I do not think I have ever seen such a performance by a ref like the one I saw by Matt Goddard last week in the fixture between the Hurricanes and the Bulls! I am glad to hear that the Australian ref has not been picked to ref this weekend as his performance last weekend is still under review.
Goddard dished out 5 yellow cards in that game and topped it off with a red card. I do not think there was much time in the game when all 30 players were on the field at once. It was a real circus! And to make it worse, Goddard seemed to be talking a great deal in the game like a bloke in the pub getting pissed! At one moment he said to Bakkies Botha, “You’ve got big ears, so use them”. I think if Goddard had said this to Bakkies in a pub in Pretoria he would have gotten a good right hook on his face!
I personally hope Goddard never refs again let alone allowing him to ref in the Tri-Nations!!
Outspoken Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill is ready to call his South African counterparts’ bluff, as the public spat between the SANZAR partners appear to be driven by nasty undercurrents.
South Africa’s threats of vetoing a possible expanded Super 15 could see them excluded as New Zealand and Australia are reportedly investigating a new-look Asia-Pacific tournament as an alternative.
This follows revelations this past week that SA Rugby Union Chief Executive Andy Marinos and O’Neill had a “heated exchange” at a Sanzar conference last week.
Marinos, in speaking to the South African media, made no secret of the fact that he is tired of O’Neill pushing his own country’s cause at the detriment of South Africa.
“The days that other countries walk all over us are over. We will do what we feel is right for South Africa, within the Sanzar context, and nothing else,” Marinos said.
O’Neill has since confirmed reports that the Sanzar working party, set up in Dubai to investigate a Super 15 in 2011, is also exploring a radically different back-up model.
The fall back would be a virtual Super 12 involving five teams each from Australia and New Zealand, plus a team each from Japan and the Pacific islands.
“Whilst the main game is an expanded Super 15, which remains our first preference, we clearly have to work on some other options just in case,” O’Neill said.
The comment gives insight into the backroom brawl brewing in Sanzar, with O’Neill adamant about Super 15 expansion and South Africa opposed to anything that would push the competition dates back and conflict its Currie Cup competition.
In the case of any expansion, both South Africa and Australia want the 15th team.
We have had 5 rounds of the Super 14 so far this year. I recall before the start of the Super 14 how many of us were looking forward to the tournament. The question I would like to pose to you at this stage of the tournament is: how have you found the tournament so far? Has it met your expectations?
We have the Bulls leading the table which is a surprise to many as I know quite a few people had written them off before the season started. The Sharks started off well bar the loss last weekend against the Reds. Many had high hopes for the Stormers but they have blown hot and cold. From a New Zealand perspective this could be the worst Super Rugby tournament for them in a while. None of their teams have stood out. The almighty Crusaders seem to be struggling. In Australia all four franchises seem to be playing decent rugby but nothing really to blow us away.
It may be a bit too early to say who will win the Super 14 but please take part in the poll below and leave your comments below with your thoughts about the Super 14 so far.
Will there ever be an end to racism in South Africa rugby? I do not think so! Lions Super14 forwards coach, Leon Boshoff, has been suspended by the franchise for allegedly making racist remarks against the team’s black players after the Lions lost to the Stormers on the weekend.
What I have found interesting is that the SABC have reported this story by saying: “He allegedly told Earl Rose, Lawrence Sephaka and Ashwin Willemse that if they were not black their contracts would have been in jeopardy.” And most other media is only saying: “it was alleged he had verbally abused some of the players.” They do not mention the specifics like SABC have done i.e. not mention that is was racial abuse to the black players.
Boshoff has come out and denied the allegations. For me, where there is smoke there is fire. There is something going on at the Lions and only time will tell us what it is.
If these allegations are accurate then where is SA Rugby headed? They have been trying damn hard to stamp out racism in the game but it looks like every time a step forward is taken, there is always one step taken back.
If there is one player who should never play at flyhalf it is young Frans Steyn. The guy has bags of talent but he looks out of his depth when called upon to be a flyhalf. We all saw his nightmare when called to fill in the number 10 role for the Springboks in 2007 against the All Blacks in Durban. At that time, Jake White said Frans will not play at number 10 again because he needs space and you rarely get much of it at number 10. Then Steyn was flyhalf again for the Barbarians last year and what another disaster. He had a bad game. And now he has to fill the role for the Sharks now that Ruan Pienaar is injured.
We saw Steyn’s performance on Saturday against the Reds when he moved into the flyhalf position when Ruan got injured. Yet again, another disaster by Steyn at number 10. The guy is a center or for me his best position is at fullback.
I am now worried about the Sharks if they are going to rely on Steyn being their flyhalf. They must be wishing they had Butch James to call upon. With the Sharks facing the Force this weekend in Perth, it may not be a guaranteed Sharks win as many my predict. Steyn will be up against Giteau who many say is the best flyhalf in the game today. I got a feeling the Force could just edge this one simply due to the fact that Steyn is at number 10.
I do not think many players have had injury troubles such as those experienced by Tonderai Chavhanga. The guy is just unlucky!! Chavhanga got injured again on Saturday against the Lions and it is another hamstring injury. The guy has been hit with injuries through out his whole career. One can only imagine what may have been if he never suffered all those injuries. Some say he is the quickest winger in world rugby (I am not too sure about that). Maybe if he is fully fit he could be right up there with the Shane Williams and Ngewenya’s of this world. I would love to find out from the medical staff who look after Chavhanga, what really is the problem with him and his injuries.
