“It will be a challenge playing Australia on the Saturday [July 20] and then flying out on the Sunday, only arriving in New Zealand on the Tuesday morning,” – Springbok director of Volume 19, Number 26 rugby and coach, 18 July 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za

A Two Team Solution to the Travel Conundrum

Virtually from the moment the fixtures were What was perhaps most interesting was when the announced for the abbreviated Rugby Championship apparent composition of the two teams was 2019, the punditry has been puzzling over how to announced last Friday. Erasmus named 23 players address the Springbok challenge of facing Australia for Saturday: in one week and then taking on the mighty All Blacks in New Zealand the very next 15. ; 14. ; 13. ; Saturday. 12. André Esterhuizen; 11. ; 10. ; 9. ; 8. Francois In the end, coach Rassie Erasmus opted for a two- Louw; 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit; 6. ; team solution: to play two different teams in the two 5. ; 4. (captain); 3. matches. In his words: ; 2. ; 1. . “It will be a challenge playing Australia on the Saturday [July 20] and then flying out on the Sunday, Replacements: 16. ; 17. Lizo Gqoboka; only arriving in New Zealand on the Tuesday 18. ; 19. ; 20. Marcell morning,” he said. Coetzee; 21. ; 22. Frans Steyn; 23. . At the same time, he dispelled the rumours that he was planning to select and A and B teams for these Simple deduction suggests that the 15 players flying encounters. “There are some guys who need game out early to New Zealand to, presumably, be the run time, who hasn’t [sic] played for six, seven or eight on 15 in Wellington would the 15 players remaining weeks,” Erasmus told a media gathering. in the 38-man squad:

15. ; 14. ; 13. ; 12. ; 11. ; 10. Handré Pollard; 9. ; 8. Duane Vermuelen; 7. ; 6. ; 5. ; 4. RG Snyman; 3. ; 2. ; 1. .

Interesting. Two open side flanks or “fetchers” and at least one very mobile lock (Mostert). If that’s the team, Erasmus has some very interesting tactics up his sleeve for Wellington.

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

2019 Premier Division Kicks Off Women’s Inter-Provincial League Rugby Go Top in Currie Cup First Division Gnashing of Teeth Over SA Schools Selections SA Rugby U21 Championship Getting Interesting Is SA Finally Getting Serious About PRO14?

Page 1 2019 Currie Cup Premier Division Kicks Of Jaguares Go Top in Currie Cup First Division

The three opening matches of the Currie Cup Premier The second round of the lower level of Currie Cup Division were on the goggle box last weekend and, rugby was played this past weekend and it delivered frankly, it was a mixed bag. It began in at least one result that may have surprised local rugby where this ’s SuperSport Rugby Challenge fans. But more about that later. champions, , dished out a rugby lesson to the home team (13-37) and took a bonus point back to Kimberley.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon at Ellis Park where a young outfit showed a lot of fragility on defence but plenty of inventiveness and composure on attack. At the 60-minute mark, the visitors scored their fourth try to secure a bonus point and 21-37 lead. The rugby weekend commenced on Friday night in But the Lions showed superb resilience – or, as our George when the SWD Eagles put the previous editor puts it, plenty of testicular fortitude. They week’s disappointing draw with Valke behind them didn’t give up, kept attacking and eventually the by comprehensively outplaying the . The holes began to appear in a tiring defence. final score was 38-18 and puts the defending Despite the tight final score line (38-37), the home champions in second place on the log. side scored six tries to the four of this season’s losing finalists in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge. Speaking of the team from Brakpan, they travelled down to East London to take on on The late afternoon game was a north-south derby Saturday. That they were there to play was proven by between Western Province and the Blue at the 22-0 lead they put on in the first 25 minutes. Newlands but neither team really showed up for the contest. It was a scrappy affair and probably one of In the end, and despite a spirited fightback from the the most disappointing matches of the year so far, Bulldogs, Valke were too strong, winning the match given the undeniable talent on that field. 36-19, and jumping up to third on the log, behind SWD by virtue of a marginally inferior points The home side triumphed (20-5) in the end but difference. neither coach will be happy with his team after that outing. Both will want to lift their games Meanwhile, after a strong showing on the SuperSport significantly before the next round (see page eight for Rugby Challenge, , were given a bit the schedule). of a hiding by the Jaguares in . The final score was 54-17 and featured seven tries (including one penalty try) by the Argentinians to the two by the men from the . The win puts the Jaguares on top of the competition log with two bonus-point wins from two matches.

