“I can't wait for the day that South African rugby administrators realise that non-one goes to a stadium to be shouted at, while all semblance of atmosphere is drowned out by Volume 19, Number 29 20-year old Afrikaans songs.” - JW Coetzee, on Twitter. 08 August 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za

Boks Could Win

The headline above has been – with a few variations This echoed what Springboks forwards coach Matt here and there – standard fare ever since the draw in Proudfoot had said earlier in the week: “We will be Wellington almost two weeks ago. And it’s true, the making some brave calls this week, as we did against Springboks could win The Rugby Championship Australia and New Zealand in the last three weeks...” (TRC) for the very first time on Saturday. Those “brave calls” became apparent on Wednesday The other thing that has been repeated endlessly over night when the team for Salta was announced: the past fortnight is the statistic that no team has ever won TRC (or Tri-Nations, the predecessor 15. tournament) AND the World Cup in the same year. 14. That is also true but there is a first time for everything. 13. 12. But to hear the Bok coaching staff speak during the 11. week, TRC doesn’t matter. is focused 10. Handré Pollard solely on preparing for the World Cup. Indeed, at a 9. media conference in Buenos Aires, Springbok 8. assistant coach and Lukhanyo Am 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit said as much. 6. 5. Am: “Winning the Championship would be a great 4. opportunity for us, but we don’t want to focus too 3. much on it because it is another Test that gives the 2. squad the opportunity to build towards the big picture 1. of the Rugby World Cup in Japan. Replacements:

16. 17. 18. 19. RG Snyman 20. 21. 22. Frans Steyn 23.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

Currie Cup Heading for a Showdown What You Need to Know about RWC2019 Three of the Last Four Decided ’ Reaping the Prop Dividend Youth Rugby Champs Get to Sharp End Can Brent and Begin to Dream?

Page 1 Heading for a Showdown Three of the Last Four Decided

Round four of the Premier Division of Currie Cup All of this weekend’s Currie Cup First Division 2019 kicked off last Friday night in matches happened more or less simultaneously on with a mouth-watering tussle between the last two Saturday afternoon at venues around the country. The unbeaten sides in the competition: Free State first kick-off was in the Boland where Valke were the vs . The first half was all visitors. Cheetahs but the visitors came out strong in the second half.

The final score was 22-24 to Lions, as they leapt to the top of the log – for 24 hours or so. But the match also featured the funniest thing we have ever seen on a rugby field: Hacjivah Dayimani giving referee Jaco Peyper a high five for getting something right, for a change.

Saturday afternoon in Nelspruit was a battle to avoid this year’s wooden spoon between and It wasn’t a good day for the Cavaliers and Valke put . And the home team made heavy weather of it on a five-try show to take a winning bonus point back but eventually put away the worst team in the to Brakpan (17-31). The result strengthened their competition (27-20). hold on second position on the log and a probable Later that day, were thrashed by Griquas home semifinal. (15-37) leaving them in last place on the log with As those teams were running out for the second half, only two matches left. Occasional contributor, two other matches kicked off: in Potchefstroom JW Coetzee, watched that game and had an hosted SWD Eagles; and in Mthatha, Border interesting comment on Twitter last Saturday: Bulldogs welcomed their EP Elephants. In the first, “I can't wait for the day that South African rugby the Argentinians ended up entertaining the crowd – administrators realise that non-one goes to a stadium more than their opponents – with a thirteen-try to be shouted at, while all semblance of atmosphere demolition job (83-3). is drowned out by 20-year old Afrikaans songs.” Meanwhile down in the , the neighbours Quite. Looking at the log, Griquas (on 15 points) sit were not being very friendly as the visiting Elephants on top while Lions (13) and Cheetahs (11) are second thumped their hosts (12-37). The six tries they scored and third, but each with a game in hand. With only were enough for the bonus point and to give them a three rounds left, they seem likely semifinalists while sniff of a semifinal spot. Western Province, Pumas, Sharks and Bulls are While all of that had been going on, the fourth match battling for the last knock-out slot. of the weekend had kicked off in Welkom where hosted and also collected a bonus point for the 47-28 thrashing the home side administered. However, the visitors had the consolation of a four-try bonus point.

