“The Jaguares are not toothless and there’s no team more at home on the road, as proven by them winning in Wellington against a Hurricanes outfit that went on to run the Crusaders Volume 19, Number 24 close in Saturday’s semi-final.” - AllOutRugby.com 04 July 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za Refereeing Incompetence Rears Ugly Head Throughout this year’s Super Rugby tournament, the element of incompetent – or perhaps just stupid – referees has repeatedly reared its head. The examples are too many to mention is such a small space but two incidents that stand out happened at Newlands: Egon Seconds screwing the Lions; and Marius Jonker (TMO) screwing the Crusaders. Not surprisingly, it happened again on semifinal weekend, but more about that later. As we noted last week, the Brumbies didn’t really deserve a place in the knock-out rounds and only got there because of the competition structure and by benefiting from The visitors were easily among the top three sides in appalling refereeing in this year’s competition. this year’s competition so it was brilliant rugby from both sides for most of the 80 minutes. The lead This was abundantly evident in the way in which the changed several times during the match and the Jaguares destroyed the Australians in the semifinal: visitors could have, and perhaps should have, won the the Argentinians were 10-0 up after 7 minutes and contest. already 20-0 up before the end of the first quarter. And it might have been worse: that score included The difference, for some fans, was the refereeing two penalty kicks that could easily have been screw-up (see pic in PDF version) that allowed a directed at the corner rather than the posts. blatant infringement by Sam Whitelock to go unpunished in the last few minutes of the match. [The The visitors finally managed to get on the video in the linked article above is geo-locked so scoreboard with a seven-pointer in the last act of the you’ll need a VPN to fool the NZ Herald into thinking first half but when play resumed after half-time, the you’re in New Zealand - Ed] Jaguares turned the screws. They ran in three more tries without reply to take the match with a It was a crucial decision that could have been convincing scoreline of 39-7. corrected by the TMO given that the whistle was blown for a scrum at that point. If he had done that, The second semifinal was a New Zealand derby in the replays would have led to only one conclusion: Christchurch where the visiting Hurricanes took on Hurricanes penalty about 12 metres out and that might the home-town Crusaders. have changed the result of the match. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Can the Jaguares Slay the Giant Crusaders? Player Exodus Not All Bad for SA Rugby Steve Hansen’s All Black No 10 Dilemma Questions Remain Over Springbok Selections Currie Cup First Division Starts Friday Can the Springboks be Perfect at RWC2019? Page 1 Can the Jaguares Slay the Giant Crusaders? Steve Hansen’s All Black No 10 Dilemma A favourite local rugby commentator was on Twitter in the wee hours of Monday and asked: “The SA Conference champs lead Super Rugby for Kicks, Turnovers Won and Passes. Can the Jags make these work for them in Christchurch on Saturday?” It’s a good question but let’s look at the history first. The Crusaders have been in Super Rugby from the very beginning in the early 1990s when it was the Super 6 involving three New Zealand teams, two Australian teams and the Fijian national team. The Super Rugby semifinal between the New But the Canterbury outfit first won the competition Zealand’s top two teams, the Hurricanes and the when it was the Super 12 back in 1998 and, since Crusaders, presented the All Black coaching staff then, they have won the title another eight times, with a wonderful opportunity to see a head-to-head including 2017 & 2018, when they defeated the between the top two contenders for the number 10 Lions in the final on both occasions. jersey at the Rugby World Cup. And the match itself provided some surprises in that regard. For the Jaguares, on the other hand, this is only their fourth season in Super Rugby. In 2016, they finished However, before we get there and, indeed, before that 13th (out of 18); in 2017 they finished 10th (also out match was played, Two Cents Rugby put together an of 18); and last year they were 7th (out of 15), interesting statistical comparison. As he puts it: “A making the play-offs for the very first time. This run through on the key stats for Beauden Barrett and season they finished