On his day he can set the stage alight. Just look at the video clip below and see how he ‘turned on the motor’ against Sivivatu.
Clearly the biggest shock of the Super 14 this season happened on Saturday morning when the Sharks took on the Reds in Australia. Virtually no one gave the Reds a chance. Looking at the Super Bru predictions, I think only 6% of everyone who plays Super Bru picked the Reds to win. I will not lie, I never saw this one coming. Credit fully goes to the Reds. People are talking about the Reds playing entertaining rugby this season and hats off to them for not trying to change their game plan. There is a belief about the Reds this season that this brand of rugby their playing will bring great results for them. Confidence must now be sky high in the Reds camp following this win over the Sharks. Read the rest of this entry »
Great game between the Brumbies and the Waratahs. The Brumbies won 21-11. I predicted the Brumbies would win by 5 on SuperBru. I was a bit surprised that a lot of players in our Champions League pool had predicted the Waratahs would win this one. I guess their thinking was that the Waratahs are a better team than the Brumbies this season. Fair enough but today it was not the Waratahs team we had seen in the previous games. The Brumbies were inspired and aggressive today. They really wanted to win. Why I called a Brumbies win was simple: the Brumbies had a bye last week and thus they were fresh for todays game and you could see it in the way they played that these Brumbies guys were fresh and hungry for the win.
Most of us got to know the Brumbies in the days of Gregan and Larkham and how that Brumbies team would go through dozens of phases before scoring. There were glimpses of that in todays game and it kinda looked like the Brumbies of old. I still believe that the Waratahs are Australia’s best team in the Super 14 bust today they just did not show up.
I have just finished watching the Blues take on the Cheetahs in this weekends first game. How Guru can proudly say he supports the Cheetahs remains a mystery to me! It always gives me great joy seeing a South African team being thumped by a New Zealand team. A final scoreline of 46-12 to the Blues is a true reflection of the dominance the Blues had.
One point to note though is: were the Blues simply brilliant or were the Cheetahs awful? I will go with the later. I do not think I have seen such poor ball handling like that displayed by the Cheetahs this morning. They dropped the ball 3 times when they were over the try line, that is a simple 15 points they threw away. At this level that is shocking! If you can not catch the ball then how do you expect to win? The Cheetahs deserved to be hammered by more than the 46 points they got. The Blues themselves were also sloppy at times and they should have put atleast 50 on the board.
It is great to see the Blues playing the kind of rugby we have come to expect of them and their star players are starting to get into some kind of form. Watch out for the Blues!
As an ardent SA Rugby follower I am not sure whether to cry or laugh!!!! One thing I know for sure is that my early Saturday morning was spoilt but 30 odd jokers that were supposedly playing rugby. What bollocks!! That Highlanders vs Crusaders game was the worst game I have ever watched in my life (both wet and dry conditions considered). I was embarrassed to tell my wife the final score after she had enquired about this game that I had left her in bed for.
For those of you who did not watch, you missed out nothing at all, and I am not exaggerating. To sum up the game, only 2 penalties were scored by the Highlanders and these were scored in the 66th and 72nd minute respectively……….that’s it, 6-0 to the Highlanders. Not forgetting that the so-called NZ prodigeColin Slade missed a 30metre penalty that my 90 year grandmother would have been able to slot over with her eyes closed and one foot cast in cement.
What has come of NZ rugby? I am not sure what reasoning there could be because, based on current form, yes, the Crusaders and the Highlanders are the 2 weakest NZ teams and so one could sort of understand. However, in SA the 2 weakest teams met in week 1, namely the Lions and Cheetahs but boy was that an exciting game. In fact one could argue that it was close to if not the most entertaining game in week 1. What’s even more worrying is the fact that the playing conditions could not have been better. Cool, dry and with nowind to speak of, yet we had the lowest scoring game ever in super rugby. Whenever the issue of world cups and team rankings comes up, one of the arguments posed by my fellow bloggers is the fact that NZ always seem to have so much depth and quality players. Well, my dear friends, is that what you call depth? Shall we blame this on the fact that certain players have left and are playing abroad? Of course not, why, because my issue is not about the Crusaders and Highlanders being able to top the S14 log, no, all I ask for as a rugby lover is good, free flowing rugby, something which even an Under 9 colts team can produce, let alone 2 Super 14 teams with a handful of international players.
While I emphathise with the fact that a player exodus can and will affect most teams’ results, there can be no excuse for poor unstructured anderror riddled rugby being played by clowns who supposedly play at the highest level. What’s even worse, these are players who come from this great rugby nation called New Zealand. Saturday’s game left a sour taste in my mouth and I personally am not happy with such ridiculous rugby. I have watched games that ended with single digit scorelines and yet they were much more entertaining. For me to watch any Crusaders side play for a full 81 minutes andnot even score a single point takes me past being angry. I am actually very concerned that maybe, just maybe, the New Zealand teams have decided to start grooming clowns and not rugby players. Based on what I saw on Saturday, I may just end up taking my television to the cash converters, I might need the money for psychological counselling for depression. Get these jokers off my screen please!!!!
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