The fourth and final match of the weekend was a low- scoring back and forth battle the between EP Elephants and in . The final score was 19-23 in favour of the visitors.

Page 2 Page 3 SA Rugby U21 Championship Getting Interesting SA Rugby U20 Championship Kicks Off

It’s sad that we cannot find any match reports on the While the U21s are played round four last weekend, ongoing SA Rugby U21 Championship, or indeed, the teams contesting the SA Rugby U20 for either the U20 Championship (alongside) or the Championship played their first of only six rounds. Women’s Inter-Provincial League (page six). None Interestingly, this competition features nine teams of the mainstream news outlets appear to see value in arranged in three pools, presumably by virtue of covering games that are not televised. geographic proximity.

And the only information available to us online is courtesy of SA Rugby, which reports fixtures, results, the logs and very basic competition statistics. But, as far as the U21 Championships are concerned, after four rounds (of ten) are clear leaders on 19 points, having won four matches from four.

Three teams (, and Golden Lions) have lost two matches each so far and sit a point apart in second, third and fourth positions on 12, 11 and 10 points respectively. The remaining teams in the six-team competition are Western Province and Leopards, both with only one victory so far. Boland Cavaliers, Eastern Province and SWD Eagles Last weekend, Bulls defeated Sharks (31-26), Golden are grouped together while Blue Bulls, Lions beat Leopards (24-19) and Free State Pumas and Valke form the second pool and Griffons, accounted for Western Province (45-39). This Griquas and Leopards combine to make up the third weekend, Golden Lions host Western Province at pool. As far as we can work out, each team plays the Wits Rugby Stadium at 1pm, leaving plenty of time other two teams in the group twice: home and away. to get across to Ellis Park for the 5pm Springbok kick-off against Australia – if you have tickets. Presumably, the semifinals in round seven will feature the top three from each pool along with the Also at 1pm, Leopards hope to get their season back best second place team based on a combined log on track against the Blue Bulls at Olen Park in position. But enough of the structure. As noted Potchefstroom. Earlier in the day and as a curtain above, the first round of three matches took place this raiser to the Sharks vs Western Province Currie Cup past weekend. Premier Division encounter in Durban, the U21 home team welcomes Free State (11:30 kick-off). In the first of these on Friday night, Pumas defeated Limpopo Blue Bulls (30-38) at Loftus Versveld In . Then, at midday on Saturday, Leopards hosted and beat Griquas (36-30) in Potchefstroom while, at Wolfson Stadium in the , Eastern Province thumped Boland (53-20).

The fixtures for this weekend will see Griquas entertain Griffons in Kimberley on Friday afternoon (14:30) and, up in Pretoria, Limpopo Blue Bulls will welcome Valke in the early evening (17:00). On Saturday, SWD Eagles travel to Caledon to face Boland Cavaliers.

Page 4 Page 5 Women’s Inter-Provincial League Rugby Gnashing of Teeth Over SA Schools Selections

In researching the U20 and U21 championships on An argument erupted on social media this week when the SA Rugby website, we literally stumbled across a afflicted parties started moaning and generally competition about which we new nothing previously: gnashing their teeth over the omission of certain SA Rugby Women’s Inter-Provincial League (IPL). rising star players from squads for the international It started late last month and appears at first glance to youth series next month. feature teams from Border, Boland, Eastern Province, (Blue Bulls), Natal and Western Province.

But we’re not the only ones who’re clueless about the competition. The only website we could find with any concrete information on the Women's IPL was one allegedly maintained by SA Rugby.

Unfortunately, even that seems just a little confused – either that or the competition has an exceedingly odd format. According to the log, the six teams mentioned above are participating and have each played two rounds.

