“Holy Schmidt guys. But can we please stop calling them the ‘Brave Blossoms’ because that is a [condescending] term that [means] you keep trying even when you lose. From now on we call them the ‘Brilliant Blossoms’ or the ‘Breakneck Blossoms’.” – Volume 19, Number 37 Oom Rugby waxing lyrical on Twitter 04 October 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za

Japan Shocks Ireland at Rugby World Cup

The original plan was to feature Springbok matches on the front page of each issue of your newsletter during the RWC2019. But the fantastic performance by Japan in the Pool A clash with Ireland forced a rethink and we’ve now decided to feature the most remarkable match of the past week instead.

Which brings us neatly back to the incredible match that took place in Fukuroi City last Saturday. Going into the encounter, bookmakers were giving odds of That was a mammoth effort and the Japanese now 11-1 on the Japanese to win. have a very real chance of finishing top of Pool A – if But the Japanese were much better than that. they can beat Samoa and Scotland. Captained by our very own Lappies Labuschagné, And, if the home side should be successful in the home team were really fired up for this game but finishing on top of Pool A, it will quite likely result in Ireland were the first to score – a try in the corner, a quarter-final appointment with the winner of the unconverted – but the home side struck back almost clash between the Springboks vs Italy on Friday, just immediately with a penalty. before midday (SA time). The Irish followed up with a second try to lead 12-3 [We’re not counting poultry in this newsroom; South after about 30 minutes. Then something changed in Africa has lost to Italy before – Ed] the attitude of the home team as they gradually crept back into the match, building the enthusiasm of the The analysis and commentary during and after the crowd in the process. game was fascinating but, for our money, the best and most succinct contribution came from Oom At half-time the Japanese still trailed by three points Rugby on Twitter: and after the break they kept chipping away at the lead to eventually finish 19-12 winners. It was an “Holy Schmidt guys. But can we please stop calling absolutely fantastic result that could have been even them the ‘Brave Blossoms’ because that is a bigger – Japan missed two penalty kicks and very [condescending] term that [means] you keep trying nearly scored a second try in the closing minutes. For even when you lose. From now on we call them the us, perhaps the most remarkable thing was that Japan ‘Brilliant Blossoms’ or the ‘Breakneck Blossoms’.” kept the Irish scoreless for 50 consecutive minutes.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER RWC: Week Two and Surprises Keep Coming Springbok Women Get Thrashed by Scotland It’s Do-or-Die Time for the Boks in Shizuoka PRO14: Stunning Friday; Piss-Poor Saturday Crunch Time in the Rugby World Cup Pools Why it Makes Sense for Mbonambi to Start

Page 1 RWC: Week Two and Surprises Keep Coming

The second week of Rugby World Cup 2019 kicked On Sunday, Georgia bounced back from a thumping at off Saturday morning with the Argentina versus Tonga the hands of Wales to completely demolish Uruguay encounter. Both teams had already experienced defeat 33-7. That said, the South Americans would have been so it was a must-win game if they still harboured a bit weary after their triumph over Fiji only four days thoughts of making the play-offs. before and the coach probably rested some key players.

And despite facing the heaviest pack in the tournament On Monday, Scotland bounced back from defeat to – over 1000kg – the South Americans scored four Ireland in the first round by thrashing a rather converted tries before the Tongans could get points on lacklustre Samoa 34-0. To be fair though, conditions the scoreboard of their own. And that was all in the were atrocious and the Scots handled them better than first half. The second half saw a solitary unconverted the Pacific Islanders. try by the islanders as the only score. Final score 28-12. Tuesday was a rest day but Wednesday saw two And then came the Japan versus Ireland encounter matches. In the first, France completely outclassed already covered on page one this week. All we’ll say USA 33-9 while New Zealand did a similar job on here – for those who haven’t read that front page yet – Canada 63-0. is that Japan won. And brilliantly so.

Next up it was the Springboks vs Namibia in a match that could really only ended with one result, especially because our African neighbours chose to field what was largely the second team. The result was a nine-try rout that ended 57-3 in favour of South Africa.

