Official Super Rugby 2016 Thread

[DanDango]

The standard of our rugby, in general, has slipped a notch this season as it seems to do every season for the last 3-4 seasons.

I'm convinced it's the player drain catching up with us.

Yes player drain is bad but Bulls and Shark sign too many young player. After 2 or 3 year the young player move on. The lion have score big in the young player moving on. Julian Redelinghuys, Warren Whiteley, Ross Cronjé was not good enough Sharks, Robbie Coetzee,Warwick Tecklenburg, Faf de Klerk, Courtnall Skosan, Rohan Janse van Rensburg was not good enough bulls. Ruan Combrinck was not good enough Stormers. Last year bulls had Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Kriel twins, Jan Serfontein, Dries Swanepoel, William Small-Smith all played SA U20 Centre and all around the same age 20-23.

Second problem spotting talent. Coaches is blind in South Africa.

 

[Sm00thSm0k3]

The standard of our rugby, in general, has slipped a notch this season as it seems to do every season for the last 3-4 seasons.

I'm convinced it's the player drain catching up with us.

Agreed.

I'm really struggling to watch SA teams play these days because it's as boring as hell. I had to force myself to watch the Sharks/Lions game till the final whistle. Too much kicking, ball handling skills are way below par, no flair to speak of and unforced errors all over the show.

The NZ, ARG teams on the other hand are awesome to watch.

 

[GreGorGy]

The NZ, ARG teams on the other hand are awesome to watch.

ARG or AUS? Jaguares are going to be great but they're not there yet.

 

[zeb]

I'm surprised by Michael Claassens' reprimand for kicking an opponent.
If you take into account that Timothy Bond has been banned for 4 weeks after a late tackle it once again highlights the discrepancies in punishments, depending on where you come from and in which country you offended.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I'm surprised by Jano Vermaak's reprimand for kicking an opponent.
If you take into account that Timothy Bond has been banned for 4 weeks after a late tackle it once again highlights the discrepancies in punishments, depending on where you come from and in which country you offended.

Michael Claassens* and from what I recall it wasn't actually a kick, more like a light nudge.

Bond was banned for a late shoulder to the head... Bit more serious than just a late tackle.

I'd like Tomas Lavanini to get banned for a lengthy spell, though. Probably the dirtiest player in the competition at the moment.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Marcell Coetzee out for the rest of the season.

 

[zeb]

Michael Claassens*

Thanks, fixed it
A kick is a kick imo

 

[Fulcrum29]

I guess the Sunwolves will have an uphill battle,

http://www.supersport.com/rugby/super-rugby/news/160410/Sunwolves_Bond_banned_for_four_weeks

Japanese Sunwolves lock Timothy Bond was banned for four weeks on Sunday after pleading guilty to a late tackle during a Super Rugby match this weekend.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/...lves-yamada-makabe-ruled-injury/#.Vwt7oKh96Uk

The Sunwolves have lost wing Akihito Yamada and lock Shinya Makabe to injuries, Japan’s first Super Rugby franchise said Sunday.

They are short two locks, an centre will have to move to the wing, although,

Wing John Stewart and lock Faatiga Lemalu have been called up to the team, currently in South Africa. The Sunwolves fell to their sixth straight defeat on Friday, when they lost 46-19 to the Stormers.

Lemalu will play as I had assumed; John Stewart is a strong runner. Well, most people wanted the islands to enter the Super Rugby competition, the Sunwolves are steadily heading that way…

I see that Jamie Joseph made an call…

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/...-stars-sign-sunwolves-next-year/#.Vwt9JKh96Uk

New Brave Blossoms coach Jamie Joseph hopes many of the country’s top players will return to Japan next year to play for the Sunwolves.

Speaking to Kyodo News in Brisbane, ahead of Saturday’s game against the Reds, the current Highlanders coach said, “If I can get all the players coming back playing Super Rugby for the Sunwolves next year that will help us” prepare for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Joseph doesn’t take on his new role until August — with Ryuji Nakatake and Mark Hammett acting as interim coaches in the meantime.

But he has given his new job some thought despite concentrating all his efforts on trying to lead the Highlanders to back-to-back Super Rugby championships.

“Next year one of my goals is to attract all the Japanese national players around the world back home (to) play for the Sunwolves,” he said.

“I think it is important for our preparation for the World Cup. If we have a Sunwolves team and we don’t have the majority of the national team playing for them, it doesn’t really serve a purpose for our preparation. So that’s a big challenge for us.

“Ideally getting all the guys back to Japan would be good for the team.”

That are nine players playing elsewhere, three which are going nowhere soon. Leitch, Tanaka and Hatakeyama are pretty much a sealed deal.

Amanaki is in negotiations with Bath to stay put over the long term. I’m also sure that Tui and Goromaru will stay with the reds, language barrier and all. Sa’u is getting good game time with the Blues and SA born Matsushima is having an good time with the Rebels though he is an bench-sitter. Then there is Yama****a holding his prop title alongside Leitch.

