The weekend produced some good and bad rugby but the ugly goes to SARU yet again!
I think everyone is getting gatvol of this issue and it is actually very interesting that the ballot was 6 for the lions against the 23 of the Kings.I guessed the smaller unions would’ve voted with their bigger cousins but it seemed it did not happen and since the Pumas and leopards are in a arbitration battle against the lions. My question is then who voted for the lions? (thanx patrick and baylion for the info)
I just want to say its ridiculous that the Kings are in Super Rugby and did not play and win to get there. It is probably the reason why our country is in such a shambles. Ironically it is the same thing or more or less that is happening at the lonmin mine, everyone just want everything to be given without earning it.
Back to the rugby, it was a good weekend for the Cheetahs who beat the Bulls convincingly. The Bulls will have a few headaches and maybe some worrying nights due to the sighting commissioner especially on Werner Kruger.
The Bulls where lucky the score was not more , their first try should never have been due to a high tackle from CJ Stander on Sarel Pretorius at the previous play and then the controversial non allowed try of Sarel Pretorius at the end. Sarel was not held and it was a try, he did not need to let the ball go on the ground.
Andries Ferreira played magnificent as did Frans Viljoen and Kabamba Floors while the young Raymond Rhule is also a superstar in the making. If the Cheetahs can keep him with Goosen and the likes of Van Zyl for the next couple of years we may see a Cheetahs outfit vying for Semi-finals in Super rugby in the near future.
Riaan Smit was deadly with the boot and he contributed 19 points. He did not miss a kick and put extra pressure on the bulls to not make mistakes in his range. His injury will be a massive setback for the cheetahs.
For the Bulls CJ Stander played a lone hand, how the Bulls let him go doesn’t make any sense to me. This guy should’ve been in the Bok setup and should have played on the weekend in the green and gold. Elsewhere Willie Wepener was a nuisance but he did concede a lot of penalties while Ulrich Beyers impressed me at outside centre, he got over the advantage line constantly and although did not break the line he was difficult to get down.
The Cheetahs win comes at a good time with Johan Goosen probably coming back this week and Heinrich Brussouw and Coenie Oosthuizen the next. Bad news however is the injuries to Piet van Zyl and Riaan Smit, Both will be out for about 8 weeks and will be sorely missed.
The Kwas played a solid game but WP were just too good, for me the difference was Marcell Brache (and WP’s defence), he’s decision making and all round skill is top class. JP du Plessis is also a serious talent, big, strong, good on his feet and a good defender. Duanne Vermeulen is not up to his best yet but he will get there. He needs to be managed in. Live-wire Deon Fourie played his heart out as usual.
For the Kwas, there were a few guys that stood out, Wilkins, landman and Brummer, but they missed Willie Le Roux quite a lot. I would like to keep Brummer at fullback and play Willie at flyhalf, he needs to get more of the ball to make things happen for the kwas. They looked flat feeted and did not seem to have someone who can get them over the advantage line, although they had more possession they were tackled back and lost momentum in the tackles.
The Sharks were too good for the Lions, who came from an impressive showing against the Cheetahs. Although I won’t take a lot from that win due to the Cheetahs being slow starters.
The Lions looked a far cry from the team from last week and I wonder if the midweek news did not unsettle them. These guys are a far better team, but they did not play like they could. Credit to the Sharks who did put them under pressure and played a more structured game, but they would kick themselves for not picking up the bonus point.
For the Sharks there was numerous players that stood out but most notably was Riaan Viljoen after he went off for his concussion test, Meyer Bosman (he played his best game in the Sharks jersey and was impressive with the boot) and Craig Burden who is like a fast Deon Fourie. Jean Deysel also played well and deserves a mention.
For the Lions Warren Whiteley stood out with his strong runs and impressive work rate while Henrik Roodt stood out for all the wrong reasons.
All in all I think we are getting a clearer picture of the teams and how they match against each other, I think the Sharks, Lions and Cheetahs are the top 3 and with the Cheetahs getting their boks back in the following few weeks they could become a very dangerous side.
Going to the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks played well and were deserved winners over the Aussies. I predicted a heavier loss for the Aussies. I did not watch the game so I won’t comment further.
The Boks played a good game, not spectacular but a good enough start to their campaign. HM said afterwards he is a very difficult guy to please and their is a lot that needs to be better cone the AB’s! However there is some selections that doesn’t warrant their inclusion in the team and thus he is probably to fault for being difficult to please!