The result is, with only two rounds remaining before the semifinals, Jaguares are five points clear and virtually certain of playing their knock-out rugby in Potchefstroom. In second and third are Valke (20) and Griffons (17) with four teams on either 11 or 12 points fighting for that last remaining semifinal spot.

Page 2 Page 3 Youth Rugby Champs Get to Sharp End Pacific Nations Look Interesting for RWC2019

The SA Rugby U20 Championship this weekend In recent years, Fiji has dominated the Pacific featured three matches, the first of which kicked off Nations Cup (PNC) pretty much the way its South on Saturday morning before 11am. It was down in Pacific neighbours, New Zealand, has dominated The the Boland where the home-town Cavaliers hosted Rugby Championship. But not this year. After two EP Elephants. It didn’t go well for the home team rounds (and only one to go) the south sea islanders because the visitors won 17-24. are lying third of the six teams, behind Japan and USA. A little later in the day, Pumas welcomed Blue Bulls to Nelspruit and came out on top (26-25) Which is interesting because all six teams are of what appears to have been a knock-down, drag-out participating in Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan fight. The third match of the weekend saw Griquas vs from next month. And, according to some pundits, Leopards at Tafel Lager Park in Kimberley, and the the hosts have a reasonable shot at making it out of visitors were simply too strong for the home team Pool A into the knock-out rounds. (15-58).

There are two matches left for three teams (Griffons, Valke and SWD Eagles) but only one match left for each of the others. The combined log is fairly settled with four teams looking good for the semifinals: Eastern Province (on 14 points), Pumas (14), Leopards (11) and Griffons (10).

Across in the SA Rugby U21 Championship, the action got off to a great start on Friday afternoon when Golden Lions got back on track against Sharks (29-14). If Lions want to build on that win they’ll Given the quality of rugby they are producing in have to beat Blue Bulls this Saturday. PNC, that’s an entirely plausible scenario. So far, they have defeated the champions of the past four Other matches this weekend saw Western Province years, Fiji (34-21) and thrashed Tonga (41-7). This secure a valuable away win in Potchefstroom against weekend the Brave Blossoms face their sternest test the Leopards (19-47) and Blue Bulls going down to yet, against USA in Fiji. Free State (47-52) in a hard-fought contest in . Speaking of the Eagles, their second position is Blue Bulls and Free State top the log on 27 points thanks to a convincing win over Canada (47-19) and each. Western Province (24) look fairly secure in a close-fought victory last weekend against Samoa third but the fourth semifinal could go to either (13-10). Fiji, meanwhile, after losing to Japan, Golden Lions or Sharks. bounced back to dominate Canada (38-13). As it stands, only Japan or USA can take the title this year, with the drastically shortened format of the tournament. And that will be decided on Saturday (06:35 SA time) but, as far as we can tell, the match will not be broadcast here. Perhaps it’s time for rugby fans to look for a streaming service provider.

At R199 for over 9000 channels, Epic TV looks like a good option. All you need is a decent internet connection and you can even try-before-you-buy using the 24-hour free trail.

Page 4 Page 5 What You Need to Know about RWC2019 Bulls’ Reaping the Prop Dividend

There’s an useful piece running on PlanetRugby.com Most of the headlines featuring the words “Bulls” or detailing everything rugby fans in the UK might want “Blue Bulls” this week were negative and referred to to know about the Rugby World Cup that kicks off in the team's thrashing by Griquas last Saturday. One a little over six weeks time. We’ve tapped into it a exception was an article by Ockert de Villiers on IOL little and then added a bit that will probably only be which explored the success the franchise has had in interesting to South African fans. [And we corrected the prop department of late. some atrocious grammar in the process – Ed.]

So when does the tournament run?

