Volume 1, Number 94 October 2018

“Arguably Nigel Owens’ worst performance as a Test referee, in Wellington NZ last Saturday, yet again drew attention to the complete mess rugby has got into by not adhering to its own Law Book.” – Dan Retief

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Anything But A Dead Rubber

Confession time: I didn’t watch the All Black demolition of Argentina last weekend. And when I woke up last Sunday morning and learned the result, my first thought was that this week’s match at Loftus was now a dead rubber.

But I stand corrected, by none other than Johan Coetzee (@jwcoetzee), who has opined on the SuperSport website that the match is everything but a dead rubber. And he offers some truly superior logic as to why this is so.

I’m going to try not to spoil the deliciousness of his logic for you but I will provide a hint. He views the match at Loftus this Saturday as an arm wrestle curtain-raiser to the main event, which will be when the same two teams face each other in Yokohama just under a year from now during the pool stages of the World Cup.

It’s an intriguing viewpoint, which will leave Saturday’s losing team with a psychological mountain to climb. That makes Saturday’s game anything but a dead rubber.

As Johan writes: “The worst thing that can happen to Rassie Erasmus’s Springboks is a bad loss, as obvious as that may sound. They gambled – in terms of team selections and preparations – so much of their season on a win in Wellington. The gamble paid off, but now that they have it under the belt they simply have to follow that up with more of the same.”

“A win, on the other hand, changes the landscape completely.

“If the Springboks become the first team to win back-to-back games against the seemingly invincible All Blacks since they did it themselves back in 2009, it will usher in a new era.”

He makes several very valid points. Now all that remains is to see if the Springboks can do the job that all of South Africa – except, perhaps, a few stray lambs forever lost down in the Western Cape – wants them to do. Go Bokke!!

KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER

World Rugby has made game dangerousNormal service resumes in PRO14Currie Cup First Division wraps up

REGULAR FEATURES

Examining the Laws of the GameSouth Africans playing overseasThe Rugby Weekend Ahead

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World Rugby’s Rushed New Law Change

The organisation that control’s rugby on the global stage is not renowned for alacrity of movement, especially in the area of law changes. Usually, changes are discussed at length and then tried out (and fine-tuned) in lower level competitions before being codified and imposed on all rugby playing nations.

On Monday, World Rugby’s Council departed from this tried-and-tested process and proclaimed a law change that is to be applied immediately. You can read about the finer details of the new law here but in summary, it states:

“Players who support or lift a teammate must lower the player to the ground safely as soon as the ball is won by a player of either team.”

It’s worth looking at the first reaction to the new law, which came from Australia.

Wallabies fullback, Dane Haylett-Petty, welcomed what has been called a move to start punishing lifters who don’t bring down their teammates safely from aerial contests.

Interestingly, the new law has been dubbed the ‘Israel Folau rule’ from an incident in an Australia versus Ireland match. Folau was controversially suspended for a week for an aerial collision with Ireland skipper Peter O’Mahony, who fell awkwardly after being poorly lifted by teammate CJ Stander.

 

Normal service resumes in PRO14

After a performance at home the week before that saw Cheetahs fans hopes dashed by an Ulster equalising try after the hooter, the fans saw a possible victory snatched away in the last 10 minutes when the team played the Cardiff Blues in Wales last week. The result leaves the Free State team propping up the Conference A table on only five points.

Meanwhile, across in Conference B the Southern Kings followed their fabulous victory against the Glasgow Warriors with what can only be described as a capitulation against the Scarlets a week later. The 54-14 scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story, however.

In the first half, every time the Scarlets scored, the Kings fought back to stay in the match, going into half-time at 21-14 down. But they seem to have completely run out of gas in the second half leading commentators to speculate about their conditioning.

 

That Clayton Blommetjies (playing for Scarlets) struggled to get into the match 22 due to poor conditioning supports the idea.

If fitness is the problem for the local teams in PRO14, something is going to have to be done about it post-haste. Cheetahs and Kings coaching staff must put to good use the three-week break after this weekend’s fixtures. The fans deserve nothing less.

 

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Currie Cup First Division wraps up

The pools stage of the Currie Cup First Division comes to an end this week and the results of the weekend’s clashes will determine the composition and location of the semi-finals.

Glancing at the table alongside, it’s clear that the first three slots in the semi-finals are pretty much done and dusted. Second (Leopards) and third (Valke) play each other and the result may see them switch position but neither apperas to be in danger of missing out on the play-offs.

But the fourth semi-final slot is where it remains interesting. The Boland Cavaliers have shot their bolt and have to sit on the sidelines and watch the Border Bulldogs duke it out with the Down Touch Griffons in East London.

The result of that match will determine the fate of all three teams. 

For the Griffons a win – or even a draw – is all they need but for the Bulldogs to progress, they need a bonus point win to leapfrog the Cavaliers.

Engage semi-finals predictions:

SWD Eagles vs Down Touch Griffons in GeorgeValke vs Leopards in Kempton Park

 

School Sport Live on YouTube

The one worry any coach has at some point in his (or her) career is depth. This pertained to depth of the immediate squad as well as to the depth of the pool of talent on which it is possible to draw.

Traditionally, provincial coaches would rely of schools in their catchment area to alert them to possible talent and they would monitor the Craven Week competition for promising juniors but this approach meant that many talented players from less favoured schools were often left behind.

Then came the FNB Varsity Cup, launched in 2008 and involving eight top rugby playing universities. In 2011, a second tier competition called the Varsity Shield was added, increasing the number of universities to thirteen. Two years later the Young Guns tournament for Under-20 Varsity Cup teams was launched.

