"That's pretty much the strongest EOYT Bok squad that could have been selected. Yes, one could argue for a Du Preez over Whitely. Or Akker over Brits. But one could also argue for Whitely over Du Preez or Brits over Akker. So novel though: no complaining & full supporting." - @Runningflyhalf on Twitter Volume 1, Number 13 01 November 2018 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za End Of Year Tour Springbok Squad It has become standard practice in recent years for the pundits to shred the selections of any Springbok squad. Perhaps it’s still the honeymoon period after the Wellington win against the All Blacks but head coach and SA Rugby Director of Rugby, Rassie Erasmus, seems to presently have a relatively free ride. His selections for inclusion in the Springbok squad of 36 to travel on the 2018 Castle Lager Outgoing Tour to the United Kingdom and France have been largely been un-criticised, and even praised. For the month- long tour, he has named 20 forwards and 16 backs. Apart from Mapoe, all of the others had been part of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship squad. “This tour to the northern hemisphere will be another tough test of our team’s character and we are looking Erasmus took the opportunity to bring three new caps forward to the exciting challenges against England, into his squad to the EOYT, specifically: Sergeal France, Scotland and Wales,” said Erasmus. Petersen (wing), Ruhan Nel (centre) and JD Schickerling (lock). He has also recalled Gio Aplon But it wasn’t easy because of injuries to key players: (outside back), Louis Schreuder (scrumhalf), Trevor Lionel Mapoe was ruled out and joins Tendai Nyakane (prop), Lood de Jager (lock) and Duane Mtawarira, Ross Cronje, Lukhanyo Am and Vermeulen (loose forward). You can find the full Makazole Mapimpi on the sidelines. squad here. The Springboks face England at Twickenham on 3 November, followed by a meeting with the French in Paris one week later on 10 November. Their third Test on Tour is against Scotland at BT Murrayfield in Edinburgh on 17 November, and they wrap up their month-long tour with a visit to the Principality Stadium, where they are due to face Wales on 24 November. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Breakthrough player of the year Mixed-bag in Pro14 last weekend The Year of the Young Gun (Blitzbokke) Gloucester Targets Young Talent South American rugby to go Pro The Weekend’s Rugby Action Page 1 Breakthrough player of the year World Rugby last week announced the three nominees for its Breakthrough Player of the Year. South Africa's Aphiwe Dyantyi, Ireland's Jordan Larmour and New Zealand's Karl Tu'inukuafe have been shortlisted for the award sponsored by Tudor. The announcement on the World Rugby website features a video clip cataloguing some of the exploits of the three nominees. It’s brilliant but, for me, Dyantyi’s best try of his career thus far was undoubtedly the solo effort for the Lions against the Bulls. You’ll find that at about 2:10 in this collage of his exploits on YouTube. Oh ja, I should mention that the pool of players for Getting back to the award, as a South African and a the award is generally quite small because, to be Lions supporter, there can be no question that eligible, players must have played less than one year Dyantyi should sweep the award. But we'll know of senior international rugby. Despite that, any one of after the World Rugby Awards on 25 November. the three nominees would be a worthy winner. The Year of the Young Gun With a new season of HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series beckoning in just less than a month, excitement is building and preparations are starting to wind up for the current champions. Having won the series two years on the trot, the Blitzbokke will be keen to emulate New Zealand by becoming the only other team to win three (or more) successive series titles. It’s worthwhile to note that the Kiwis have done it twice: a run of six wins from the inaugural tournament in 1999/00 to 2005/06; and another four wins in a row again from 2010/11 to 2013/14. Fiji is the only other Players such as Dewald Human, Mfundo Ndhlovu, team to have done the double (2014/5 and 2015/16). Heino Bezuidenhout and James Murphy, among others, are going to key if the Blitzbokke are going Getting back to the Blitzbokke, it’s interesting that, as pull off the treble. Kick-off in Dubai of the first round an article in SA Rugby’s Springbok Online Magazine is on 30 November. details, they won the title earlier this year after being forced to blood a lot more youngsters than may Despite the draw having been made a week ago, at the normally have been the case. Many of those youngsters time of writing HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series took their opportunities and will be very difficult to web site and app had yet to be updated with the draw. leave out of this year’s campaign. But it can be a useful resource. Page 2 Page 3 Mixed-bag in Pro14 last weekend On Friday night, the Southern Kings hosted a Scarlets team weakened by injuries and international call ups and looked like being comfortable winners, for the second time this season. But a few highly questionable decisions at crucial times by Irish referee, John Lacey, cost the home side dearly. Oddly, while the television commentators remarked on some of those, none of the match reports (here, here and here) that we found thought it worthy of mention. Perhaps the reporters didn’t actually watch the match since at least one of them had the wrong The final whistle saw the home team run out 21-10 venue. winners, chalking up the long-awaited first win of the season. Meanwhile on Saturday, the Cheetahs took full advantage of the home-ground advantage and put in a But the Cheetahs will need a few more results like masterful display against the Cardiff Blues – the that – especially away from home – if they are going home team were out to a 14-0 lead over inside 12 to make the playoffs for a second year running. minutes. And the defence stood up to the Welsh Fortunately, they have time on their side with a full barrage because the lead wasn’t relinquished at any 17 rounds still to come. time in the game. South American rugby to go Pro With rugby now an international game that has been fully professional since the early-to-mid-1990s, it is sometimes forgotten that many of the smaller rugby countries are still largely sustained by amateur leagues. South America is a classic example. Four countries on that continent play the game a reasonably high level but only Argentina has professional players, mostly plying their trade in Europe. The inclusion of the Jaguares in Super Rugby brought some of that home recently but But that, may be about to change as plans are afoot for until the country has more teams competing in that sort a continental club competition. of competition, the growth of professionalism will be constrained. The article suggests it will happen next year but, as no announcements could be found subsequent to the date Meanwhile, in Brasil, Chile and Uruguay, rugby is still of this article (February), that does appear doubtful. largely amateur or, perhaps, semi-pro, where players But perhaps things have been moving along behind the get small stipends and expenses refunded. scenes. Watch this space. Page 4 Page 5 Lions lose another excellent coach Gloucester Targets Young SA Talent As if it’s not bad enough that the Lions lost their Meanwhile, in addition to attracting senior Lions' head coach to English Premiership side, Gloucester, players with UK-sized salaries, former Lions coach, last season [let’s not mention all the players that Johan Ackermann, is now going after young South followed him – Ed]. Now the Johannesburg franchise African talent to fill spots in the Gloucester Rugby has also lost its extremely successful under-21 coach senior academy. The latest player to move to the UK to the Springbok cause. is 20 year-old fly half Dom Coetzer. After winning the SA Rugby U21 Championship He was signed for the academy side but ran out for with the Xerox Golden Lions, Bafana Nhleko, will the senior team in last weekend's Gallagher join SA Rugby as the Junior Springbok assistant Premiership clash against Wasps. Although he played coach on a four-year contract. The Lions loss is the out of his customary position at 12, he managed to Baby Boks gain but the fanatical Lions supporters in score a try on debut. THIS newsroom are not happy about it. The 35-year-old Nhleko has been in the Lions’ coaching structures since 2011 and capped off a successful run this past weekend with an emphatic 58-24 victory over the Vodacom Blue Bulls in the SA Rugby U21 Championship final at DHL Newlands. The triumph was the Lions' second title in only three seasons, after Nhleko had also steered the team to victory during his debut season in the role in 2016. Coetzer was signed from the Western Province Rugby Academy (WPRA) along with loosehead prop, Luke Dalbock, who will be undertaking a two- month trial with the English club after his standout performances for the WPRA over the past 5 months.