Don’t worry Brett, you’re not the only one the new season seems to have snuck up on. It’s as though I barely blinked after the last End of Year Tour matches last year, and now we’re already about to be back in full swing! Go figure…

Anyway, there seems to be an awful lot of positivity around the Tahs this year. Usually it’s just hot air, but there seems to be genuine substance to it this time. They do seem to have an impressive set of backs, and a formidable pack. Even Mark Keohane, one of SA’s top rugby writers, seems to think they have a really good shot this year. Here’s a link to his article if anyone’s interested http://www.sarugbymag.co.za/blog/details/sharks-tahs-best-bet-for-title. And that’s saying something, because SA journos rarely have anything positive to say about Aussie rugby. Let’s see if this early hype actually amounts to anything.

Great stuff, guys! You really captured the spirit of Mzansi 🙂 LOVED the description of Pretoria! Very accurate 😛

Nah, sorry Brett. The number 9 jersey will be no one’s but Francois Hougaard’s. McLeod will be second choice at best

When Mark Keohane speaks, its best to just nod politely and then walk away. The man is quite simply a…no, I think I’m gonna keep things respectful 🙂

well said Brett.
While I don’t reckon I could ever support the ABs (in all honesty, I’d like to see someone entirely new lift Bill this year), I can’t help but feel they well and truly deserve to take this thing more than any other nation.

So I see this RWC show playing out in only one of two ways: either the ABs crash out spectacularly, or they win the comp as comfortably as Usain Bolt wins his races. I reckon they’ve learned too much now to be caught off-guard.

“As I predicted the bok scrum was a non-event. How these guys have a reputation for being a scrum power is baffling to me.”
Jiggs, I’m increasingly coming to agree with that statement. The Bok scrum has, for a good few years now, been nowhere near the force it is reputed to be.

Yeah, i’ve heard that one, haha. Yeah, Naas, was certainly not devoid of any running ability. He could certainly do it…one just has to look at footage of him in the Currie Cup. He just favoured the kicking game. To sum him up, he was a kicker who ran when he had to.

And Jerry, I agree wasn’t the greatest of defenders either, which is why I have a chuckle every time he has a go at guys missing tackles

Interesting question Sheek.

I reckon it all depends on how Botha might’ve played in that time. Would he have taken his game to the next level on the test stage, or would have continued as he always had?

Had the Boks used their backs in ’87 if they hadn’t been banned, I think they may have used them in the much the same way that we see the Bulls do at present: in a very direct and ruthlessly efficient manner without a great deal flair.

I must admit though I wasn’t exactly around in the ’80s so i’m relying primarily on the extensive accounts I’ve read and footage I’ve watched of the Bok side of that time, just before they went into isolation…needless to say its hard for me say 🙂

“South African rugby might be respected for its sustained success, but it is not admired in the same way as the All Blacks are”. That, my friend, pretty much sums up my frustration of late.

And I agree with you with regards to your last sentence

Thanks Suzy
What you’ve said above (with regards to style) is exactly what is bugging me about the trend of RWCs. How can the game ever truly evolve if its greatest prize continues to be won in this way? Especially in SA? Are you content to see the boundless talent in this country continue to be stifled?

As an aside, the Boks weren’t all that depleted on last year’s tour of the North. Yes they had some notable omissions but they weren’t that far from full strength. Really, with that side, they should have put at least 30 on the Scots but look what happened?

As the very reporters I’ve mentioned above have related in their articles, the Bok’s tour last year was frustrating because they simply showed no enterprise.

King, this one of the main areas where I often feel the Boks fall woefully short. They generally (and I stress ‘generally’ because they have managed to do this on occasion) have an inability to score quick points, which adds to their predictability.

Thanks Sam, I’d like to do many more articles but trying to get a university degree doesn’t always cater to them 🙂

I find it wryly amusing that Henry’s approach has changed so much. The scorching he got after 2007 has hardened him, I see 🙂

Thanks Handles. (I have written two other articles in the past though :))

If all the time I’ve spent on this site has taught me one thing, its that league’s indomitable supremacy over union in Australia (something that, like nearly all South Africans, I was completely oblivious to before last year) forces rugby into a quandary that it simply doesn’t exist in SA: ‘entertain or drown’. This is a large part of the reason why South African rugby has developed the way it has, because league is virtually non-existent here.

With regards to what you’re saying about adaptability, I fully agree with you. The problem is that rugby has often allowed teams who have narrow game-plans to succeed against more varied approaches. This RWC, with the way the game has evolved, will be a litmus test to see whether this will still be the case, and I sincerely hope it isn’t for rugby’s sake as a form of entertainment

Adam, I wouldn’t completely discount the possibility of the RWC final being tryless, though, as have intimated in my article, I really hope it isn’t. In the possibility of two teams managing to make it to the final for the first time, (say Wales or Ireland, for example), I seriously think its unlikely that they’ll care how they win.

