do you really think that the crusaders’ and only saders’ “try scoring records are inflated by blow out victories over cellar dweller teams like the Reds”?
c’mon,…… every team puts more points on the weakest teams and less on the strongest and every top team has usually its try fest each year against some of those “cellar dweller teams”

Why is everybody discarding Dagg?
As I know he’s not in the extended squad (as said in the article), he’s a full member of the squad. He got injured at the end of september playing for Hawke’s Bay. He dislocated his shoulder and when it happened, news said that he had to be sidelined for around 3 months so at this moment he should be training or near to begin trainning and should be fit for the beggining of the comp.
But I didn’t read anything new about him since then, since september,…. did I miss something?

you’re right about each NZ team having its weaknesses, it’s quite logical having lost so many important players.
But even with those weaknesses the NZ conference is the toughest by far.
As you said t’s going to be a very tight conference, the tightest and the toughtest.

I couldn’t make a forecast of who will be first in the Nz conference, second, etc. I think all have their chances and probably the same chances except may be the Blues. They have probably less chances cause they’ve been lacking a gameplan, they had no direction, they weren’t a team and this is dificult to build. I don’t know if Umaga is the apropiate but even if he’s it will take him time.
But the rest are in a very similar situation and have similar opportunities. It will depend more on things that are impossible to know right now, like injuries to important players. All the teams lack depth and injuries to decisive players can be a crucial factor next season.

last season the tries scored by each of the following teams were:
-Hurricanes 63 tries (5 of them in finals)
-Highlanders 63 tries (9 of them in finals)
-Crusaders 56

The main scorers of each team were:
-W. Naholo 13 tries (20% of Highlanders’)
-TJ Perenara 11 (17%)
-Nemani Nadolo 9 (16% of Crusaders’)

is something quite curious that I’ve never heard or read about Naholo (or Perenara) being the only attacking weapon of the Highlenders (Canes) or similar things but it’s very usual to read that Nadolo is the only Crusaders’ attacking thread or weapon.

The saders have been btwin the teams with more points and tries of the SR comp for many years now and I don’t have the stats but I ‘m quite sure that the saders are the team that more tries have scored in the last 5, 7 or 10 years (and very probably with quite a big diference). Last year they were the second team with more tries during the regular season only behind the canes (56 and 58 tries) and the team that scored more points.
They have achieved this with the same gameplan which I don’t think it’s Blackadder’s but more Canterbury-Crusaders’ gameplan. And I don’t think that the gameplan isn’t working; thanks mainly to it the only time in 14 years that the saders missed the finals was because of the conference system (they had more points than the Stormers) or playing it Canterbury won 7 times the ITM cup in the last 8 years.

Last year the saders had a huge problem with the rushing defenses and their gameplan needed an adjusment that Blackadder failed to do. IMO they needed a player like Nonu at 12 to hit those defenses and Blackadder could have tried with Nadolo but he did nothing. It’s also true that it was a very strange season with some players coming late from Japan, some mini-sabathicals, the resting of the other AB, etc. and they reached the form too late.

I wouldn’t change the Canterbury-Crusaders’ gameplan (some adjusments when needed) and I would continue with a coach from inside, Scott Robertson.

I think Mo’unga is the first in line for the flyhalf spot. He has played 2 complete seasons for Canterbury there. Last season he was IMO the inform flyhalf, had similar stats to, e.g., Sopoaga and was quite solid.

Argentina reached the semifinals of the WC and they were, at least in my accounts, the 3rd best team in the WC only surpassed by the AB and wallies (their last match against the boks was no more than a training played with a B team). Those 3 teams, AB, wallies and argies, displayed a game which was in a diferent level from the rest of the teams.

Many people is saying that the jaguares will need a time to adapt to the competition, most of them saying that they’ll need at least 2 years. I cannot see it.

One of the main arguments is that they need to adapt to a very long season of 16 matches plus finals, that one thing is the RC to which they are adapted but it’s only 6 matches-long and another very diferent the 16 matches-long season of SR. But the core of 10-15 experienced players were playing in Europe (Herrera in Castres, Creevy in Montpellier or Clermont, Lavanini in Racing Metro, Sanchez in Toulon, Tuculet in Cardiff Blues, etc.), and I don’t think that youngs like Cordero, Isa, Montero,etc. will have any problem to have the apropiate training in a professional environment to bear a long season.

The other principal argument is that the teams included untill the moment in SR (Force, Rebels, Kings,….) have all struggled during their first seasons. But these teams have nothing to do with the jaguares, they were the weakest teams of the comp by far and were made of the players rejected by the strong tems of their respective countries. This is not the case of the Jaguares, they have the whole Argentina side (28 internationals) with some exceptions.
Being the main exceptions Ayerza, Cubelli, Bosch and Imhoff. Figallo is now the 6th or 7th prop and he was called to the WC squad only when 2 props got injured. Galarza played 1 single match in the WC and it was from the bench. Lavaninini, Petti and Alemanno were the playing locks and all are in the team. Fernandez Lobbe is already 34 and if he had been included he would have to fight with youngs like Isa, Ortega Desio or Matera for being the starter, the backrow is very complete with those youngs and Senatore and Leguizamon.

The team that the Jaguares can present is a test side:

1. Tetaz/Noguera 2. Creevy 3. Herrera
4. Petti 5. Lavanini
6. Matera 7. Isa/Leguizamon 8. Senatore
9. Landajo 10. Sanchez
12. Hernandez 13. Moroni (started 4 WC matches)
11. Cordero 14. Montero (injured for the WC) 15. Tuculet

Another issue with the past SR newcomers was that it was a new team and many players didn’t know each other but this is not either the case with the jaguares. The argies are used to play together and in the last WC they together developed one of the most interesting and entertaining brands of rugby.
This is going to be the strongest team by far playing in the weakest conference and I would bet that they’ll finish first in the overall log.

that’s a good one, Rick 🙂

@bazza,

really? are you really trying to argue that the team with the best track record by far are rubbish because they hold the record of finals lost?