the regular season in second Richie Mo'unga for the 2019 Super Rugby season to spot, a mere seven points adrift of the table-topping see who is playing better in the lead up to the Rugby Crusaders. Championship and Rugby World Cup.” That’s the history so now let’s consider the article And the results presented in a YouTube video may that Front Row Grunt linked to on AllOutRugby.com surprise you – some of them certainly surprised us. It compares the statistics of the two teams over the For example, he tried to measure the x-factor of the 2019 season and provides an interesting perspective. two players using statistics and Mo'unga came out marginally on top. There was one passage that stood out for us: “The Jaguares are not toothless and there’s no team more Interestingly, we would have been surprised if we at home on the road, as proven by them winning in saw that before Saturday’s semifinal but not so much Wellington against a Hurricanes outfit that went on after it. The link behind the photo in the PDF version to run the Crusaders close in Saturday’s semi-final.” of this newsletter shows some of the play the pair produced this season in Super Rugby. It’s sublime. As completely unbiased observers we were struck by how Mo'unga has matured and evolved as a player over the past few seasons and were extremely impressed with the confidence he brings to his job these days. We suspect that All Black coach Steve Hansen will start all of the tough games with Mo'unga at 10 and bring Barrett on off the bench. It’s certainly what we’d do in his position. Page 2 Page 3 Blue Bulls Looking Good in U21 Champs Currie Cup First Division Starts Friday It’s difficult to believe but it’s already Currie Cup time again - the First Division of the venerable competition kicks off on Saturday at 14:30. But it was not without challenges as the Namibian XV originally scheduled to take part was withdrawn and had to be replaced by the Border Bulldogs. Brenden Nel tells us that this was because Namibia decided that the risk of injury to its World Cup players was too high. Authorities felt that a couple of warm up games against South African provincial teams in August followed by a test match against a Although it’s early days yet, a report on tier two nation would be better preparation for Ruggaworld.com suggests that the Blue Bulls are RWC2019. showing championship form in the SA Rugby U21 Championship. The competition kicked off two weeks ago and after two rounds, the Pretoria-based outfit is the sole remaining undefeated team. But that record is likely to come under serious threat this weekend when they face last year’s champions, the Golden Lions, on Saturday. Although, if they want to retain their title, the team from Johannesburg will have to lift their game after their rather lacklustre start to the competition this year. In round one, Bulls beat Western Province (55-27), Lions defeated Free State Cheetahs (54-33) and Leopards prevailed over the Sharks. But back to the Currie Cup First Division. The first match in the 2019 season will be at the King Edward Last weekend, Bulls thrashed Cheetahs (73-31), Sport Grounds in Montagu, Western Cape. It will pit Lions suffered a shock defeat to the Sharks (23-12) Boland Cavaliers against Border Bulldogs on and WP beat Leopards (50-28). Saturday at 14:30. Elsewhere, there’s a 3pm kick-off in Potchefstroom where Leopards host EP Elephants as well as in Welkom where Griffons entertain a Jaguares XV from Argentina. Half-an hour later, the fourth and final match of the weekend kicks off in Brakpan where Valke welcome the defending champion, SWD Eagles. But sadly, it appears that you’ll have to go down to the respective grounds if you want to catch any of the action as none of it appears to be scheduled to be broadcast on television. This level of the 2019 Currie Cup competition will culminate in a final scheduled for August 30. Page 4 Page 5 Player Exodus Not All Bad for SA Rugby Questions Remain Over Springbok Selections It was always inevitable that SA Rugby's new Last week, SA Rugby released Springbok coach contracting model would exacerbate the annual Rassie Erasmus’ extended training squad for the exodus as players explore their earning potential Rugby World Cup 2019. And on Friday, Rassie overseas. added another fourteen players to the camp. And Rassie Erasmus’ decision to bring no fewer than [The 14th player not mentioned in the piece linked nine overseas-based players into his Springbok above is Marco van Staden, added as cover for the training group was the cherry on top.