“In a competition that’s become as lopsided as Super Rugby, with Kiwi teams dominating all comers, keeping line-ups a secret until matchday might give lesser sides a shot at upsetting the contenders.” - Jake White Volume 19, Number 17 16 May 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za Tough, Uncompromising European Rugby As we mentioned last week, it was Heineken Cup weekend with the finals of both competitions playing out at St James Park in Newcastle, England. The lower tier Challenge Cup final took place on Friday night between two French clubs, ASM Clermont Auvergne and La Rochelle. While Clermont has won the Challenge Cup twice before (and been runners-up in the higher-tier Champions Cup three times), this final was their opponents’ first shot at a title at this level. It was a match that featured dogged defence – mostly from Clermont – and plenty of typical flair from both sides Saturday night saw kick-off in the big one: the but by the 60th minute the contest appeared pretty Champions Cup final, where four-time champions much over with La Rochelle trailing 26-9. Leinster were bidding for a fifth star. It was a spectacular game of rugby, most of which the referee But they weren’t giving up and they scored to close missed. Despite that, the Irish side established an to within ten points, only to see it stretch out again early lead of 10-0 after about 30 minutes. shortly after. Then, with four minutes to go, Clermont were down to 14 men but the 17-point gap But then, taking full advantage of the inconsistency – (at the time) was too big. Final score 36-16. and sometimes blindness – of the referee, Saracens equalised before half-time. To be fair, with a line-up that includes international stars such as Billy Vunipola, Will Skelton, Marco Itoje, Vincent Koch and Schalk Burger, Saracens were the better side on the day. It’s just a pity that the London-based club also includes at least one legendary thug who is known for high tackles and shoulder charges but is only rarely penalised for those infringements. The final score was 20-10 to Saracens, unfortunately. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Super Rugby: No Unexpected Surprises Skip the Team Announcement – Jake The PRO14 Semifinal Weekend Beckons Time for Some Fresh Rugby Thinking SRC: Where Are All the Young Players? The Dilemma of South African Rugby Page 1 Super Rugby: No Unexpected Surprises The PRO14 Semifinal Weekend Beckons The first match of the weekend went to form when the It’s semi-final weekend in the PRO14 and the first Blues failed to stem the flow of the Hurricanes’ Barrett match is Friday night (20:35 SA time) when the top brothers, going down at home 12-22. That was side in Conference A from the regular season, followed by an Australian Derby as the Rebels hosted Glasgow Warriors, takes on Ulster in the Scottish the Reds in Melbourne, where the home side ran out to side’s backyard. And it could be a close match since an early lead and kept its nose in front for the rest of the teams met twice (home and away) in the pools the game: 30:24. phase of the competition. In the third match on Friday, the Bulls were called upon to defend fortress Loftus against the rampaging Crusaders but it didn’t go well for the home team. The 2018 Super Rugby champions were simply too good for the Bulls, who were never really in a game that kept slipping further away: 13-45. The early game on Saturday was a real arm wrestle in Dunedin until the Highlanders stretched the lead to 12 around the 60th minute. The home team then hung on for the win despite a late charge by the Jaguares. Final score: 32-27. And in Hamilton the Chiefs made heavy going of what should have been an easy win against the Sharks: 29-23. The first time was at the same venue as Friday’s The Saturday afternoon clash saw a Lions outfit that semifinal, where the Scottish team ran out 30-7 looked rather rusty after their bye. But they pulled it winners. The second encounter was at Ulster’s home through in the end despite the typically abysmal ground in Belfast and that time, the Irish side officiating by referee Egon Seconds, the same clown triumphed 36-15. So it’s perfectly set for an epic who robbed the Lions at Newlands earlier in the semifinal. season. Final score: 29-28. However, an interesting statistic to come out of the Sunday morning, bright and early in South Africa but early phases pertains to the tries for and against. early evening in Caberra, where the home town Glasgow has scored 84 tries and let in 48 while their Brumbies took on the Sunwolves. Unfortunately, the Irish opponents have scored 58 and conceded 54. In Japanese side appeared to be there in body but not in the face of that statistic, the Scots have a better spirit: 33-0. defence but then this is knock-out rugby. On Saturday, and after falling short against Saracens in the European Champions Cup final last week, Leinster will be looking for a better result when they face another Irish side, Munster, in Dublin. As with the other semifinal pairing, these two sides have played each other twice (home and away) and the results went with the home side on both occasions. Given that the venue is Leinster’s home ground, the odds would favour the Champions Cup runners up. And, in the regular season, they scored 95 tries while conceding 49, which contrasts against the 82/44 result achieved by Munster. It could be a tight match. Page 2 Page 3 Skip the Team Announcement – Jake Time for Some Fresh Rugby Thinking The controversy that erupted around the Lions a few The other thought-provoking column we found this weeks ago when team management declared one team week is running on the SuperSport website and is by ahead of time and then changed it before kick-off had Johan Coetzee. He reckons that South African rugby many traditionalists frothing at the mouth – especially needs to shake up the game with some fresh rugby those in the land of the long white cloud. But, why was thinking. it such a big deal? In his SuperWrap for week 13, 2019, he quotes the The answer to that can be found in Jake White’s latest inimitable rock goddess Janis Joplin: “You are what column on AllOutRugby, in which he wonders why you settle for. You are only as much as you settle rugby teams are required to announce their matchday for”. He’s using Joplin to point a finger at the lack of squads at least 48 hours before kickoff and asks: creativity among the bosses of SA Rugby. “What is the point?” An example White provides is Brent Russell in the 2002 Tri-Nations tournament: “Andre Pretorius fell sick at the team hotel on the eve of the Springboks’ last match and on the Saturday morning Straeuli told Brent Russell he was going to start at flyhalf. He had a blinder in a thrilling 33-31 win. “Two things happened that day: the Wallabies didn’t have an opportunity to do their homework on Russell, and he played well because he didn’t have a whole “As a rugby nation we are what these bosses settled week to worry about things.” for, and what they settled for on our behalf is very little. It is about time this whole deal they have with “In a competition that’s become as lopsided as Super the rugby-loving public gets renegotiated,” he writes. Rugby, with Kiwi teams dominating all comers, keeping line-ups a secret until matchday might give And then he cites the embarrassing comments of lesser sides a shot at upsetting the contenders. It would Bulls coach Pote Human after the humiliating even things out because coaches would be under thrashing at Loftus by the visiting Crusaders. “If that pressure to contingency plan for whether the opposing is representative of the type of thinking we have in line-up is strong, weak, full of speedsters or weighted our Super Rugby change-rooms, then no wonder we towards a power style of play.” are in such deep trouble,” notes Coetzee. “So far this year South African teams have won only two from eight games against their New Zealander counterparts. Go back another two years and that count becomes a mind-numbing 9/37. It’s also a number that would have been considerably worse if it wasn’t for a struggling Blues. “We clearly need a complete new way of thinking throughout our entire system if we are to turn that tide, yet at all four of our franchises we are stuck with coaches that were already in the system at their various Unions when I started my SA v NZ comparison.” Page 4 Page 5 SRC: Where Are All the Young Players? For one reason or another, we hadn’t watched any of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge matches this season until this past Sunday. And immediately, an important question sprung to mind: where are all the young players? Perhaps the two games we watched were outliers. The teams involved in the double-header at D'Almeida Stadium in Mossel Bay were EP Elephants, Free State Cheetahs, SWD Eagles and Zimbabwe Academy. And only the Zimbabwe side seemed to have a selection balance in favour of Meanwhile, at Police Rugby Club in East London, youth.