“New Zealand have been dumped out of the semifinals at the Los Angeles Sevens after a precision display of knockout footy from South Africa.” - Stuff magazine, New Zealand. Volume 20, Number 6 06 March 2020 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za Blitzboks Bounce Back With a Vengeance After two disappointing legs of the HSBC World But the draw secured top spot in the pool and set up a Rugby Sevens Series in Australasia a few weeks back quarter-final against the host nation, USA. The home back, Neil Powell’s men arrived in Los Angeles last team put Blitzboks on the back foot early with two week with a point to prove. And prove it they did. tries from speedster Carlin Isles, giving the hosts a 10- 0 lead. But South Africa reduced the score to 10-5 at Thrice, against Ireland in the pools, USA in the half-time courtesy of a try from Ryan Oosthuizen. quarters and in the final against Fiji, they clawed their way back into the game and the tournament. It was a Blitzboks piled on the pressure in the second stanza, fantastic performance. and despite some resolute American defence, finally broke through when JC Pretorius barged over under Blitzboks opened their account in LA with a solid the posts just before full-time. Final score 12-10. victory over Kenya (31-5). It was sweet revenge for the shoe being on the other foot in Hamilton the last Next up it was New Zealand in the semi-finals and we time the two sides met. They followed this with an must hand over to Stuff magazine in New Zealand to assured 33-5 defeat of Canada. describe that for you: “New Zealand have been dumped out of the semifinals at the Los Angeles But, as suggested above, the wheels almost came off in Sevens after a precision display of knockout footy the third and final pool game against Ireland. Blitzboks from South Africa.” fell behind twice and fought back to level the scores – the second time was after the hooter. It was tight and if Yup. The final score, in case you missed it, was 17-0, the Irish had held on to the ball for a few more seconds which set up the final against Fiji. And what a final. before kicking it out, they could have won. Blitzboks scored twice in the last minute to first force extra time and then claim a sudden death try winner to beat Fiji (29-24) for the title, and, in so doing, closing to within four log points of series leaders New Zealand. LA was the seventh tournament of the 2020 series with only three rounds left before attention turns to the Olympics in Japan – Coronavirus permitting. This weekend it’s Vancouver (see our preview on page two). KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Confident Blitzboks Head to Vancouver Varsity Cup is Much Better Without Noise Another Miserable Super Rugby Weekend Too Many Stars Are Fleeing Super Rugby PRO14: Cheetahs, Kings Still Struggling Is Doping a Problem in Schoolboy Rugby? Page 1 Confident Blitzboks Head to Vancouver Another Miserable Super Rugby Weekend It’s the eighth tournament in the HSBC World Rugby Can you believe it? Four South African teams played Sevens Series 2019/2020 and it takes place in Super Rugby last weekend and the only one to come Vancouver, where Blitzboks are reigning champions, away with a win was the one that we strongly believe having beaten France in the final last year. Could they shouldn’t even be in the competition. Typical. sweep up two titles on the trot? Possibly, but it will be Bloody typical. tough. But then, it was another weekend of upsets – caused They have been drawn in Pool A alongside Argentina, largely by the abysmal standard of refereeing. That’s England and Japan but they face them in a different a subject for another day as we let the evidence pile order: On Saturday night they will play Japan (20:06), up like it is doing at the State Capture Commission. then Argentina (23:18) and, early Sunday morning our time, they’ll take on the whingers (02:30). As we noted on the first page, Blitzboks now lie second on the series log, only four points behind New Zealand and if they can get the American double by winning in Vancouver in the early hours of Monday morning, they could jump to the top of the standings – but only if New Zealand don’t finish second. The weekend began with two shocks on Friday: As it stands currently, and after seven rounds of the Rebels travelled to Dunedin to face Highlanders and series completed, the kiwis are top of the log on 93 managed to come away with a win (22-28); and points and Blitzboks are second on 89 points. Next Lions visited Parramatta (about half-a-hour out of best is last year’s champion team, Fiji, on 72 points. Sydney) only to be robbed by Waratahs (29-17). The title race is therefore really between New Zealand and South Africa but with three tournaments to play, Saturday morning dawned with a return to normality, Fiji could well get back into the mix. albeit briefly, as Hurricanes blew away Sunwolves (62-15) in Napier. But then the upsets were back as The islanders did win both London and Paris last year Sharks inexplicably beat Reds (23-33) in Brisbane. – and those are the two legs to come after this weekend. But if they don’t close the gap on both of the But perhaps upset wasn’t quite the right word for two front runners this weekend, they’ll probably leave what happened at Newlands on Saturday afternoon themselves with a bit too much to do. when Blues arrived from Auckland. The home team could simply not get into the game and were And if both Fiji and New Zealand win their pools in absolutely awful – more so than usual according to Vancouver, they’ll potentially meet in the semifinal. our highly partisan editor. In the end, the visitors ran South Africa, meanwhile, is on the other side of the out 14-33 victors. draw. It’s going to be interesting. The final match of the weekend was at Loftus in Pretoria where the visiting Jaguares simply out- played their opposition (24-39). The win was helped by a Bulls team still intent on playing a domkrag style of rugby and, if that persists, we have a feeling that it will be a long season for the men from Pretoria. But there was some good news that might help the Bulls’ cause: World Cup-winning eighthman, Duane Vermeulen, will be rejoining the side in June after his contract with Kubota Spears ends. Page 2 Page 3 PRO14: Cheetahs, Kings Still Struggling Varsity Cup is Much Better Without Noise This past weekend also saw a smattering of PRO14 One of our constant criticisms of FNB Varsity Cup fixtures but, as usual, we’ll just focus in on the two rugby over the years has been the noise in the stadia local teams. The first of them to take the field was that made it very difficult to stay focused on the Cheetahs, visiting Dragons in Newport (Wales). brilliant rugby being played. It got so bad last year that we watched with the sound muted. The first thing to know about the match was that the conditions were typically atrocious (for this time of year in Wales) and did not favour running rugby. Even so, the visitors struck first inside ten minutes through a Junior Pokomela try. That was followed several minutes later with a Tian Schoeman penalty kick that stretched the lead to 0-10. It took the Welsh side until the 41st minute to get on the board courtesy of a Sam Davies penalty. That was followed by a try about fifteen minutes later that levelled the scores at 10-10. But well after the final hooter, Davies broke Cheetahs hearts with another successful penalty kick. Final score 13-10. Thankfully, we don’t have to do that any longer and On Sunday afternoon, Southern Kings hosted we watched the televised match on Monday without Connacht in Port Elizabeth and were 0-14 down well having to mute it once during the game. [The inside the first ten minutes. qualification is because we did mute it for the beauty queen interviews - Ed] The referee gave the home team a lifeline by reducing the Irish side to 14 men via a red card after 15 minutes. It was the Bloemfontein derby as University of Free Then minutes later, Connacht were down to 13 as Kyle State hosted neighbours Central University of Godwin served out his yellow card. Technology and it was a fantastic game with a tight first half that ended 14-19 in favour of the visitors. Kings took full advantage and levelled the scores at 14- all before Godwin retook the field. But the Irish would But the territory-based game plan chosen by CUT paid not be denied and when all was said and done – off big time in the second half, beginning with a point including two more yellow cards, one for each team – of origin try that stretched the lead out by a further the final score was 19-29. nine points. There was no way back for Shimlas and everything they tried in the half just went pear-shaped. It was fighting performance but yet another Final score: 14-35.