Castle Lager Rugby Championship 2014

[Frankie_Yale]

Then let me keep it simple, as per your question, "I hear you. So to bring it back to HM, did he inherent a bad or good team?” PdV inherited a good team and maintained its balance as I already said. I was simply answering your question in semi-depth, where the roots was created.

Ok. I agree with the fact that he "maintained" it. It could've been worse such as previous coaches Markgraaf , Carel du Plessis and Straulie who inherited a WC winning team and allowed SA rugby to take a massive nose-dive at their hands.

 

[Vrotappel]

Yeah that's 1 way of looking at it.

Just thought that we might be sending a message to the world that we're celebrating or glorifying mediocrity.

technically the last game was Aus vs Arg, but let's not be too technical.

Last game for SA, duh.

 

[Vrotappel]

On this note that the Championship have concluded, I see that players may return to the Currie Cup... Pollard is going back, ahem, someone wants to squeeze a win, and Marcel van der Merwe, Bulls really pulling strings to take the cup...

I am pretty sure all the teams will do it.

 

[Vrotappel]

Serious? I don't like this. Never have

Teams play their butts off to get where they are and then the "heroes" come in to steal the glory.

I personally think it is unfair for some of the top teams to compete without their Boks for most of the season. The ever expanding Super Rugby and Tri-Nations now Rugby Championships are ruining local competitions.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I personally think it is unfair for some of the top teams to compete without their Boks for most of the season. The ever expanding Super Rugby and Tri-Nations now Rugby Championships are ruining local competitions.

Why?

Don't you think it gives players in those competitions a chance to prove themselves, and thus increase the competent player pool overall?

 

[faniebraai]

I personally think it is unfair for some of the top teams to compete without their Boks for most of the season. The ever expanding Super Rugby and Tri-Nations now Rugby Championships are ruining local competitions.

You think it's only fair that a certain amount of players get to play in the superugby and currie cup tournaments, while the second tier and up and coming players must be happy with vodacom cup? how will they come through the ranks if they don't get to play at higher levels? No one walks from a Vodacom cap into getting a Springbok cap.

 

[Vrotappel]

I believe strong local competitions make for strong Springbok rugby. I'm not a fan of the current Super Rugby format, and yet SARU will try to add more teams as the years go on. How does this competition help SA rugby when our teams dominate the bottom rankings?

 

[faniebraai]

I believe strong local competitions make for strong Springbok rugby. I'm not a fan of the current Super Rugby format, and yet SARU will try to add more teams as the years go on. How does this competition help SA rugby when our teams dominate the bottom rankings?

We are playing the best teams in the world. Playing against strong opposition builds stronger teams.

Look, I don't like the current format either. Way too much rugby... but who do you cut out at the moment without pissing someone off?

 

[Fulcrum29]

I am pretty sure all the teams will do it.

The only players who must abide to SARU's decision are these contracted players:

Willem Alberts, Marcell Coetzee, Damian de Allende, Jean de Villiers, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, JJ Engelbrecht, Eben Etzebeth, Cornal Hendricks, Francois Hougaard, Siya Kolisi, Patrick Lambie, Willie le Roux, Victor Matfield, Tendai Mtawarira, Coenie Oosthuizen, Jan Serfontein, Adriaan Strauss, Flip van der Merwe, Duane Vermeulen

To sum this up...

Sharks (x6):

Willem Alberts
Marcell Coetzee
Bismarck du Plessis
Jannie du Plessis
Patrick Lambie
Tendai Mtawarira

Province (x5):

Damian de Allende
Jean de Villiers
Eben Etzebeth
Siya Kolisi
Duane Vermeulen

Bulls (x5):

JJ Engelbrecht
Francois Hougaard
Victor Matfield
Jan Serfontein
Flip van der Merwe

Cheetahs (x4):

Cornal Hendricks
Willie le Roux
Coenie Oosthuizen
Jan Adriaan Strauss -> Bulls (2015)

Returning players:

Cheetahs (x4)

Lodewyk de Jager
Teboho Mohoje
Trevor Nyakane
Adriaan Strauss

Bulls (x2)

Marcel van der Merwe
Handre Pollard

Sharks (x2)

Lwazi Mvovo
Cobus Reinach

This are three teams receiving support...