The saders won 7 titles, reached the final 4 times (not 6 or 7 as you said) and the semis 5 times.
Next in line are the Blues with 3 titles, 1 final and 2 semis.
And what diference most the saders from the rest of the teams is that, except the first year, the other 19 seasons they’ve been at least fighting for being in the finals, fighting with the bests each season. The rest of the teams are nowhere near them.

OK, Bosch, Ayerza and Cubelli are also missing. But they let Cubelli sign for the Brumbies coz they still have Landajo and in this way both will very probably be the incumbents and have more gametime than otherwise. Glez Amorosino and Agulla are well past their best, besides Cordero, Montero and Tuculet are far better.

I was just answering to your statement that “the jaguares will have a couple of years to adapt”. I don’t think so, IMO they are going to be the team to beat since the first match. They have at least 28 internationals.

I’m not against the inclusion of the Jaguares but with the current format they have the added advantage of playing in the weakest conference and this is going to be too much advantage.
What have no sense at all is to add such a strong team and in the same conference another 2 very weak teams. The SA conference is a joke compared to the Australasian.
And probably it would have been better, at least in terms of competitiveness, to have 2 argentinan teams.
The strong competition is what makes a league attractive. Nobody wants to see one very superior team sweeping or teams like Kings or Sunwolves losing all their matches and very probably +50

or had to travel every weekend coz the earthquake and ended up exhausted.

you’re right about the youth and inexperience of some backs but what else can a team do when they lost so many important players at a time?

anyway, if they are injury free they can begin the seson with a backline like:

9. Andy Ellis 10. R. Mo’unga

12. Crotty 13. Wainui (Goodhue is already injured and will miss the start)

11. Nadolo 14. Fruean 15. Israel Dagg

which is more than decent and just 2 of them don’t have SR experience. Besides Mo’unga has played 2 seasons as the incunbent flyhalf for Canterbury which is not SR but something to be considered.
If someone of the core experienced players (Crotty, Nadolo, Fruean, Dagg) misses then the saders can have problems but as every other team. Next year with so many players gone to Europe no team is going to have a good depth.
I think that the players in Japan won’t miss as many rounds as last years (5-6 rounds) coz this year the SR begins some 2 weeks later. Nadolo and Ellis are there but not only them, Etzebeth, de Allende,….

The saders have been playing the best rugby of the competition for many years. They’ve been in the finals fo 13 years in a row untill last year and no other team have been to 2 finals and 4 semifinals in the last 7 years even facing the problem of a slow start due to the fact of having so many AB who start the trainings later and therefore get their form later.

Even having lost many important players for the next season (McCaw, Laulala, Bird, Carter, Slade, Taylor,…) they’ll still have the best forward pack with the argies, an almost all-AB pack with 8 AB players and Taufua the only incunbent who’s not an AB.

In the backline, they’ll miss the players gone especially to fill the flyhalf position, no doubt, but what team wouldn’t be afected by the loss of players like Carter, Slade and Taylor at the same time?
And they have some promising youngs. Mo’unga was the inform flyhalf of the last ITMcup and Volavola showed some good skills last WC with Fiji.
Nadolo, Israel Dagg and Robbie Freuan can form one of the best outside backs’ trio of the competition (only equalled by the canes or the landers). In the centers they have Crotty and some other very promising youngs in Goodhue and Wainui, both NZ U20 last season, plus Havili, another NZ U20 2 years ago.

So they will be fighting for the finals as they have done in the last 18 years (except the 2 first of SR)

Los Jaguares is a test side and not any test side but the 4th in the world. They have the entire Argentinan test team of the last WC except Fernandez Lobbe and Juan Imhoff. While the All Blacks are divided into 5 Super Rugby teams or the wallies into 3-4 teams or the boks into 3, the pumas are all in the same SR team. It’s the strongest team by far.

They are going to sweep all the SA teams and the only chance of beating them will be when they visit NZ or if they have many injuries (their depth will be their only weakness).

Taking into account that they are going to be in the weakest conference, the South African, they have the first position of the overall log guaranteed. And this will give them the home advantage in the finals, a huge advantage.

This new 18 team-format is going to kill the Super Rugby and it’s going to seriously harm the SH rugby. IMO one of the main reasons why the SH national teams have been superior lied on a strong and very competitive Super Rugby competition.
Next season there won’t be such competition. The SANZAR have completely aduletered it (including the ARU so this guy’s complaints now are very hipocrite )with the introduction of one very strong team, the strongest of the competion by far, and 2 very weak teams that are not going to be up to the level of the competition. If we add that the Cheetahs are also very weak after having lost so many players these lasts seasons mainly to other SA franchises, we have that the SA conference is a joke.
This is going to provoke a huge diference btwin the 4 groups of the comp. and this makes that depending on which group the team is, they’ll have to face very diferent opposition. The 2 extremes are going to be:

– South Africa’s Stormers and Bulls don’t play any Kiwi teams and face ultraweak Japanese franchise twice, weak Cheetahs twice and ultraweak Kings once. These are 23-25 points in the bag before even playing. Argentina is in a very similar situation.

– In 15 games, NZ teams play Kiwi teams six times, the five Australian teams, South Africa’s Lions, Sharks and Kings and the Argentinean team Los Jaguares. They only have one easy game against the ultraweak Kings.

This is a completely adultered competition. Argentina is going to sweep the SA conference and finish first in theoverall log which will give them the home advantage in the finals, a huge advantage.