Official 2015 Super Rugby Thread

APoc184 said:
I believe it is quite well.

I know a few years back Naka had something against Francois Uys. Would not speak a word to him and treated him like crap. (Never found out why)

Francois went straight to the board and they intervened. Set up a mediation and everything cleared up. So well that Naka opted to make Uys captain.
Click to expand...

Ah okay, cool.
 
By Gavin Rich

If I was asked to put money on which South African team would make the Vodacom Super Rugby play-offs it might still go on the DHL Stormers, but the past weekend provided confirmation of why it would be the Vodacom Bulls who have the best chance of winning the main silverware on offer.

If we were asked to use one word to explain the theory, it would be flyhalf. If two words were asked for, it would be Handre Pollard, or Demetri Catrakilis, or Kurt Coleman. The Bulls have the former playing for them and he’s close to being that rare event in South Africa, namely a pivot who can take charge of a game, can run, takes the ball to the line, is a good passer of the ball and kicks well out of hand and from the kicking tee.

Having Stephen Larkham in Cape Town this week as head coach of the Brumbies has elicited memories of a juncture in South African rugby history where the often-repeated problem of having to choose between a flyhalf who could play good rugby and one who could kick was starkly highlighted.

Larkham will be remembered as the Wallabies flyhalf who broke South African hearts with the extra time drop-goal that ended the Springbok four-year reign as world champions at Twickenham in 1999. What is sometimes forgotten is that there wouldn’t have been an extra time had Jannie de Beer not nailed a pressure kick from a difficult angle at the end of normal time to draw the game.

De Beer famously kicked five drop goals the week before to beat England. The week spanning the quarterfinal and the semi-final will be remembered for the De Beer mania that swept through the media – and the Boks bought into it. When De Beer was selected to wear the No. 10 against Australia, so much was going to hinge on him kicking his goals.

But there was a problem at the time. Henry Honiball, who had been out injured for most of the tournament, was available again. It wasn’t an easy selection call for coach Nick Mallett to make. Compared with the hard tackling and strong running Honiball, De Beer was more of a one-trick pony. His tendency to stand deep in the pocket took the players around him out of the game as potential attacking threats.

Who would have won that World Cup semi-final had Mallett gone with Honiball ahead of De Beer? We’ll never know, but Mallett was left to wonder, for he knew full well that the more attacking No. 10 might have been better suited to a game against the Wallabies.

A glance through the Bok post-isolation record shows us that it has invariably been when the South Africans have had a more complete flyhalf, rather than a kicking specialist, that they’ve achieved success. The 1995 World Cup winning No. 10, Joel Stransky, was a case in point. He was a great kicker, but he'd also been reared on Ian McIntosh's direct rugby with Natal. Three years later, when the Tri-Nations was won for the first time, Honiball (another Mac prodigy) was in the key position.

Butch James was the flyhalf when the Boks won the World Cup again in 2007. James was strong both out of hand and of course in his defensive game and taking the ball up. Of course, fullback Percy Montgomery covered for his goalkicking deficiencies and in Fourie du Preez he had a genius playing alongside him.

Roll onto 2015 and the Boks should be well placed this year. Both Pollard and Patrick Lambie are more complete players, and more of an attacking threat than, say, Morne Steyn, who could still travel to the World Cup to provide back-up. Pollard and Lambie can also kick their goals so there shouldn’t be the debate there was in 2009, when Steyn was eventually preferred to coach Peter de Villiers’ first choice, the exciting but inconsistent Ruan Pienaar.

There is a debate that has been taking place all season in the Cape over the relative merits of Catrakilis and Coleman. I have backed the latter on the basis that he is a better rugby player, and Stormers coach Allister Coetzee obviously agrees because when the Stormers had to chase the game in Bloemfontein last weekend, he sent Coleman on in place of Catrakilis.

What followed for Coetzee was the stuff of nightmares, with Coleman missing four kicks that would have won the game for the Stormers. But the coach said that the stats of the general play vindicated his decision.

And he was right.

The Stormers were more of an attacking threat when Coleman came on. They dominated the second half. Catrakilis is a far more limited player. But Coleman chose that moment to have his old goalkicking inconsistencies return, and it did cost the Stormers the game.

The bottom line is that the Stormers don’t have a complete flyhalf. When their ace goalkicker is on the field, they lack in their attacking game. When their attacking flyhalf is on the field, there isn’t quite the same level of confident assurance when a penalty is awarded in a kickable position.

The Bulls have in Pollard a player who provides all angles, and in Rudy Paige they have a scrumhalf who is improving and can take some of the pressure off the man alongside him.

My money says the Stormers’ run of home games will probably see them make the play-offs, but if we want a South African team to win the competition, it is the Bulls that are best equipped to win a semi-final or final. And it all comes down to the man wearing the No. 10.
 
Hehe.

Like one of our commentators (Think it is Warren Brosnihan) would say about locks running long distances: "Like an epileptic giraffe"
 
Second half officiating has been atrocious and is making a bit of a mockery out of this.
 
Disgusting that these hometown refs can still be atrocious week in and week out and nothing gets said or done
 
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