“Any sport is dangerous but parents will not let children play it if the risks of life-threatening injury are unacceptably high.” - Oom Rugby Volume 19, Number 11 04 April 2019 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za Almost a Weekend of Away Wins The Super Rugby weekend began in Wellington, New Early Saturday morning, the run of away victories Zealand, with Crusaders back to their crushing best stopped, briefly, when the Blues chalked up their after a somewhat off weekend in Sydney the week third win of the season and first three-try bonus point before. They blew out to an eleven point lead in the by outplaying the visiting Stormers 24-9. Bizarrely, first quarter and were pinned back a little by a yellow the visiting coach called that match the Stormers best card to flanker Matt Todd. game of the year. Right. The ten minutes with only 14 men on the field helped The next fixture was an Australian derby with the the Hurricanes to claw back a little – they got to Rebels visiting Brisbane and restarting the run of within six points – but once Todd returned, it was away victories with a comprehensive thrashing. The over. No matter what they threw at them, the home win put the Melbourne side back on top of the team simply couldn’t breach the Crusaders defensive Australian conference table. wall again. Final score 8-32. Later that afternoon the Bulls extended the away win The upset of the weekend had to be the Waratahs trend line with a victory in Durban, although it must going down to the visiting Sunwolves in Newcastle be said that it was the exact opposite of champagne (about 160km north of Sydney). It was close with the rugby. An incident late in the match saw both final score of 29-31 but the Japanese team came back hookers sent off. every time the home team scored and then, once they got a decent lead, they held on to the end. General consensus on Twitter was that Schalk Brits was unlucky to be sent off but that Akker van der Merwe was deservedly binned. He’ll probably also be suspended for a good few weeks. The final match of the weekend took place late Saturday night SA time and saw another away victory as the visiting Chiefs triumphed over the Jaguares in Buenos Aires, just. The visitors built a healthy lead in the first half but the home team clawed their way back to eventually lead after 75 minutes. But a Chiefs try in the 78th minute snatched the victory. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Almost a Weekend of Away Wins The Sevens Circus Lands in Hong Kong Varsity Cup Semi-Final Places Decided The Myopia of SANZAAR’s Disciplinary Process Gold Cup: And Then There Were Four Why Try to Make the Game Safer? Page 1 Varsity Cup Semi-Final Places Decided Gold Cup: And Then There Were Four This past Monday was the ninth and last round in the The SSG Gold Cup club rugby competition is also pool stages of the FNB Varsity Cup competition and now at the semi-final stage after the past weekend’s going into it, only one semi-final spot was still up for quarter-finals. In the closest, and probably most hard- grabs. UCT-Ikeys played the early match and fought, encounter of the weekend, the ABE Midas defeated CUT comfortably (36-10) to move into that Naka Bulls took it down to the wire against the position on the table. Hollywoodbets Swallows but the Swallows emerged 13-10 victors. Then the Capetonians had to wait for the result of Shimlas trip upcountry to play UJ. If the Freestaters slipped up in Johannesburg, UCT would hang on and make the semi-finals. But that’s not the way it worked out as Shimlas comprehensively thrashed a lacklustre UJ side 14-38. With the semi-finals now decided, the other two matches were basically dress rehearsals for next weekend’s semis, albeit against different opponents. Maties thoroughly outclassed UWC in Stellenbosch 84-26, with the coach presumably viewing it as a good training run and an opportunity to give fringe players match practice. Meanwhile up in Potchefstroom, NWU-Pukke dished out a rugby In the other quarter-finals, College Rovers lost 24-36 lesson to Wits, running out 74-15 winners in the end. to Durbanville-Bellville in Durban, the Northam Next Monday’s semi-finals will be in Pretoria and Platinum Rhinos beat Multisure Gardens 35-29 and Stellenbosch and both will be televised. The early Newrak Rustenburg Impala were too strong for match is UP-Tuks versus NWU-Pukke (16:45) in Welkom, winning 48-19. what is sure to be a tough encounter while the later Both semi-final matches in SA Rugby’s flagship match will