SWD) and Golden Lions. A glance at the final standings would have had most Bulls supporters putting their house on the outcome: the team from Pretoria dominated all season long, finishing on 42 points – a full nine points clear of WP and Free State Cheetahs, who both ended on 33 points.

Bulls started solidly enough with a three-pointer to take the lead early on but then things started to go awry. Some dodgy refereeing – especially at scrum time – and a silly yellow card saw them concede a Both finals were played on Saturday in a double- couple of tries to the team from Cape Town. header at the City Park Stadium in Athlone, Cape But they fought back and spent the last seven or eight Town – which is just as well since it doesn’t appear minutes of the first half camped in the Province red to have been televised at all. First up was the B zone forcing penalty after penalty but just couldn’t section encounter that turned out to be a thriller. close the deal. Despite the sustained attack, it didn’t Golden Lions and SWD went hammer and tongs for happen so they went into the break trailing 3-20, and a full 80 minutes and ended with the scores tied. And probably scratching their heads in wonder at how that the sides could still not be separated after a further 20 could be the case. minutes of extra time. In the end, a sudden death Whatever the coaching team said at half-time did the period try by replacement flanker Ntabi Sejamoholo trick because they came out in the second half firing clinched the victory for Golden Lions (30-25). on all cylinders and first clawed back the 17-point In the A section final Border showed plenty of heart deficit, then took the lead back and finally extended but were narrowly beaten in the end by Western it out of reach for Western Province. Province. The final score was 38-32 to the hosts, Which was just as well, because a last minute sleight representing the third year in a row that WP has had of hand by Blitzbok Angelo Davies put his left wing the better of Border in the final. into space and resulted in a try after the hooter. But, However, according to a partisan report running on by then, Bulls had done enough to win the trophy. DispatchLIVE, the young Border team can be proud Final score: 33-27. of their season and the way they have grown over a tough campaign. The players will also take the lessons learnt this year to heart and should be a bigger force to contend with next year.

Presumably, the B section result means that Golden Lions will play a promotion/relegation match against the team that finished last in the A section this year. That would be Boland but the fixture could not be confirmed before we had to publish on Thursday night.

Page 4 Page 5 Super Rugby Fixtures Revealed for 2020 Another RWC1995 Hero Bites the Dust

This week Sanzaar announced the match fixtures for The news last Friday – well after your newsletter the 2020 Super Rugby season. If we accept the have been delivered – caused consternation in the administrative body’s assertion that Super Rugby South African rugby community: at the tender age of began with the 1996 season, 2020 will be the 25th 49, Chester Williams passed away as a result of a anniversary season. heart attack. There was a dark cloud hanging over the newsroom that day and for most of the weekend. Fortunately for Sanzaar, the scheduling task was made easier by a World Rugby decision to shift the mid-year international window to July for 2020 and, presumably, beyond. That allows the Super Rugby tournament to run for 21 uninterrupted weeks from the last day of January until 20 June 2020.

The tournament’s 15-team, three-Conference format remains the same in 2020. Each team plays 16 regular season conference matches that include eight matches within their own Conference (home and away) and four matches against teams from each of the other Conferences (home or away). And, as always happens when someone who was much-loved passes on, the eulogies and obituaries Continuing a trend of recent years to take Super were ubiquitous, almost overwhelming. But we Rugby to new venues and cities, Sanzaar has picked out the obituary on AllOutRugby.com as confirmed that Hanazono Stadium, Osaka and Level probably the one we found most factual and accurate. Five Stadium, Fukuoka in Japan will host matches for the first time. Readers may remember We’ve snipped out a few paragraphs to give you a that, absent a last minute reprieve, 2020 will be the taste but we urge you to read the whole piece when last year of Japanese participation in Super Rugby. you have a moment.

Also, in Australia, the Waratahs will venture into “Nicknamed the ‘Black Pearl’, Williams was born in new territory by playing at WIN Stadium in Paarl on 8 August 1970. He played for DHL Western Wollongong. For readers unfamiliar with the Province and the Golden Lions during his provincial geographic layout of the South Pacific penitentiary, career, which stretched from 1991 to 2000. He also Wollongong is about 90km south of Sydney. had two seasons of Super Rugby with the Cats.

Consulting the full schedule of matches for the 2020 “Williams made his Springbok debut against season suggests that the trend will not extend to in 1993 and played 27 Tests for South South Africa. Our editor is particularly disappointed Africa until his last Test, against Wales in 2000, in this because he has fond memories from a few scoring 14 Test tries in the process. In total, he years back of attending a Bulls/Lions encounter at played 47 matches in the green and gold and scored Orlando Stadium in Soweto. 27 tries. “In 1995, he was a member of the initial Springbok squad for the Rugby World Cup, but had to withdraw due to injury shortly before the tournament started. He was later recalled and scored four tries in the quarter-final against Samoa.”

RIP Chester Williams.

Page 6 Are the Boks the Form Team in RWC2019?

It has been suggested in recent weeks that the Springboks may be the form team going into the Rugby World Cup 2019. Not the favourites, mind you, that albatross still belongs to New Zealand, but the form team.

Well, perhaps, but history tells us it’s all just the parry and thrust of inevitable psychological warfare before the global show piece. Nevertheless, the analysis on Rugby365.com this week does provide some interesting facts and figures. “Purely looking at results in 2019, South Africa must be seen as the current form team having drawn with the Consider the opening: “This World Cup is shaping All Blacks in New Zealand and having won the Rugby up to be the closest ever, with no team emerging as Championship. But they have the least caps in their a clear favourite. There is no more a squad out of the top six teams, averaging 34 caps straightforward sign of this than how the number overall (with 41 in the forwards and 26 in the backs).” one spot in the world rankings changed hands three times in a month.” It goes on, and on, but is worth a read as we sit, barely a week away from the opening game of RWC2019. And: “Traditionally, one thing that has proven to be The excitement is beginning to build. crucial in splitting fairly even teams is their experience, with the team with the most caps often coming out on top. However, when looking at the form teams in the game currently, that trend may be bucked this year.

“Although Ireland may nominally be the best team in the world in terms of rankings, it is hard to convincingly argue that they are the form team currently. They have beaten Wales in successive weeks, but they were hammered by England at Twickenham and were comprehensively beaten by both teams in the Six Nations this year.

Page 7

Move Along Now, Nothing to See Here

With Rugby World Cup 2019 starting next weekend (schedule alongside) the cupboard is pretty bare this weekend so it may be an opportune time to store up some brownie points by spending some time with family members who don’t eat, sleep and dream rugby.

There is, of course, international club rugby this weekend. In New Zealand, the Mitre 10 Cup continues and over on west island, the Australian National Rugby Championship also carries on. Meanwhile, in Europe, the French Top 14 and D2 are in full swing but unless you have a IPTV streaming provider with channels featuring those tournaments, you’re out of luck. SuperSport is in full "rerunning past glories" mode.

However, if you want a little advice to help you plan your viewing of the World Cup matches from next week, download and install the Ultimate Rugby app. Even if you only use it for RWC2019, it’ll be a worthwhile investment of your time.

Thanks for reading our newsletter. We need feedback to improve The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters. 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.

Page 8