The Boks should have got a bonus point for 4 tries and they had the chances but where unable to use them but in their defence I must say the Argies did play some negative rugby and were lucky to escape without a yellow card in the match.
Morne Steyn played superbly well and he will make it difficult for the young Goose to play in this years championship if he continues to play like he did. I feel that the injury to Goosen will prevent him from playing for the Boks this year already he still needs to show that he can back up what he did in Super rugby in the CC, but we will be watching him closely in the coming weeks.
Mvovo, Bekker, Marcell Coetzee and Willem Alberts all played well, while the likes of JDV and Frans Steyn were quiet for a change.
The injury to Bismarck is a big blow to our chances of winning the Championship, but Adriaan showed he is good enough to start, but our back up is starting to look a bit thin. Tiaan Liebenberg is good but not in the same class as Bissie, Adriaan or Chilli.
I would also like to see CJ Stander in the mix for the Boks, with his speed and power he would be a big asset at number 8. If JJ Engelbrecht is there why not CJ?
The following few weeks will be interesting in the CC with a lot of big clashes with the Central derby between the Cheetahs and the Kwas and the derby between the Sharks and Bulls to be the highlights for me.
This weeks fixtures are:
Saturday
NZ vs Aus
Kwas vs Cheetahs
Lions vs WP
Bulls vs Sharks
Boks vs Arg
Cant wait for the weekend!
Each of the unions have 2 votes plus Hoskens as SARU president has one so only two unions voted for the Lions.
Speculation at the moment is that it was the Bulls and WP with the Cheetahs and the Sharks reneging on their “we stand together” agreement of June.
The Pumas, Leopards and Valke, who feed on the Lions table scraps, apparently voted against the Lions.
This whole thing stinks! I would be very dissapointed if the cheetahs also voted against the Lions as you say, it doesn’t make sense as why they would go against it, because it could’ve been us!
Do you know anything about a court case from the pumas and leopards against the lions as patrick mentioned?
I am hoping the lions make hay in the currie cup to prove a point! Mayhe not win but lose against my Cheetahs in the final hehe!
Thanx for giving the info I am so unaware of the happenings thesedays! Any ideas why the sharks and cheetahs went back on their word?
Anyway good luck this can’t be a good time for lions supporters!
It’s not a court case, it’s an arbitration. At this stage the Leopards and Pumas are claiming the Lions owe them money (this comes from before Kevin de Klerk took over) and the Lions are disputing the amounts claimed.
The surprise to me was that the Leopards and Valke voted against the Lions when their top clubs are playing in the GLRU leagues.
ok thanx. now I think I know whats going on. Ja well this is a fiasco. SARU tried their best to wash their hands!
It is fairly certain that the Cheetahs voted against the Lions based on what KdK has been quoted as saying to Rugby365:
De Klerk was also disappointed with the behaviour of some of the other franchises – who initially stood together and sent a letter to SARU as a unit, saying: ‘That none of the existing franchises shall be eliminated from the tournament in 2013 or at any stage thereafter as a result of the inclusion of the Kings.’
“The other guys ran, just like we expected them to run, especially my ‘pal’ there in the Free State … he is known for that,” the Lions boss told this website.
However, he had kinder words of the Stormers hierarchy, who are believed to have been one of only two unions who supported the Lions that lost heavily (6-23) in the vote.
“We never really knew where we stood with Western Province, but since the change in leadership this year they showed their true colours and we know exactly where we stand [with them].”
I read your first paragraph and realized that you are so badly informed and that you actually dont know what the facts are. As a matter of fact you dont even know the voting structure. There are 14 voting members each have 2 votes, and the president has one vote on council. So out of the 14 voting members only the Lions voted for themselves along with two other unions, and i doubt it would be the Pumas and Leopards as they are currently in arbetration regarding monies related to te Super series.
Before you write articles get the facs.
Patrick you are right I did not know the voting structure and I talked about what I did know in other words that the big 5 said they would stand together. I did not know about the Pumas and Leopards court case against the lions so thank you for that info! I thought the smaller unions would naturally go with their bigger cousins and thus it was a suprise to me that the voting margin was so big!
Furthermore I have been very busy lately and have not been clued up as usual! But thank you for helping and your positive feedback!