But I think you’re spot-on about the Stormers. Their inability to come back from significant deficits (with the exception of their game against the Blues) was grossly exposed in the games they lost. They, in my view, were a textbook example of how having a strong defence will certainly lose you very few games, but an ineptitude at try-scoring will see you fall short…

although the financial boost will undoubtedly give the lions greater ability when it comes to attracting big-name players to the union, something they haven’t been able to do for a while

yeah steve, I certainly knew about it but didn’t really want to include it as it isn’t necessarily related to on-field matters. at the moment the new investors are paying a lotta lip-service to big plans for the future and what-not, but these sorts of corporate matters don’t always make a telling impact on what happens between the four white lines…

Thanks Spinner.
Well, because I’m really not a betting man, I’m reluctant to say what positions the SA teams will finish in, particularly as there are so many variables added by the new format. What I can almost guarantee you, though, is that the competition within the conference will be extremely fierce, with the differences between the teams being miniscule.

The way the teams fair against Kiwi and Oz opposition is probably what will separate the teams the most.

I’d disagree about the Bulls, Stormers, and the Boks mirroring each other though, because they are very different sides who rely on specific traditional strengths, especially the Stormers.

I also think that its unlikely these teams will be run off their feet (perhaps the Boks will, but it won’t be as a result of inferior fitness), because the coaches will be very prudent in how they manage their sides, both for the sake of the national side and for their own teams, because this is going to be a very long tournament. As a result, rotations of large squads will be common, particularly because most of the SA sides have the depth to do so (though this might not have come across in my article because I mostly covered the most prominent players)

just wanna add a few more things I missed out:

Dewaldt Potgieter will form part of the Bulls’ loose trio, Franco van der Merwe will likely captain the Lions as he did during the Currie Cup, and Peter Grant will also likely continue on as the Stormers’ number one flyhalf once he gets back from playing for the Kobelco Steelers in Japan around the start of the season.

*sigh*, i guess some people will remain set in their beliefs. if i’m an Aussie to you Dave, then so’ll be it. oh, and distinctly remember saying that I’d always be a “a man of the union”. Later buddy.

Good to see that you’re such a passionate sports fan though…

I apologize if i offended you, Steve, but the estimates and observations I made were made purely from my everyday experiences… Also, I live in johannesburg, a football-mad city, so its probably more likely that people here don’t know too much about two codes of rugby existing. I expect that more people in places like durban and cape town know of it because those are rugby heartlands.

And the reason I never heard heard about pieter muller and tiaan strauss is probably because I was too young in 1995 to really understand (I am only in my early 20’s). I most certainly do know that Strauss played for the Wallabies, but I didn’t know that he had any association with league.

One last thing…your example of sumo wrestling…that is at least televised here in SA…but league gets almost no airplay. The most consistent airplay that i’ve seen is when they talk about it in those one hour segments of skysports that supersport runs. other than that, the only full games i can remember watching are some of the four nations games they showed last year and the the world cup final they showed the year before.

Dave, King of The Gorgonites

Haha! I’m very much a johannesburg resident folks 🙂 been living here since I was six years of age…first stayed in Soweto, then moved into further into the south of joburg. Still live less than five minutes away from soweto though…see Soccer City every time i leave for university.

As you’ve probably guessed, King, I am most certainly not Afrikaans. Haha! But you’re right, my first language is not a South African one, but a Ghanaian one (called Twi)…I’m a dual citizen you see…spent the first four years of my life in Ghana.

And seeing as I went to a high school that regularly competed with the likes of pretoria boys high, and king edward VII School (John Smit’s and Bryan Habana’s respective alma maters), I think I’d know a fair about the rugby scene around here without having to spend hours on the net 😉

And I’ve never even so much as left the shores of this continent let alone been to Australia…

is that enough, or do you want me to babble out my whole life story? 🙂

oh okay. thanks for the info sean

Well, I’d think that in any rugby playing nation touch rugby is a prominent backyard game and SA is no different. The touch we play is usually only three touches though, and we play with either the play-the-ball rule, or the tap-and-go rule…in very casual situations we’ll play with both rules. We almost always play with only three touches though…

Very interesting comment, Sean.
Very interesting to see that such high profile names like Warren Brosnihan and Pieter Muller went to play league in Australia. The thing is, I don’t think their names are ever mentioned in connection with league in South African rugby circles…

Hmmm…seems I should have done a little bit bit more research into the Rhinos! I apologize for that folks 🙂 but the fact that you guys know so much about them whereas so few South Africans have ever heard of them just serves to illustrate my point even more vividly…