Digging a little deeper, however, reveals a schedule Although other players were mentioned too, the of upcoming fixtures suggesting that other teams are centre of the storm seemed to be around promising also lined up to play matches in the next few weeks: flyhalf, Kade Wolhuter, who showed his class in the Free State , Golden Lions, Griffons, recent U18 competition. To quote Griquas, Leopards, Limpopo Blue Bulls, Pumas and an article posted on SARugbymag.com: SWD Eagles. “Despite starring for Province at this year’s Craven We reached out via email to SA Rugby via email but Week in , Wolhuter has been left out of our appeal for clarity went unanswered and a both the SA Schools and SA Schools A squads #Twoogle request on Twitter had been similarly announced on Monday.” unfruitful by the time we went to press in the early hours of Thursday morning. However, that the same article also makes it clear that Wolhuter has signed a junior contract to play in If we do hear anything more about the competition, France next year with Montpellier. Why then, should we will alert you. SA Rugby invest any more in him at the expense of players who haven't yet had an opportunity to shine?

Indeed, as a seemingly official SA Rugby response to Simon Borchardt made clear on Tuesday, significant investment has already been made in Wolhuter. And despite the fact that he was clearly on the radar of SA Rugby, he still chose to sign with Montpellier.

Perhaps the correct response to those making such a noise about his omission is: “c'est la vie”. That said, there are valid arguments on both sides of the issue, as the debate between Mariette Adams and Dylan Jack illustrates on SARugbymag.com.

Page 6 Is SA Finally Getting Serious About PRO14?

It won’t be long now and the fixtures for the It took a month or two and then stories of big player Guinness PRO14 2019/2020 season will be signings began to emerge, beginning with Thembelani announced. The competition usually begins towards Bholi (Bulls) and (Lions), who signed the end of August, sometimes very early up in May. Another notable signing was made in July September. But with this being a World Cup year, when it was announced that who knows? (Montpellier) is returning to the franchise for the new PRO14 season. Looking at recent history for just a moment, and after being dumped into the competition at the Up in Bloemfontein, a new coach has been appointed conclusion of a tough season in 2018, following the departure of to coach the ’s two representative teams have very Italian national side – an opportunity he couldn’t be little to show for the experience. However, recent expected to turn down. His replacement is the highly reports suggest that both franchises have sorted out successful Maties coach, , who coached their finances and are beginning to get serious the students to runner-up spots in the 2016 and 2017 about the task. Varsity Cup and won the competition in 2018 and 2019.

Related news began to appear in March when Cheetahs have also been shopping for talent and have, a consortium of Eastern Cape business people in the past few months, signed the likes of JP du Plessis bought a controlling stake in the . from Montpellier (he also had stints with Indications were that the plan is to focus fully on Rebels & ) and former Springbok scrumhalf, PRO14, sign up more talent, find more sponsorship , among others. and to establish a base of operations in the northern hemisphere for future seasons of the competition. It’s very unlikely that these are the only useful signings at the two franchises and it certainly looks like, after two years of disappointing results, the Cheetahs and Southern Kings are finally getting serious about PRO14.

We’ll be watching the developments and, more importantly, the results, with great interest when the competition kicks off again later this year.

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For your weekend viewing pleasure

This weekend sees the start of the abbreviated Rugby Championship with the Springboks taking on Australia at Ellis Park – albeit with some interesting selections (see page one) given next week’s match against the All Blacks down in Wellington. That match kicks off at just after 5pm and will most certainly be broadcast on television.

Our trusty Ultimate Rugby app also informs us that will play the All Blacks just after 8pm on Saturday night and that there’s a second international friendly between a Maori XV and Fiji at about 09:30 in the morning on that day.

Also on television will be round two of the Currie Cup Premier Division. What won’t be on television this weekend is the Currie Cup First Division, the SA Rugby U20 & SA Rugby U21 Championships and the Women’s Inter-Provincial rugby League (IPL). One has to wonder how the powers that plan to grow the game if they continue to treat the grass roots so poorly.

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