Volume 1, Number 10 11 October 2018 Register to Receive Your Own Free Weekly Newsletter At
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“This would be a Houdini-act if not for the fact that the Springboks not only handed the keys to the handcuffs around the All Blacks’ wrists, they unlocked the cuffs for them.” - Ben Smith writing on RugbyPass after the Springbok capitulation at Loftus Versfeld Volume 1, Number 10 11 October 2018 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za Mixed Feelings About Loftus After the highs of the Wellington victory three weeks ago and the ugly but satisfying win over Australia last week, the Springboks final Rugby Championship match of 2018 ended with more of a whimper than a bang. You can read a factual match report on PlanetRugby or you can read Ben Smith’s no-holds-barred account of “How the Springboks blew a 17-point lead”. Oom Rugby continues: "And when last did an All Neither makes pleasant reading for the ardent Black team look so ordinary? Well done to the Springbok fan. Springbok group for the growth so far in 2018. However, any way you look at it, losing a match in “At the end of the day, we were in the lead with six which you went into the last quarter with a solid 30- minutes left and we had the ball. You must manage 13 lead, is a bitter pill for most fans to swallow but the game and win from there. But well done to All there were exceptions. A particular comment spotted Blacks for coming up off the carpet to get that on Sunday morning social media was illustrative: victory. And maybe Richie Mo’unga is a better Test No 10 than Beauden Barrett?” As usual, Oom Rugby makes a lot of sense in his analysis and provides another way of looking at the disappointment of this past weekend. He does put the It elicited a reply from one of our favourite rugby result into perspective but he also shows that Rassie commentators, Oom Rugby (@Oom_Rugby). Given and his team have a long way to go if they want a the fact that English is the Oom’s third language, better result from the next meeting between these two after Rugby and Afrikaans, we took the liberty of sides - which is scheduled for Yokohama, Japan editing his words, just a little: during the pool stages of RWC 2019 on 21 September 2019. “In Wellington, we should not have won but did. At Loftus, we should have won but did not. But the Bok For now, coach will likely continue to experiment. curve is still up and is adding tactical ‘nuance’ to our Jan de Koning has some constructive ideas on that fundamentals. score for the November internationals. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER REGULAR FEATURES All Blacks exploited tiny margins Examining the Laws of the Game A disappointing showing in the PRO14 South Africans playing overseas Currie Cup reaches knock-out stage The Weekend's Rugby Action Page 1 All Blacks exploited tiny margins Our favourite rugby analyst has been at it again, watching and re-watching the big match from the weekend trying to understand how, exactly, the Springboks managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In his latest contribution to All Out Rugby, Oom Rugby (Oom_Rugby) has worked out what happened – particularly in those last crucial ten minutes. He suggests blaming the substitutes is both futile and And he’s picked out some specific moments that wrong. “Certainly the Boks lost focus at the end, but contributed to the loss of focus. To the extent that he that can also happen if players are tired. So do you follows a particular passage of play and identifies the swap players or not?” mistakes made by a number of players which, when seen alone are small and irrelevant but, when viewed It’s a good question, a very good question. And, as as part of the game scenario at the time, cost us the his detailed analysis shows, mistakes were made by match. the subs as well as by those who had been on the field from the first whistle. His belief is that the As usual, Oom’s analysis is well worth the read – just Springbok team, as a whole, simply did not have the remember that English is his third language, after correct mind-set to close out the game. Rugby and Afrikaans. Currie Cup reaches knock-out stage The crystal ball was in perfect working order last week when I predicted the semis and venues in the Currie Cup First Division. So let’s see how it goes this week. The first of the final round of Currie Cup pool matches is on Friday evening when the Lions travel to Nelspruit to take on the Pumas. It’s must-win for both sides but, if the Pumas win, they would have to win by 18 points or more to leapfrog their opponents into fourth on the table. The Lions, on the other hand need just a single point to leapfrog the Bulls but a 5-pointer would significantly improve their postition. Griquas are out of it but, in the unlikely event that they beat the Sharks in Kimberley, it may benefit the Lions. Premier Division semi-final predictions: The final match of the weekend is at Loftus where Sharks vs Lions in Durban the Bulls entertain Western Province. This has Western Province vs Bulls at Newlands potential to upset the apple cart but only if the Bulls can prevail, convincingly, against the log leaders. On First Division final prediction: recent form, that looks unlikely. SWD Eagles vs Valke in George Page 2 Page 3 A disappointing showing in the PRO14 Six rounds in, the PRO14 competition is on a three- Unfortunately, Oom Rugby (@Oom_Rugby), week break and the results of the two South African indicated that he has not been following the PRO14 sides are not pretty. The Cheetahs have played six; closely enough to be comfortable giving an opinion on won zero; lost five; and drawn one, at home. The the subject. Others did respond and sifting through the Southern Kings have played six; won one; and lost comments on various platforms, we isolated two useful five. responses: Another useful response came in the form of a Twitter Both are languishing in last position on their thread by Rick Nunes (@RickNunes72) [edited for respective conference tables and look utterly out of brevity - Ed]: sorts. What happened? “Not under prepared as such. Could they have One possible explanation was intimated by a recruited better in the off season? Maybe. I don’t think television commentator during the Scarlets demolition that either Deon or Franco are naïve enough to think of the Kings. For context, in that match the Kings that you can compete in a competition of this nature went into half-time only seven points adrift but didn’t without fit players. score at all in the second half while the Scarlets ran in five more tries to end the match 54-14 winners. “[The] reality is [that] SA teams have never travelled well and without the depth in squads it near impossible The commentator said Scarlets’ Clayton Blommetjies to rotate players the way you’d want. So maybe week arrived in Wales unprepared and had to work very in week out pressure on the bodies is taking its toll.” hard to get fit enough to be selected. The talking head was intimating that the Kings may be similarly He makes good points, especially about player depth. unprepared, as a team. However, being more than a Blommetjies is not the only player from last season’s little cynical of mindset, your correspondent wasn’t PRO14 Cheetahs or Kings squads to have accepted an convinced and put the question out on social media: offer to play in the northern hemisphere. And the Cheetahs have also been trying to compete in the Currie Cup but they’re now out of that, with a bye in the last week after losing all of their six matches. The Kings’ second team has similarly been competing in the Currie Cup First Division but, again, they haven’t done well in that competition, also bottom of the log with six losses from six matches. But both coaches now have three weeks to work with an expanded pool of players to rescue their PRO14 seasons. Good luck to them. Page 4 Page 5 Examining the Laws of the Game Of Looseheads and tightheads This week we look through the newly simplified laws As Tank Lanning (@TankLanning) puts it, asking a of rugby and consider those applicable to the scrum. loosehead prop to play tighthead it is like asking a In so doing, we may, perhaps, gain an appreciation lock to play centre, such is the difference in skill for the reason that referees so often get it horribly, requirements come scrum time. Usefully, Tank has sometimes catastrophically, wrong. collaborated with Ollie Kebble (@olikebble) to produce a short video clip highlighting some of the In the video clip linked to in the next story, Tank differences. Lanning (@TankLanning) makes the point that, when a scrum goes to ground, very often, few of the Which brings us to the point of this discussion: the six players in the two front rows know who caused it. project to transform a promising loosehead prop into So how can the referee possibly know? a tighthead. That 23-year-old Thomas du Toit is up for the challenge in not in dispute. Neither, any longer, is there much doubt that he will succeed in making the switch.