But perhaps the most heart-warming moment of the match was the sportsmanship displayed after the match when both teams thanked the crowd by bowing to them in the traditional Japanese manner. Yesterday, the early game was Georgia vs Fiji and the Pacific islanders bounced back from disappointing defeats by both Australia and Uruguay. The 45-10 scoreline and bonus point give them a mathematical chance of making the playoffs but other results have to go their way too.

The late game was a five-try blitz by Ireland over Russia that ended in a comprehensive 35-0 victory. The match stats on our Ultimate Rugby app tell a story: Russia had the higher numbers in five areas: Later that day, Australia faced off against Wales for tackles made (182/95), tackles missed (21/11), the chance to top the pool going into the knock-out turnovers won (9/7), penalties conceded (10/6) and rounds. yellow cards (2/0).

It was a tight affair but the Welsh eventually There’s only one match today: South Africa vs Italy triumphed 29-25, much to the chagrin of the convict and it is effectively a decider for that second spot in coach and captain, who, we are told, displayed the the knock-out rounds. That match is previewed in other side of the sportsmanship coin. But you be the more detail on page four (and beyond) along with judge. several other interesting match-ups over the next several days.

Page 2 Page 3 It’s Do-or-Die Time for the Boks in Shizuoka Crunch Time in the Rugby World Cup Pools

The South Africa versus Italy encounter later today is There’s an interesting preview of matches effectively a knock-out match for both teams. immediately ahead at RWC2019 on Whoever wins it, is on track to seal second spot in PlanetRugby.com this week. Predictably, they’re the group and a quarter-final opportunity against the looking at South Africa vs Italy – as we did alongside the winner of Pool A. on this page.

Italy, having already dispatched Namibia (47-22) and We won’t belabour that too much except to extract Canada (48-7) needs to win one of its two remaining one brief excerpt that may be of interest: this matches: South Africa today and New Zealand next encounter will be the 15th Test between South Africa Saturday. Given that they’ve never beaten the All and Italy but the first one at a Rugby World Cup. Blacks, you can bet that they will throw everything they have at the Boks today.

Springbok captain is well aware of that: “Every game is a knockout game for us now – if we slip up we’re out of the competition so we’ve been incredibly focused,” he said after captain’s practice at the match venue.

Coach admitted that the team is suffering from "a few butterflies" as they prepare for the do-or-die showdown at Shizuoka Stadium. "We've been preparing for 20 or 21 Test matches and The other big crunch match in the analysis is England it is do-or-die now," he said. vs Argentina. It will be epic and this entire newsroom "The players feel it. I can't sit here and tell you that will be shouting – nay, screaming – for the South we don't have a few butterflies, because we've lost to Americans to inflict a good hiding on the arrogant Italy in the last three years. They [Italy] will be really English. But we digress: up for this game because they won't believe they can “The Pumas can ill-afford another defeat after beat the All Blacks, but they will believe they can suffering a narrow loss in their opener to France. beat the Springboks." They got their campaign back on track with a hard- Complicating the job is that specialist outside centre fought bonus-point win over Tonga in their second has had to be sent home due to a match and know a loss to England would likely mean hamstring injury. That caused Erasmus to call for they miss out on a quarter-final berth. Damian Willemse to replace him, which has received “Perhaps the surprise of the team selections this week some criticism on social media as it is not exactly a came from the Pumas as long-term fly-half Nicolas like for like replacement. Sanchez was left out of the matchday squad with Urdapilleta preferred at 10.”

It could be an inspired selection or it could backfire in spectacular fashion. We’ll know more on Saturday. PlanetRugby picked out Handré Pollard vs Tommaso Allan as it’s “one-v-one battle to watch” and identified a subplot to watch too: Japan’s chance to build, against Samoa. We also found another bunch of match-by-match previews on Rugby Redefined.

Page 4 Page 5 Springbok Women Get Thrashed by Scotland PRO14: Stunning Friday; Piss-Poor Saturday

Coach Stanley Raubenheimer singled out poor When we wrote last week that defence and the Springbok Women’s team’s struggle were facing a weakened Glasgow Warriors we knew to capitalise on scoring opportunities as the main that the team had lost players to international duty contributing factors to their disappointing 47-5 but no idea how many. Hugh Bladen told us in hiding from Scotland at the City Park Stadium in commentary during the game: 16 – 12 to the Scotland Cape Town on Monday. cause and another four to other national teams.

