Rugby in general.

APoc184

APoc184

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Not going to create a new thread for every specific thing, and sometimes you can't post in existing threads because it is not relative to any of those threads.

Lets discuss rugby in general.
News, Results, Fixtures, etc....
 
I'll start it off.

Baby Boks(u/20) lost 36-7 to New Zealand in the second Semi-Final of the Junior World Champs.
Australia won the other semi against England. 28-16
 
I was watching last night as well.

What do you think of that centre of Aus? Sitauti plays just like Ranger. Its so awesome to watch him play.
 
Very good player.

Also the #8 from New Zealand. Reminds me of Pierre Spies. Quick, powerful and massive.
And I'm not so sure if that #14 of New Zealand is as good as everybody claim or if it was just our piss poor tackling. But he did score the most tries in the tournament thus far.
 
APoc84 said:
Very good player.

Also the #8 from New Zealand. Reminds me of Pierre Spies. Quick, powerful and massive.
And I'm not so sure if that #14 of New Zealand is as good as everybody claim or if it was just our piss poor tackling. But he did score the most tries in the tournament thus far.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that number 8 is very strong on his feet to. Its great to know that there are some great players coming through the ranks. Its going to make some entertaining ruby watching in future years to come.
 
APoc84 said:
Baby Boks(u/20) lost 36-7 to New Zealand in the second Semi-Final of the Junior World Champs.
Click to expand...

Damnit.

Why have our Baby Boks been doing so poorly the last couple of years? The other rugby forums blame quotas. Is this true? Are they pushing in young promising black players ahead of good white players just so they would stay in the system?

Or is it just the rantings of bitter old men?
 
EtienneK said:
Damnit.

Why have our Baby Boks been doing so poorly the last couple of years? The other rugby forums blame quotas. Is this true? Are they pushing in young promising black players ahead of good white players just so they would stay in the system?

Or is it just the rantings of bitter old men?
Click to expand...

I am not going to go into politics and quotas, etc....

My honest opinion! We were crap last night.
All the players.

Lambie was extremely flat, missed a few kicks and didn't kick out when needed to.
Okafor(?) the huge lock is just too slow. He has the size but is extremely slow and even with his size he got smashed back in the tackles.

And then, our defence. Oh dear. I don't even want to talk about it. Horrible from all players. Just the captain, Stander did all right.

I like the centre Branco du Preez. He is quick and has an eye for the gap. But loses the ball too easily in contact situations, just like our #10.

Take no credit away from the Baby Blacks. They played well and their defence was good.
 
EtienneK said:
Damnit.

Why have our Baby Boks been doing so poorly the last couple of years? The other rugby forums blame quotas. Is this true? Are they pushing in young promising black players ahead of good white players just so they would stay in the system?

Or is it just the rantings of bitter old men?
Click to expand...

I think it comes down to coaching. New Zealand and Australia have extremely professional academies with open lines of communication between the unions and the 7's squads. What South Africa do (which worked in the past because other teams did the same) was to throw together a group of guys who were the biggest, strongest, fastest and most skilled they could find, and hope for the best. Now that all the sides have caught up to us in those respective departments, we seem to be falling short. We need to start building effective structures at our lower age group levels to ensure that our national side can benefit by having a constant stream of well coached, skilled, conditioned players. I feel that our coach is completely out of his league and it is time for an overhaul. My brother played in the 2006 and 2007 junior world cups and maintains that Eric Sauls is still the most uninspiring individual who he has had to work under. If we can get this right our national side, given the talent we produce at junior levels, will be a dominant force for a long time...
 
Brad Barrit may soon play for England. He was called up to the England squad earlier this week to replace injured Dominic Walduock.

He has not been named in the match 22 for Saturday's clash against Australia, but may very well feature in the mid-week game against the New Zealand Maoris.
 
Reading up a bit more on the subject, it seems that our youth teams have a 50-50 racial quota put on them. But it seems they want to remove this, because of the bad results lately. So I guess this loss is a blessing in disguise.

From Rugbyvaria:

Saru wants this year’s SA Schools team to be selected on merit and not according to a 50-50 racial quota, as has been the case in the past.
Click to expand...

http://rugbyvaria.co.za/tournaments/schools/2728-sa-schools-team-selection-only-on-merit-saru

Quotas must fck off out of sport!
 
EtienneK said:
Reading up a bit more on the subject, it seems that our youth teams have a 50-50 racial quota put on them. But it seems they want to remove this, because of the bad results lately. So I guess this loss is a blessing in disguise.

From Rugbyvaria:



http://rugbyvaria.co.za/tournaments/schools/2728-sa-schools-team-selection-only-on-merit-saru

Quotas must fck off out of sport!
Click to expand...

They should be implemented at u9 and u10 level where winning doesn't matter at all.

And there should be more development drives in the black communities.
 
Devill said:
They should be implemented at u9 and u10 level where winning doesn't matter at all.

And there should be more development drives in the black communities.
Click to expand...

Lol! I was an under 9 rugby player once and believe me, winning matters! Which is a good thing. It gets players into a winning culture from an early age.

What should happen is just to remove quotas and select players by merit.
 
APoc84 said:
I'll start it off.

Baby Boks(u/20) lost 36-7 to New Zealand in the second Semi-Final of the Junior World Champs.
Australia won the other semi against England. 28-16
Click to expand...
Damn that's a disappointing result. Forgot all about this fixture and I'm glad I did. Watched SA vs OZ and that was a very entertaining game too. We went down 42-35 but I liked the look of this u20 outfit but to get crunched 36-7 by NZ?!!!! Duck me!!! I cannot get over the size and skill of these u20 players!!! The OZ pack combined weight is in the region of 885kg's!!! MASSIVE!!!
 
Yeah the Australian side is very good. New Zealand beat them by 2 points or so. We played so well against Australia but really didnt turn up last night.. Their forwards destroyed us:(
 
sandmanm34 said:
Damn that's a disappointing result. Forgot all about this fixture and I'm glad I did. Watched SA vs OZ and that was a very entertaining game too. We went down 42-35 but I liked the look of this u20 outfit but to get crunched 36-7 by NZ?!!!! Duck me!!! I cannot get over the size and skill of these u20 players!!! The OZ pack combined weight is in the region of 885kg's!!! MASSIVE!!!
Click to expand...

It is pretty scary. But they are not much smaller at schoolboy level.
Grey College has a wing, Jan Serfontein. He stands 1.87m tall and weighs almost 100kg. A monster of player.
I have seen him play a few times this year and against Affies he was destructive. Literally ran over defenders and at times it took 3 to 4 players to bring him down. Really reminds me of Jonah Lomu in his prime. But even better.
He has a great step on him, tackles very well and is a good play maker. He doesn't try to do everything on his own. But that is a coaching issue.

Hope to see a lot of him in the future.
 
Round 1
9 July 12h00 Leopards v Lions Potchefstroom
9 July 19h10 Blue Bulls v Pumas Pretoria
10 July 15h00 Griquas v Sharks Kimberley
10 July 17h05 Cheetahs v Western Province Bloemfontein
 
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