“The [Currie Cup] competition as it is now, with teams not being able to afford to drop games if they want to host the final, leaves no room for experimentation and giving the fringe players the game time that you need for Super Rugby. We know we have to go Volume 19, Number 25 unbeaten if we want to host the final and it leaves little room for 11 July 2019 manoeuvre.” - John Dobson, coach of Western Province Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za Crusaders Win Tenth Super Rugby Title Home ground advantage has always been a factor in For us, there were two critical moments in the match Super Rugby. This is especiallytrue for the New that could have changed the outcome. The first was Zealand teams, who exploit that advantage to the the Jaguares turning down an almost certain three fullest by doing everything that they can to unsettle points to go for the corner (and fail to score a try visitors. from the line-out) when the score was 7-3. And so it proved again on Saturday when the The second moment involved the Jaguares winger, Crusaders defeated the Jaguares (19-3) in Matias Moroni, not even trying to sidestep the last Christchurch in the 2019 final. According to our defender to score a badly needed try when he was Ultimate Rugby app, the visitors had the most barely three metres short of the line. Instead, he tried possession in the match (55% to 45%) and played in to offload the ball to a teammate but succeeded only the right areas of the field (57% of the match was in knocking it on. played in the Crusaders half) but they couldn’t turn that into points. In the end, the Crusaders were simply too good on the day but one has to wonder what the outcome Part of the problem was the Jaguares flyhalf, who, would have been if Super Rugby was structured while he has been good in the competition so far, differently. Imagine if SANZAAR had adopted the showed his inexperience on Saturday with far too home-and-away aggregate scoring strategy used in many aimless kicks that just gifted possession back to other sports for semifinals and finals. the opposition. If this had been just the first of two legs, the match may well have taken on a different complexion as the teams worked hard to take an advantage into the second leg in Buenos Aires next week. Which is not to say that the Crusaders were not deserved winners. Far from it. At the end of the regular season, the men from Christchurch finished seven points clear at the top of the overall table, on 58 points. That’s a full seven points ahead of the second-placed Jaguares. In the end, the best team in the competition won it – which is as it should always be. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER Stats Paint an Ugly Picture of SA Rugby Gallagher Premiership Kicks Off in October A Third 1995 World Cup Winning Bok Dies Expats Flying the Flags of Other Countries Currie Cup Gets Off to Cracking Start The Super Rugby Team of the Tournament Page 1 Stats Paint an Ugly Picture of SA Rugby A Third 1995 World Cup Winning Bok Dies As noted on the first page of this issue, Super Rugby 2019 is done and dusted with the Crusaders emerging victorious, again. But looking back on the season and, in particular, the statistics, is very unhappy reading for South African rugby fans. Indeed, a piece running on Sport24 calls it “a horror season" and "No surprise then that the final stats from the tournament also make for ugly reading for SA fans.” Quite. As the article notes further, “...one has to scroll down – and down – to find the leading SA try- scorer, and then it's perhaps no shock to discover two FORWARDS scored the joint most SA tries in 2019.” News emerged on Wednesday that the starting right wing in the 1995 World Cup-winning Springbok “Loose forwards Kwagga Smith (Lions) and Dan du team, James Small, passed away on Tuesday night Preez (Sharks) led the way with seven ... a full eight after being rushed to hospital suffering from an tries fewer than the tournament's most prolific try apparent heart attack. He was 50 years old at the time scorer, Crusaders wing Sevu Reece. of his death and is the third member of that team to pass away. There’s more in the article, if you happen to be in a masochistic mood. Ruben Kruger died from brain cancer in 2010 and Joost van der Westhuizen fell to motor neuron But being rather cynical of nature, we dug a little disease in 2017. The cup-winning team also lost deeper by consulting a useful little app called Rugby coach, Kitch Christie in 1998 after he lost his Stats (available on Google Play and Apple’s App prolonged battled with leukaemia. Store). And we found some other useful info: Lions were #1 in drop goals (two of them, LOL); Stormers were #1 in dominant tackles (257); and Sharks were #2 in turnovers conceded. [No surprises with that last statistic – Ed.] We also spotted an interesting statistical comparison on AllOutRugby that looks at the performances of Handré Pollard and Elton Jantjies in this year’s tournament. In reaction to Small’s passing, tributes have poured in for the Springbok legend on many social media platforms. Not least of them was a tale related by one of our favourite rugby analysts, Oom Rugby. The story goes back to 2001, after the Springbok winger’s failed suicide attempt. Just a telephone call and conversation with Madiba changed Small’s life completely and gave him new purpose. We miss them all. Page 2 Page 3 Currie Cup Gets Off to Cracking Start Good and Bad in Currie Cup Format But first, some irony. When compiling this weekly The Premier Division of the 2019 Currie Cup kicks newsletter, we make heavy use of Google to find off this weekend and in anticipation of the contests to match reports on various games in order to expose come, Gavin Rich has penned a critique of the you to as wide a variety of viewpoints as possible. competition format on the SuperSport website. Essentially, he argues that there is some merit in the So, this week, when looking for match reports from concept of less is more. the first round of the Currie Cup First Division this past weekend, we turned to Google. And the first story to pop up was on the SuperSport website. Yes, that’s right, the one place that we might have expected the matches to be broadcast but they were not. Of course, we can’t blame Multichoice for the lack of rugby coverage. We must blame the game’s administrators at SA Rugby for being unable to find sponsors willing to fund that coverage. But, before we start calling people names, let’s get back on point. As noted last week, the Currie Cup First Division kicked off this past weekend. All four matches happened more or less simultaneously. The competition is made up of seven teams, each of which will play six matches before the top four The first result in was from Montagu in the Western advance to the semifinals. Home ground advantage is Cape, where Boland Cavaliers triumphed over determined by the order of finishing. Border Bulldogs (31-20). Meanwhile, up in Pochefstroom, Leopards squeezed past the visiting Rich quotes John Dobson, coach of Western EP Elephants (15-12). Province, as saying that the shortened format inhibits the much needed development aspect of the Across in Welkom, Griffons were entertaining competition. Jaguares XV and both teams were entertaining the crowd. As full time approached, the teams were tied “The competition as it is now, with teams not being at 43-all but a last minute try literally snatched able to afford to drop games if they want to host the victory for the visiting Argentinians. final, leaves no room for experimentation and giving the fringe players the game time that you need for The final match of the weekend finished about half- Super Rugby. We know we have to go unbeaten if an-hour later and did, in fact, end in a draw. Valke we want to host the final and it leaves little room for and SWD Eagles fought hard for the final 33-33 manoeuvre.” scoreline. There are also drawbacks to the single round format for the smaller provinces. It gives them considerably fewer games to sell to suite holders and to attract sponsorship. But, as Rich notes, the format does have positive aspects. Having top teams playing each other on a strength versus strength format over a limited time period and having them on a knock-out footing from the start promotes a higher quality of rugby, he writes. Page 4 Page 5 Gallagher Premiership Kicks Off in October Saffers Flying the Flags of Other Countries A while back we theorised that the timing of the 2019 World Cup in Japan – mid-September to early November – might delay the start of top-level club rugby around the world. Well it seems we were wrong and it’s only southern hemisphere countries that plan their calendars around the global showpiece. News emerged this week on PlanetRugby.com that Premiership Rugby have confirmed that the new English season will kick off on Friday, October 18 at Ashton Gate with Bristol Bears taking on Bath.