Scotland showed their intent from the outset, scoring And in the four previous encounters between four tries to none in the first half, which pushed them Cheetahs and Warriors, the latter had come out on 22-0 ahead going into the break, and they added four top every single time. This then was a perfect more in the second half while limiting the hosts to opportunity for Cheetahs to break their duck against one for the convincing victory. this particular opposition – and they came out of the blocks like a Usain Bolt last Friday night in “There are a lot of things we need to work on, which Bloemfontein. we will do during the week, and hopefully we will come out with a better performance on Saturday.

“Our defence is a concern, that is one area we need to have a serious chat about, and handling errors and penalties conceded were again an issue. As a team we are learning slowly, but we need to take the lessons from that.”

Looking ahead at their next fixture against Scotland on Saturday [tomorrow], Raubenheimer said: “One always needs to try to build on something. I thought our scrum was good and we created a few chances, So much so that Cheetahs had 17 points on the board although we could not use them. before the visitors from Glasgow could score a single point. And the Warriors were always chasing the “But we need to improve overall I think, from an game from that point. Final score: 48-14, giving the attitude and intensity perspective, as well as in our home side their best ever start to a PRO14 season. effectiveness in general.” Similarly, welcomed a depleted Perhaps the most telling moment of the match was in Cardiff Blues outfit to Port Elizabeth on Saturday the eleventh minutes when the Springbok Women afternoon. However, Wales has more depth of were reduced to 14 players after Chumisa Qawe playing resources than does Scotland, meaning the received a yellow card a dangerous tackle. Scotland Blues had lost only six players to RWC2019: five for took full advantage of the extra woman during the ten Wales and one for Samoa. minutes the Qawe was banished to the naughty chair. Even so, the home team was far from clinical and showed fans exactly why it is considered the weakest local franchise competing in international club rugby. Kings lost 27-31 to Blues.

Perhaps the off-field shenanigans around the appointment of a permanent coach is part of the problem. Whatever the cause, it was a terrible performance and, quite simply, piss-poor rugby.

Page 6 Why it Makes Sense for Mbonambi to Start

One source that we haven’t featured for quite a “Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has rewarded while is keo.co.za, where Mark Keohane and his Mbonambi’s powerful display against Namibia with a rugby writing team cover all sorts of rugby-related start against Italy in a match the Boks must win to stay things both local and international. This week, in the competition. they’re pontificating over why it makes sense for the Boks to start with Mbongeni "Bongi" Mbonambi rather than .

Even the staunch Marx fans in this newsroom could find nothing in that piece with which to take issue. The bottom line is that it’s very hard to choose between him and Mbonambi these days, which is a great place for the coach to be.

That Rassie has opted to start Bongi against Italy later today is a vote of confidence and one which has received Mark Keohane’s thumbs up: “Erasmus has acknowledged Mbonambi’s power game “I think Malcolm Marx, when on top of his game, in giving him a start ahead of Marx. The latter will is without comparison among world hookers. most definitely add a dimension to the Boks when However, there can be no disputing Mbongeni introduced against tiring legs. Erasmus may just have Mbonambi’s red-hot form of the past few months. settled on the best one-two hooker combination for purposes of the result. “Mbonambi is strong in the set piece and carries well. He brings solidity as a scrumming hooker. Marx, with his turnover ability and athleticism, gives the Boks a hooker/loose-forward type of presence.”

He then delves into the quality of substitutes is this World Cup and mentions a few key players for the Springboks and their rivals. It is worth the read if you have a few minutes to spare before kick-off today.

Page 7 For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure

It’s Springbok supporter bonus time in RWC2019 Today we play Italy in a crunch do-or-die encounter with two matches in less than a week. and then on Tuesday we tackle Canada in our last match of the pool stages (full schedules alongside & below). There are also two PRO14 matches to look forward to: on Saturday afternoon at 4pm, Southern Kings host a weakened Munster and a couple of hours later, Cheetahs welcome Ulster.

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