 

[faniebraai]

no lions

 

[sand_man]

+1 . The media actually instigated that throwing the spotlight on it after several phases had passed without anyone claiming anything.

It happened right in front of the ref and none of the other Springbok players reacted to it, which means there was nothing in it.

So basically they jumped the gun intentionally to put pressure on the ref. Not good sportsmanship.

And you are correct, Richie mentioned a possible forward pass to the ref which he dismissed stating he was in a good enough position. If it had to be played on the big screen like the Messam tackle, the try would've been disallowed.

At the end of the day the penalty was the right decision. I agree we got lucky with some of the passes leading up to 2 of the 3 tries but considering the number of calls that have gone against the Boks in this season and seasons gone past, it's a little bit of karma. If poor referring decisions cost NZ the victory, how many poor decisions in the last 2-3 seasons have cost us victories?

is that good enough for you? even if we don't win the WC will you still have a high regard for him?

It's not about me. I'm not his employer. I've never rated HM as a coach but the results speak for themselves. As for winning the WC I'm not as obsessed with it as much as some people tend to be. Yes, it's a nice to have but what do we do for the 4 years between tournaments? France case in point. They been s hit since the last world cup! I'd hate to be a French supporter. In any event a teams success in the world cup is determined more by the draw than anything else. In the rugby championship there is nowhere to hide.

you'll have to excuse me, I never knew that the gap was that big and to beat them was such a difficult task.

As mentioned earlier, they been the No 1 team in world rugby forever. They've won 22 out of the lat 23 test matches and since readmission we've played 51 tests lost 36 won 15. So yes, victories are rare. The gaps not that big though, certainly not as big as fanie is making out.

I meant to say I really didn't know that for SA to beat them was such a difficult task.

IIRC we had a 100% win ratio against them under 2 previous coaches.

So if the succeeding coach gets a great team, all the subsequent accolades and achievements should go to the previous coach?

Things get murky when we start talking about who inherited what. More pertinent is who was injured when.

I for example don't believe PdV had any advantage inheriting a world cup winning team. He did have an advantage though playing against an AB team without the mercurial Dan Carter and Richie McCaw in their starting lineup.

How does a world cup winning team improve? If the RWC is the ultimate prize how does one improve on that? PdV won the tri-nations and a test series against the British Lions. That to me was huge and more significant and challenging than beating England in the RWC final. The draw in 2007 RWC favoured us, period.

 

[sand_man]

I'm all for resting Springboks during the CC. They being overplayed, period.

National interests must be given precedent, period.

 

[faniebraai]

I'm all for resting Springboks during the CC. They being overplayed, period.

National interests must be given precedent, period.

Agreed, period.

 

[sand_man]

ON that penalty...

http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/RugbyChampionship/Kaplan-Boks-should-thank-TV-producer-20141007

On why this win was huge...

http://www.supersport.com/rugby/springboks/news/141006/Why_it_was_huge_for_Boks

 

[ZCFOutkast]

je$$ie_jame$ the mask of ZFCOutkast...

Who is ZFCOutkast, and who is je$$ie_jame$

 

[GreGorGy]

Who is ZFCOutkast, and who is je$$ie_jame$

You?

 

[ZCFOutkast]

jammer menere, ongelukkig is dit nie die geval nie...

Heyi wena suthetha isiBhulu apha. Andisiva!

 

[ZCFOutkast]

You?

Don't believe everything Okrothesaurus says.

 

[ZCFOutkast]

I think I'll just post this again for reference purposes

I'm 100% sure all those I disagreed with proved me right...

For 65 minutes which the distinterested ABs' brilliance was able to condense and surpass in just in less than a quarter of the time.

 

[ZCFOutkast]

Just thought that we might be sending a message to the world that we're celebrating or glorifying mediocrity.
.....
being no.2 in World Rugby and NZ being no.1 , you'd think this was bound to happen don't you agree?
I could see Japan maybe doing a victory lap and have some fireworks after beating the ABs.
For us it should just be a walk in the park.

I see now. So these guys grow ba**s before the match, then go on to plead inferiority in order to overstate the scale of the Boks' achievements thereafter.

I'll be sure to remember that next time.