People Have Said It's Unfair Because the Jaguares Are an International
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“People have said it’s unfair because the Jaguares are an international side. I don’t agree with that because when the Crusaders, Blues and Brumbies were dominating Super Rugby, the majority of their squads were also international players. Historically, the dominant teams have the most international Volume 19, Number 23 players.” – Jake White 27 June 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za Bulls, Sharks Dumped Out of Super Rugby It was quarter-final time this past weekend and the The third quarter-final was in Wellington, with the first match was in Christchurch where the Crusaders home-town Hurricanes hosting the Blue Bulls from hosted the Highlanders. For the first 40 minutes they Pretoria. The visitors scored the first try through looked like two evenly matched sides with a half-time Warrick Gelant (converted by Handré Pollard) but score of 17-14 in favour of the home team. then the home team struck back with three tries of their own. But in the second half, and as they have done so many times before, the Crusaders moved up a gear and blew After that, it was always the Hurricane’s game to their compatriots away. It was a wonderful advert for lose but the visitors did come a lot closer than we Super Rugby that ended 38-14. expected. This was thanks mainly to a yellow card for a deliberate knock down, costing a penalty try The second match of the weekend took place in the and, later, another try when the visitors exploited wee hours of Saturday morning with the Jaguares their one-man advantage. But, in the end, the welcoming the Chiefs to Buenos Aires. It was the one Hurricanes won 35-28 to set up a semifinal in result we weren't certain of because the kiwis came Christchurch against the Crusaders. out on top when two teams met at the same venue in March. The score line on that occasion was 27-30. The last quarter-final of the weekend saw the Brumbies entertain the Sharks in Canberra for the This time around, it was just as much of an arm right travel to Argentina to face the Jaguares next wrestle but the home team emerged 21-16 victors and week. Even against an Australian team, the worst thereby secured the right to host a semifinal next South African team was never going to do the job. weekend. Final score 38-13. In truth, neither team deserved a place in the knock- out rounds and only got there because of the structure of the competition and by benefiting from dodgy refereeing in the regular season. Only one question remains in Super Rugby 2019: will the Jaguares play the Crusaders or the Hurricanes in the final? KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Baby Boks Bring Back a Bronze Medal, Again WP Emerges Tops at Girls’ Rugby Weeks Third Time Lucky for Griquas in SRC U13 & U16 Youth Weeks Kick Off Jaguares Success is No Fluke – Jake Craven Week 2019 Heading for a Climax Page 1 Baby Boks Bring Back a Bronze Medal, Again Third Time Lucky for Griquas in SRC It was a disappointing outcome of what looked like Probably one of the most interesting parts of this being a successful World Rugby U20 Championship year’s SuperSport Rugby Challenge (SRC) has been after the pool stages. At that point, the Baby Boks the exposure fans have had to clubs and club rugby were seeded number one, meaning they’d have to that they might never otherwise have seen. The final play the fourth seeded team in the semifinal. Sunday was a fitting climax to what has been an excellent competition. That turned out to be the defending champions, France, who, after thrashing the Baby Boks in the semifinal, went on to edge a bunch of juvenile delinquents (Australia) in the final. All the Baby Boks had left to contest after being out-played and out-thought by the French team and coaches, was the bronze medal in the 3rd/4th playoff match against hosts Argentina. To their credit, they picked themselves up off the canvass and dominated ‘los Pumitas’ in that match and took the bronze medal, again. That makes it As has been the custom on double-header Sundays at eight bronze medals in the twelve years since the community grounds, the curtain raiser featured a tournament began (together with one gold, one silver couple of local club teams locking horns in front of and one fourth place). packed stands. The final Sunday was no different: While in some parts of the world, that sort of a record taking place at Saldanha Stadium on the West Coast, would be celebrated, here in South