It kicks off on Friday, September 20 when Japan looks to get its pool charge off to a positive start against Russia. The group stage runs until Sunday, October 13 and then it’s the quarter-finals on the weekend of October 19-20 before the semi-finals (October 26-27) and lastly the Bronze Final on Friday, November 1 and the Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday, November 2. According to de Villiers, the Bulls have enjoyed What times are the games scheduled? good fortune with the performances of Trevor Nyakane and Lizo Gqoboka, thanks to the guidance All the matches take place during the day, South of Bulls scrum guru, Daan Human. This, he writes, African time. The earliest kick-off is 06:45 and the has seen the pair flourish for both club and country – latest is 12:45. So you may want to take a couple of and they were sorely missed on Saturday, along with days leave to catch some of the midweek games that the other Bulls players who are presently away on interest you – or arrange to work from home that day national duty. if you can do so. But the first Saturday is “epic”. It begins with Australia v Fiji (06:45), then France v “I am very proud of Trevor and Lizo, they were the Argentina (09:15) and finally, the big one: New only front-row to start in every single match in the Zealand v (11:45). ,” Human is reported to have said. “Since my first day, it was about packing the lunch Anything else that could be helpful? box in such a way that you know what you will eat during recess so I hope we will pack the lunch box in During the pool stage there is a bonus-point system. such a way that we will have something nice to eat.” Scoring four tries earns an extra point, as does losing seven or fewer points. Interesting turn of phrase. Perhaps something was lost in the translation – if the interview was conducted in Afrikaans. Regardless, Human is credited for his transformative impact on Nyakane and Gqoboka in their scrum work at the Bulls.

He told de Villiers that the loss of their pack of forwards from the Super Rugby campaign played a role in the Blue Bulls’ poor Currie Cup.

Unfortunately for the Bulls and for Human, the campaign has been dealt another blow with promising young loosehead, Simphiwe Matanzima, having been ruled out for the remaining two matches.

Page 6 Can Brent and Griquas Begin to Dream?

After the thrashing administered by the team from But none of that detracts from the enormity of Griquas’ Kimberley on their much better resourced achievements this season. Not only did the coach, opponents at Lotus Versveld on Saturday evening, Brent Janse van Rensburg guide them to their maiden other teams in the Currie Cup are taking note. SuperSport Rugby Challenge trophy but he has also overseen the campaign to reach the Currie Cup Yes, Blue Bulls were missing many of their best semifinals – at the very least. players: , , Lizo Gqoboka, Trevor Nyakane, RG Snyman, Duane This is significant because, as Brenden Nel writes Vermeulen, , Jesse Kriel and in a column on SuperSport.com, Griquas last won the Handré Pollard. Currie Cup in 1972. While there is no guarantee that that particular record may change this year, perhaps, But at Currie Cup level, that is to be expected and just perhaps, Brent and Griquas can finally begin to the disaster of this season has laid bare the lack of dream: depth in Pretoria. And that principle holds for the players as much as for the coaching staff. “Tafel Lager Griqualand West sit on top of the Currie Cup log this week, and the realisation is slowly As JW Coetzee put it on Twitter last night Saturday filtering in for the side that they just might dare to after the game: “Any half-knowledgeable rugby fan dream of future glory if they can continue the form could have told you who would win tonight's game they have produced. after listening to the two pre-match interviews with the coaches. Brent and Pote are talking from two “It is no secret that their coach Brent Janse van completely separate universes.” Rensburg is one of the highly-rated rising stars in South African rugby, and their big win at Loftus Versfeld last week over the Vodacom Blue Bulls underlined this fact.”

There’s more, much more, and you can read it here. But, in this newsroom, we suspect that the last two matches on the schedule will really test Griquas.

After a bye this weekend, the team welcomes to Kimberley, in quick succession, Western Province and Golden Lions. Both will be tough matches.

Page 7 For your weekend viewing pleasure

After the bye weekend in The Rugby Championship, the action resumes on Saturday with the final two fixtures of the 2019 abbreviated competition. Those matches will be televised.

But the weekend rugby actions starts on Friday with the Currie Cup Premier Division (schedule alongside). It will also be televised but the Currie Cup First Division will not be.

There are also SA Rugby U20 Championships, SA Rugby U21 Championships and Women’s Inter-Provincial League matches this weekend. You’ll have to check the schedules and actually go to the ground to see those matches.

Finally, elsewhere in the world there are three matches in the Pacific Nations Cup (page four) and a couple of international friendlies in Europe: Ireland vs Italy; and England vs Wales. It may be a very good weekend to consider an alternative to the SuperSport monopoly.

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