"Nowadays his Bulls team-mates call him “Eskom”, because if he gets to you he trips your lights." – JW Coetzee describing Bulls and probable Volume 1, Number 5 future Springbok star, Marco van Staden 6 September 2018 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za SA Rugby to cut player pool aggressively Next emerged a few weeks ago that SA Rugby was Keo reported that the administrator intends to looking to cut the country’s professional player pool implement a player draft system that will cut the by about 54%. The story was first in early August in professional player pool nearly in half, from around Afrikaans media, specifically the Rapport newspaper 990 to 460. “The unions, then, will only be able to and in Netwerk24.co.za. To date, no rebuttal has contract between 40-50 players a season. The been received from SA Rugby, leading pundits to player surplus will then be placed into a draft presume that the reports are true. system to be called upon when needed. As SA Rugby magazine reported it, the plans were Alexander was quoted saying: “We’ve created a instigated by the fact that several top unions are in false market in this country. It’s simply not financial trouble. Apparently, SA Rugby believes that sustainable having 990 players trying to make a remodelling the contracting system is the only way living. We have the biggest number in the world. to keep the best players in South Africa. “In the new model all the best players will be The original article reported that there are 989 playing all the time. You won’t have the third and professional players in South Africa, resulting in fourth choice guys sitting in the store-room.” R480-million spent on salaries each year. “The new contracting system is aimed at reducing salary costs That may be the theory but World Cup winning by at least R75-million and the contracted player Springbok coach, Jake White, doesn’t buy it. In a pool to 459, which will include the national men’s column this week on All Out Rugby, he writes: “The and women’s sevens teams.” move to cut the pool of South Africa’s professional players in half is a big crossroads for our rugby. So far, however, the news seems to have been Some people are reading it as a positive, but if the overlooked by the punditry that makes its living off 450 players we want to keep are the ones that the game of rugby. Until last week, that is, when leave, then we’ll be in an even deeper hole than we columnist Mark are now.” He goes on to ask a number of extremely Keohane confirmed pertinent questions, among them: the story on his blog by running a report Who is going to decide which 450 players citing the comments stay? of SA Rugby CEO, What happens if our five best players go? Mark Alexander at the local launch of These are really important questions, the answers this year’s PRO14 to which may be the difference between success competition. and failure for the Springboks. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER REGULAR FEATURES Building a better “Mousetrap” Examining the Laws of the Game A Rugby Statistics app for your smartphone Law Discussion: Offside Hope springs eternal for the Boks Player Profile: The making of “Eskom” Page 1 Building a better “Mousetrap” Former New Zealand international, Ben Smith, has “Off a short 5-man lineout, the blind side penned a piece on RugbyPass that highlights what following the first phase crash is usually going to he’s calling the “latest craze in 2018 pro rugby – the hold a number of those tight five forwards 'Mousetrap' switch play”. resetting the defensive line. Mismatches can be made be moving play straight back towards the In general, Smith writes, that Southern Hemisphere touchline, using backs against the heavy-footed competitions this year have seen a significant big men.” It’s a fascinating analysis well worth the increase in the number of teams running variations read (and the watch – there’s video too). of switch plays. He lists the Highlanders, the Sharks, the Reds in Super Rugby and the Tasman Makos in Mitre 10, as deploying them with success. In his analysis, he explains exactly how the switch concept operates: A switch strike is usually a two- phase setup, using a settling first phase (usually a simple crash runner) to set up the ‘axis’ or ‘pivot’ ruck in the middle of the field from which the side can ‘swing’ play back with a quick switch, often with elaborate second-phase play. Want to eliminate fear while boosting performance? This is important if you want to: Eliminate fear Stop your inner critic over powering your intentions Boost productivity by 500% Accelerate learning speed by 490% Unlock your 200% creativity spike Check out this video on Hack the free Flow State Courses. A Rugby Statistics app for your smartphone Most loyal rugby fans will have heard commentators commenting on or, sometimes, bemoaning the fact that the “stats” don’t tell the whole story. They’d be right because it’s only one way of analysing the game that we all love. Unfortunately, few have shared the source of the stats so, until now, we haven’t really been able to challenge their assertions. But that has all changed now. There is an app that will give you all the stats you want – while the game is on the go as well as after the match when all the analysis happens. It’s also a reasonably mature app having first been released around 2014 and now in version 4.2. Check it out on Google Play or in Apple’s App Store. It’s definitely a winner. And if you come across other apps useful to the committed rugby fan, please let us know so that we can spread the word. Page 2 Click on the image for more information Page 3 Examining the Law of the Game Law Discussion: Offside Anyone who has played the game and later watched Many a Saturday afternoon has descended into a match in the company of non-players will have chaos as rival fans make accusations of offside play encountered the phenomenon of players being by players in the opposing team. And sometimes accused of foul play, even though what they did on they’re even right. the field was quite legal although, perhaps, not quite Usefully, SAreferees.com is running a fascinating completely above board. review of the offside law that may help to settle such altercations before they start. Perhaps the Your correspondent’s usual response to such most interesting thing about this analysis is that uninformed outbursts is that “this is rugby, it’s not fact that the law in question dates back 172 years Tiddly Winks”. However, a reading of the newly and is largely unchanged since then. simplified rugby laws may provide assist in making the response a tad more useful in future. In 1846, the Rules of Rugby School said: “A player is off his side if the ball has touched one of his side behind him. A player being off his side is to consider himself out of the game, and is not to touch the ball or in any way to intercept the play. Note: off his side - offside, not offsides. The new simplified laws put it thus: “A player is offside in open play if that player is in front of a team-mate who is carrying the ball or who last played it. An offside player must not interfere with When trying to understand a law well enough to be play.” understood when pontificating about it, it’s always best to begin with the basic principle behind it. In And just in case you, like your correspondent, often need pretty pictures or, better still, a few the case of foul play, the principle is: “A player who exemplary video clips to help you fully understand commits foul play must either be cautioned or a law, you’re in luck because SAreferees.com has a temporarily suspended or sent off.” number of them to illustrate this particular offence. Quite, hello red or yellow card. Interestingly, even in the newly simplified rugby laws, there are well over 30 specific acts that a player may commit that could result in him (or her) either being cautioned or being shown a colourful card. These range from the fairly innocuous: “A player must not intentionally infringe any law of the game” to the life-threateningly serious: “A player must not lift an opponent off the ground and drop or drive that player so that their head and/or upper body make contact with the ground.” Usefully, the review also covers the incidence of offside after a knock-on, when a player knocks on There is much more than we have space for but you and an offside team-mate is the next player to play can find more about this and about all the new laws the ball, often inadvertently. You can find the of the game that we all love here. review in all its glory here. Page 4 Click on the image for more information Page 5 Disappointing PRO14 openers Last weekend’s PRO14 fixtures were a disappointment for fans of the two South African teams involved. It began positively enough on Friday night, when despite being beaten, the Southern Kings put up a reasonably decent fight against Zebre, one of Italy’s premier club sides.