I doubt that Joseph will be able to swing this without the Top League providing the ‘essential’ support. Then there are many star players in the Top League which are held back by their terms to play in and against the JRFU. Money talks…

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

Marcell Coetzee faces nine months on the sidelines.
This mean’s Marcell Coetzee has in all likelihood played his last game for the Sharks. If that thought doesn’t make your Monday blue, I’m not sure what would.

Sad times ...... one of the few real Sharks

 

[Fulcrum29]

Michael Claassens* and from what I recall it wasn't actually a kick, more like a light nudge.

Yah, that was hardly an kick, more like an attempt to give the player on the ground an notice to roll the damn away. In the old days you would ruck over the guy, studs and all.

 

[Fulcrum29]

Agreed.

I'm really struggling to watch SA teams play these days because it's as boring as hell. I had to force myself to watch the Sharks/Lions game till the final whistle. Too much kicking, ball handling skills are way below par, no flair to speak of and unforced errors all over the show.

The NZ, ARG teams on the other hand are awesome to watch.

The Stormers with their new attacking style into the open and the Lions with their relentless team attack is quite entertaining in my opinion. It is only that the Stormers are avoiding the NZ pool… which is my issue with the new Super Rugby structure.

 

[Stevi]

Sad times ...... one of the few real Sharks

nooooooo!

And K. Daniel is not what he used to be. Deysel is just a battering ram these days.
Time for the twins to step up

 

[ToxicBunny]

I feel as if though I might as well stop watching the sharks games as I'm just getting upset.

I made that decision after that atrocious performance against the Lions.

I think the only way we can make John Smit wake the fsck up and get rid of Gary Gold is to hurt them in their pockets somehow since they don't seem to listen to the absolute shyte storm of social media backlash they are getting... So as a start I will not go and watch any of the home matches in the stadium, and I won't be buying any official apparel.

I'm also starting to think maybe that John Smit needs to go as well....

 

[Fulcrum29]

http://www.rugbyweek.com/lancaster-wants-coach-super-rugby/

Lancaster wants to coach in Super Rugby

Former England head coach Stuart Lancaster says that he wants to coach in Super Rugby and has been pushing for a position in New Zealand.

...

New Zealand will have two vacancies in Super Rugby in 2017 as Jamie Joseph will leave the Highlanders and Todd Blackadder is leaving the Crusaders.

While Lancaster has experience coaching at international level it remains to be seen whether the New Zealand Rugby Union would prefer him to a New Zealand candidate.

He will end up with the Reds in Australia.

I initially though that Coeztee would had been able to pull in his Stormers assistant coaches which would had opened a vacancy at the WPRU. Lancaster did visit the WPRU earlier this year… and though Fleck is head coach he was appointed as interim head coach.

 

[Fulcrum29]

I agree with this opinion,

http://www.supersport.com/rugby/blogs/tony-johnson/The_good_and_the_bad

The good and the bad

We're seven rounds in, about a third of the way through the new-look Super Rugby, so here’s five each of what’s good and what’s bad so far, and what the jury is still out on.

Article in the link.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

4) Warren Whiteley. A class act who delivers as a player, week in, week out and then cuts an equally impressive figure with his post-match interviews.

sad when everyone in the rugby fraternity is crowing about him and fans from any union love him and he has been so overlooked for the Boks .......

 

[Fulcrum29]

sad when everyone in the rugby fraternity is crowing about him and fans from any union love him and he has been so overlooked for the Boks .......

I would had liked to see Whiteley and Kriel selected to be in the RWC 2015 Springbok squad, but you can only pick that many players in a position. For me it is a hard choice between the two… and as it is clear to me that Ackerman and his assistants has trained the Lions into a unit, it is hard to pick one player without the other…

 

[Fulcrum29]

Good comment made by Umaga,

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/...-building-bonds-umaga-wants-more-help-for-tmo

In the news: Dealt a rough hand by the TMO, Tana Umaga fielded a fair but headline-grabbing question after Friday's loss to the Chiefs. "If a player is tackled without the ball five metres from the line while in a try-scoring position, should he be yellow carded?" Umaga's response was intriguing, and diplomatic, given the Chiefs were lucky to be awarded Mitchell Graham's try after Brad Weber was in touch. Umaga began by saying it was a roll of the dice and the Blues would move on. He then made a good point: "I know we don't want to talk about it but we watch the NRL and they've got a bunker full of TVs. We've only got one guy with one TV in there and it may be tough. If it's not certain, then it's pretty hard to give so that's the way it goes." More help for the TMO wouldn't go astray.

It would 'maybe' be a good call to provide the TMO with assistance… maybe a linesman in rotation to provide supported monitoring? It would be a good way to expose tier 2 match officials to tier 1 rugby, and to keep people like Gary Gold out of the box.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Fair question...

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

Crusaders getting away with murder as usual, good one Craig ......... not that the Jags are worth it, hell they are having a shocker.