All of a sudden, players that had been overlooked at school level, for whatever reason, had a second bite at the cherry. The most celebrated player, thus far, to have taken this route to stardom is Aphiwe Dyantyi.

And nowadays varsity and provincial coaches have another source to use to find promising young players: the School Sport Live channel on YouTube. Just check out this 11 minute package of some of the best tries of the 2017 season.

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Examining the Laws of the Game

Perhaps one of the more interesting areas of game to police is the touch-line and throw in. It starts off simply enough: the line is out so if the ball touches the line or the ground beyond the line, it is out. Similarly, if the ball-carrier touches the line or the ground beyond the line, he is out.

And this is where it begins to become interesting (and subjective): a player who carries the ball into touch must release the ball immediately so that a quick throw may be taken. Failure to do so should lead to a penalty. Now think back to the many times you have seen a player wilfully obstruct opposing players wanting to take a quick throw-in without being penalised. Yeah. Enough said. For now.

Another interesting aspect of this law is the quick throw itself. According the newly simplified rugby laws of rugby, the ball is thrown in:

a. Between the mark of touch and the thrower’s own goal line; and

b. Parallel to or towards the thrower’s own goal line; and

c. So that it reaches the five-metre line before it touches the ground or hits a player; and

d. By a player whose feet are both outside the field of play.

 

World Rugby has made game dangerous

There has been grumbling among commentators for some time about the effect that accumulated law changes have had to the game and many of them present coherent cases for their arguments.

Regular readers of this newsletter might recall my own comments after the fantastic Springbok win in Wellington regarding Read’s vicious side entry to the ruck and the shoulder charge on Whitely, although I misidentified the perpetrator in the latter case.

The inimitable Dan Retief (@Retief_Dan) has weighed in on both incidents and much else besides.

Briefly, he contends (in a piece published on 20 September) that the problem is not so much the laws themselves as the selective application of those laws. But he puts it far more eloquently than I could:

“Arguably Nigel Owens’ worst performance as a Test referee, in Wellington NZ last Saturday, yet again drew attention to the complete mess rugby has got into by not adhering to its own Law Book.”

And: "You have to ask what on earth were the assistant referees, Frenchman Pascal Gauzere and Australia’s Nic Berry watching? Should the TMO, England’s Rowan Kitt, not have intervened to point out, at the very least, Read’s impersonation of a scud missile?"

He goes into considerable detail citing incidents in that match as well as others where the same laws have been applied differently. It’s definitely worth a gander and it should be prescribed reading for all referees of the game.

 

South Africans playing overseas

In this instalment of our series cataloguing Saffers playing our beautiful game abroad, we look at the Japan Rugby Top League. At this point in the season, after four rounds of competition and with another three to play, 29 South Africans have represented ten of the 16 teams in the league:

Henco Venter (7) and Coenie van Wyk (15) for the Toshiba Brave LupusJan de Klerk (5), Philip van der Walt (8) and Fred Zeilinga (10) for the Canon EaglesDeon Stegmann (6) for Honda HeatKwagga Smith (7), Niel Marais (10) and Gerhardus Labuschagne (11) for Yamaha JubiloJohn-Roy Jenkinson (3) and Hencus van Wyk (3) for the Munakata Sanix BluesRobert Kruger (6), Willie Britz (8), Garth April (10) and Shane Gates (13) for the NTT Communications Shining ArcsRuan Botha (5), Jean Droste (5), Lappies Labuschagne (6), Duane Vermeulen (8), Burger Odendaal (12) and Gerhard van den Heever (15) for the Kubota SpearsGrant Hattingh (6) for the Kobe Steel Kobelco SteelersCarl Wegner (4), Reniel Hugo (5), Jason Jenkins (5), Lionel Cronje (10), Clinton Swart (10), Gio Aplon (15) for Toyota VerblitzHarold Vorster (13) for the Panasonic Wildknights

 

It may be interesting to note the six teams that, until now at least, do not appear to have any players from our sunny shores. These are:

Suntory SungoliathNEC Green RocketsHino Red DolphinsToyota Industries ShuttlesCoca Cola Red SparksRicoh Black Rams

If you’re wondering about the somewhat different team names you should know that rugby in Japan has only recently gone professional and is built on a foundation of what were originally amateur company teams, named for and funded by private companies. The advent of professionalism has changed the composition of the teams but not the naming conventions.

The structure of the competition is such that there are two conferences (Red and White) each containing eight teams. Within the conferences, each of the teams plays every one of the others in that conference once to make up the seven rounds.

Then, after the November Test Rugby window, the competition resumes in early December with the playoffs. Interestingly, while the top four teams in each conference contest quarterfinals in pursuit of the ultimate prize, those lower down are also involved in playoffs to avoid coming last in the competition.

 

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The Rugby Action this Weekend

The last round of Rugby Championship matches takes place on Saturday and early Sunday morning. Springboks vs All Backs kicks off on Saturday at 17:05 (Loftus) while the Argentina vs Australia fixture starts at 00:40 (Salta) Sunday morning.

The pool stages of the Currie Cup First Division also conclude over the course of this weekend (see schedule alongside). You may have seen the more detailed permutation analysis on page 4.

Also this weekend, the PRO14 action continues with the Cheetahs in Edinburgh (Fri 20:35) and the Southern Kings visiting Italy to play Treviso aka Benetton Rugby (Sat 20:00).

Both opponents are languishing on 11 points in Conference B so it is possible that one or both of the South African teams can pull off a win. But after last weekend, it may be too much for which to hope.

 

Last But Not Least

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The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters.

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