PS: It is a blog, I don’t get paid for doing this, and it is my thoughts so if I’m wrong I would accept it and correct it, as I did here. Just keep it in mind.
Who are the Boks coming back to the cheetahs in “few weeks time”.
Coenie Oosthuizen, Heinrich Brüssouw and baby bok Johan Goosen.
Thanks for the review guntz!
I didn’t think the Boks played well enough. Well enough to win ja but definitely not well enough for a springboard into the competition.
How much longer is HM going to use the excuse of time together? Ja so what, Argentina had 6 weeks together. Our guys have played together in combinations since February. This excuse is not good enough, sorry.
Morne steyn was ok. Still our backline hardly saw any balls. I noted that our first backline move was in the 40th minute! After that there wasn’t much more.
Morne seems to lack the ability to get his backline front foot ball. He either kicks it or when he passes the entire defense is up already.
I am not sure if this is Morne’s fault or the over structuredness of the Bok game plan.
Our game plan is purely to pass to a fwd, take it up, pass to fwd, take it up until we (hopefully) get over the try line. We could not score 4 tries in this fashion and to think one of the 3 tries were due to a kick wide to Habana which was also largely thanks to luck in the end.
I tend to agree with your comment re Stander, rather than Potgieter.
Uysh, after seeing how dangerous Habana and Hougaard looked in the closing stages Meyer have them as his starting wings this coming weekend. – but in saying that I have to agree that we were below par, players that were nowhere imo is Keegan Daniel(hardly saw him), I would rather have Potgieter looking like a headless chicken at a mosh pit than Daniel in the starting line-up.
Beast was also very quiet and hardly made any ground with ball in hand. – Jean passed when he didn’t need to, and took it up when he had support outside him, Frans seems to cut inside more often than is needed.
If our centre combination lives up to their potential, we could be great. Morne may also influence how dangerous they appear
@Hanjo : Potgieter and Daniel were fairly ordinary on Saturday. Like we discussed, I would still like to see Coetzee at 8, Alberts @ 7 and Kolisi at 6, but now with Bismarck gone we have no fetcher at all!
I think that is the loosies that what we all wanted. HM seems to dislike Brüssouw and we can’t win the Championship if you don’t have people that can beat Macaw and co. on the ground. Heinrich showed after he was dropped against the English how good he is and he started playing well again, unfortunately he got injured but it seems he will be back in two weeks time. But will HM pick him? I don’t think so!
Habana for me is irreplaceable, so is JP. so I think if Hougaard were to become a regular Bok wing, JP would have to become a regular Bok fullback, no other way.
at this point I think Hougie should be an impact player on the wing. There is nothing that would make me pick him above JP or Habana and Lambie should be Fullback.
@guntz27 : I see Kolisi does not fit into HM’s gameplan, as Jacques Pogieter obviously does, and has been sent back home to the Currie Cup!
uysh you are correct our backline did not get enough ball, and Morne struggles to get us on the front foot, but I don’t think it is just his fault. Hougaard also has a big influence on how the backline is going. Hougi looks far better as wing.
Our gameplan is the issue, and some selections but guys like Daniel will be more dangerous in a more open style. I dont think potgieter deserves a place, never ever. He just runs into a wall time after time!
I also see that HM praised the Argies defence, if the ball were taken to the backline their defence wouldve been tested more! Our gameplan is not good enough if we want to beat the AB’s!
Hougie is a liability at scrumhalf. Every time Ruan Pienaar comes on you can see what real scrumhalf play is like. How long do you think it will take for Will Genia to grab the ball when Hougie throws it in the air and then aims for it to get his box kicks off? I have seen this type of thing in Primary school rugby/ 5th team rugby from the fullback that is not used to the position and trying to make the best of his lack of talent! On the wing, Hougie is a different animal all together and feeding off his scrumhalf, as he did during the World Cup, he is extremely dangerous and elusive.
yes, Hougie is a better on the wing, I would go so far as to say he is the best left wing in the country (sorry Habs). But who else do we play at 9, or do we stick with Ruan? HM won’t play Sarel Pretorius or Piet van Zyl (not just because he is injured for 8weeks).
No other union wanted to be forced to merge with the Lions and the Sharks and Cheetahs were being touted as two potential partners! Either the Sharks and Kings or Lions and Cheethas. If those were the options can you blame them
Byron you have a valid point there