see Maties entertain Shimlas (19:00). national championship for non-university clubs will The way the season has gone so far, the only question take place on Saturday at 16:00. is which of Tuks or Pukke will travel to Stellenbosch Two-time champions Newrak Impala will host arch- to face Maties in the following Monday’s final. But rivals and neighbours Northam Platinum Rhinos at we haven’t yet seen the best of the very capable the Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club. And down in Shimlas outfit so they may yet have something to say Durbanville, the 2015 champions, Durbanville- about that. Bellville, will host Border champions, Hollywoodbets Swallows. According to the Springboks web site, it will be live- streaming the latter match [it will also be livestreamed on the SSG Gold Cup Facebook page – Ed]. But why both matches wouldn’t be live- streamed is a puzzle in the newsroom. SA Rugby also announced that next weekend’s final will be televised live on SuperSport on Sunday 14 April at 14h30. The venue and broadcast channel will be confirmed after this weekend’s semi-finals. Page 2 Page 3 The Sevens Circus Lands in Hong Kong The Myopia of SANZAAR’s Disciplinary Process It’s probably the tournament that spawned the World One of the most balanced rugby fans we know is also Rugby Sevens Series of ten rounds around the world. an occasional commentator on the game. Johan And its special because every team wants the title – Coetzee had a lots to say on twitter about the possibly more so than any other on the circuit. laughable sanctions imposed on Schalk Brits and Akker van der Merwe after their fisticuffs on Saturday. The first comment we spotted was on Tuesday when It’s also one of the few tournaments that the he tweeted: “Message from Sanzaar is clear. Even if Blitzbokke have yet to win, with the best finishes somebody headbutts you and then proceeds to land having been four silver medals (1997, 2008, 2009 & repeated punches to your head while you're pinned 2017), losing three times to Fiji and once to New down on the ground, you're supposed to do nothing Zealand. Fresh off their first win ever in Vancouver a or else you'll get a harsher punishment than the few weeks back, they’ll be keen to make their mark in instigator. Try this in a real court?” Hong Kong as well. There’s a fascinating exchange between different Fortunately, the time zone is more favourable to South fans on the subject attached to that tweet but it’s not African viewers than it was for the recent North the primary reason for this piece. That is a typically American legs of the series. The Blizbokke’s first astute piece he penned, that appeared the following match is just after noon on Friday against Japan. At day on SuperSport, in which he explains just how the 17:40 they will play Scotland and on Saturday SANZAAR disciplinary process played out. morning (09:22) they face Samoa. Without trying to steal his thunder, the bit that stuck If they make it into the Cup quarter-finals, it is likely out for us in the Engage newsroom was this: that they will face either USA or England. Fans might wonder where Fiji and New Zealand are in the draw; “At the hearing on Tuesday Brits ended up with the The answer is on the other side so both are possible same four-match ban (discounted from six) he was opponents in the final. offered the previous day, but the team did manage to get some concessions from the judicial committee. Their post-hearing statement contained the following telling phrases: 1. ‘…the player’s actions were in self- defence’ and 2. ‘The Judicial Committee was conscious of the fact that the player was not the instigator of the incident...’" And then he explains how this exposes the inherent problem with Sanzaar’s disciplinary processes. It’s definitely worth a read and he does, helpfully, also include a YouTube clip of the incident. Page 4 Page 5 Why Try to Make the Game Safer? Swys’ Unfinished Business at the Lions Rugby is a tough game, no question. And, like any It has been a busy week for Lions coach Swys de sport, injuries are par for the course but life-changing Bruyn. Aside from preparing his team for the clash injuries are probably more true of rugby than most against the Sharks on Saturday, it seems that he was other sporting endeavours. signing an extension to his contract with the Super Rugby franchise. Oom Rugby put it well this week in a tweet when he wrote words to the effect of: “We hear arguments that ‘the game going soft’, but we have a responsibility to the players.