Africa, where the curtain-raiser featured Saldanha and Mamre. rugby is more religion than sport, it’s simply not It was wonderful rugby that featured players in their good enough. And we have to ask questions of a 40s and others as young as 19. The home team has structure of youth rugby if we fail so often in the dominated Boland rugby this season and Sunday was semifinals. no different: Saldanha won 36-13. We only wish we Think about it: eight bronze medals translates could have seen more of this type of club rugby and directly into eight failures in the semifinals of the we’d like to issue a challenge to SuperSport for next tournament after twelve attempts. That’s not good year: give us more of these community rugby enough for a country with the depth of rugby talent festivals. enjoyed by South Africa. The main event kicked off around 14:30 and involved The question has to be asked: what is SA Rugby the defending champions, Pumas, against Griquas, doing about this lamentable situation? who have been in every one of the three SRC finals in the competition’s history. But this was knock-out rugby and history doesn’t matter when it’s being made. Griquas came out with a plan and implemented it to perfection, putting Pumas onto the defence and forcing them to chase the game. Going into the last quarter, Griquas led 21-8. Pumas fought back and scored but the missed conversion still left them eight points adrift. But then Griquas scored again and took the game completely away from the champions. Final score 28-13. Page 2 Page 3 WP Emerges Tops at Girls’ Rugby Weeks U13 & U16 Youth Weeks Kick Off The U16 and U18 Western Province teams came The U13 Craven Week and U16 Grant Khomo Week through the SA Rugby Girls Week undefeated in kicked off this week at the Hoërskool Rob Ferreira in Johannesburg, when the two national tournaments White River, just north of Mbombela (Nelspruit) in concluded at Jeppe High School for Boys last Friday. Mpumalanga. If you happen to be in the area, you may get a kick out of seeing some of the stars of our The Under-16 team won all three matches and held rugby future in action. sway over Border in their final match of the tournament with a 41-12 win. The Blue Bulls and But you could still watch the matches if you’re SWD teams earlier played to an exciting draw in located elsewhere in the country or the world because their clash, and were the only other teams not they are available on online. You can find both the suffering defeats during the 24 matches played since U13 Craven Week and U16 Grant Khomo Week Monday. tournaments on livestream.com but don’t expect SuperSport quality camera work and production. In the Under-18 Week, Western Province shared the undefeated spoils with hosts, Golden Lions, who also But getting back to the two events themselves, which looked strong en route to their three wins, which saw 38 teams taking the field. The 14 provincial included a five-try win over Boland. unions were represented at the U13 Craven Week along with teams from Border Country Districts, The Cape side won 17-3 against the Blue Bulls to Limpopo Blue Bulls, Namibia and Zimbabwe. lower the Pretoria team’s flag for the first time in the week. The two tournaments provided an exciting The U16 Grant Khomo Week had the same 18 teams platform for 736 female players to showcase their as represented in the U13 competition as well as a talents. Pumas XV and an SA Iqhawe Impi side. The latter team featured kids who played in the Carfind.co.za Girls Under-16 Week Results, on Friday, 21 June: Iqhawe Week for non-traditional rugby schools. Leopards 53-5 Free State Cheetahs According to Ruggaworld.com, both competitions Boland 29-7 Griffons produced “scintillating action” that highlighted “the Pumas 51-0 Valke best provincial schoolboy rugby talent”. Indeed, the Border CD 31-10 Griquas first day of the U13 Craven Week featured numerous Sharks 24-20 Golden Lions matches that were fiercely competitive, five of which EP Elephants 25-5 Limpopo Blue Bulls were decided by last minute scores. Western Province 41-12 Border Blue Bulls 26-26 SWD Eagles Meanwhile, the U16 Grant Khomo Week also produced competitive rugby – there was one draw Girls Under-18 Week Results, on Friday, 21 June: and four matches in which the protagonists finished within a converted try of winning or drawing the Griquas 19-5 Free State Cheetahs contest. And of course, there were a few convincing Pumas 42-20 Leopards wins too. Helpfully, Ruggaworld has a page Border Country Districts 27-0 Griffons dedicated to following the action.