The home quarter final spots are by now pretty much cast in stone – Crusaders, Jaguares, Brumbies, Hurricanes. There is still a small chance for the Brumbies to overtake the Jaguares, but I don’t see the Sunwolves winning in Argentina.
There is still an almighty tussle going on for places in the last four with four games between the possible contenders:
- The Highlanders would want a bonus point to have any chance to qualify – Waratahs are pretty much playing for pride.
- A win for the Rebels will keep their QF place safe, but the Chiefs would probably want a bonus point win to have a reasonable chance to qualify. Loser of this game will be out of the running.
- Pretty simple for both the Sharks and Stormers – beat the other and qualify. The Stormers may squeeze in with a losing bonus point, but that will not be sufficient for the Sharks.
- The Bulls and Lions (their 8 wins will assist if they end up with equal log points to another team) are pretty much safe for a place in the quarters, but both would want a win to be safe in 5th spot to avoid playing the Crusaders.
If one looks back over the season all the South African teams had their moments, but these were far and in between. The only team that showed some consistency in the SA conference is from South America, and will very likely end up with a home semi-final.
The main lesson for me from the Jaguares is that less is more. At the moment the top player pool in South Africa is stretched over 4 + 2 franchises. The Cheetahs after doing pretty well last year, have now basically become a shopping mall for UK teams. The other SA franchises will also loose substantial numbers of players at the end of the season, e.g. all 4 locks from the Bulls are leaving. I cannot see any SA franchise having the remotest chance of winning the Super Rugby title next year or the year after.
My proposal:
- Reduce the number of franchises to 3
- Do not base the franchises on the provincial unions but sell the franchises to private investors
- Provincial unions still contract all players and compete in the Currie Cup and SRC as usual
- The franchises draft players from the unions (with coordination by SA Rugby) and top up their contracts
- Most importantly franchises contract professional coaching teams directly
- Franchises can be based over multiple cities, and then alternate home games between the cities
- Personally I would prefer to compete in Super Rugby, but other arrangements e.g. 2 Super + 1 Pro can work
I know the unions will never allow any scheme that dilute their power to be implemented – but the quality of our local rugby will just keep dropping until the entire Bok team need to be selected from overseas players.
Tweet
Some of my observations about SuperRugby:
😈 😛
1. It is ridiculous to have more than half the teams qualify for the knockouts because it results in…
2. Teams with less than a 50% win rate qualify for the knockouts (ridiculous)
3. Any SANZAAR league knockout stages with 3 (possibly 4) SA teams and only 2 NZ teams is ridiculous
@Dancing Bear (Comment 1) : 1 and 2 – Fortunately the competition structure changes in 2021
3 – The other Kiwi teams were not too flash this year – Blues always play error-ridden rugby nowadays but the bits I saw of the Highlanders were also disappointing
My ideal competition would be a Super 10 – 3 SA teams, Argies, 2 Aussie and 4 Kiwi
Saturday’s game for us is the biggest of the season by far. Against a weekend Stormers side, a win is a must! We will most likely lose in the playoffs although the Sharks are weird sometimes, they could surprise. However a lot is riding on Saturdays fixture, especially for the coach.
Any news on Curwin after jags game? Is he injured? Judging from Instagram, Rob jnr back at FH for this weekend?
@Keagan_Sharks (Comment 4) : Yes, he’s injured. He went for scans this week, but they still don’t know how long he’ll be out for.
@jakkalas (Comment 5) : ye I see Burden and Botha are also out. Botha is a big loss. How the hell did Burden pass the physical? Did he save his best performance for the test. His becoming just like his name sake…a Burden on our funds
Great performance by the Baby Boks against NZ…several Sharks boys playing superbly…light…at…end…of…long…tunnel…
Great result for the Baby Boks…not only do they beat New Zealand, but also knock them out of the tournament. Well done, boys!! 25-17 final score…
@pastorshark (Comment 8) : JJ has serious gas for such a big guy
@pastorshark (Comment 7) : Yep, there are some good ones there.
@pastorshark (Comment 8) : Great performance, although NZ should have been down to 14 men with that high shot on our 9 a clear red card. Its no wonder rugby is losing fans with the shockers coming from the refs and TMOs
@pastorshark (Comment 8) : Pity about the 3 yellow cards but it was great getting one over the Kiwis. No Kiwi or UK side in the semis – Australia, Argentina, France and South Africa.
@Bokhoring (Comment 9) : Gas and now addded stamina, 😆 , at school he had gas over 15 meters but tapered off after that. That was a great run from such a big guy.
@SheldonK (Comment 11) : It was a shocker, do that again and someone could get seriously injured.
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 12) : Was also frustrated with the yellow cards, but they were all warranted. I was mighty impressed by that number 6 Richardson (I believe he is a Shark), was all over the place. Can’t we fast track the number 9 Hendrikse into the senior team. That kid was damn good. They pressured NZ into making mistakes. Great win by the Baby Boks.
@Choochi (Comment 15) : Or, I hope they play CC this year at least for the Sharks
@SheldonK (Comment 11) : I agree, that high shot was at least a yellow. shocker
@Choochi (Comment 15) : Richardson is with the Sharks, he has had a brilliant junior world cup, I mentioned yesterday that I was sure he would be on the international radar very soon. Hendrickse was also very good. I think we will see a lot of these guys being introduced into the CC teams this year. Richardson has already played for Super rugby for the Sharks this year, only a minute but he got on the park but as a hooker.
Lots of talent coming through, but you give SA’s mediocre senior coaching structures enough time and they will destroy it.
@Keagan_Sharks (Comment 6) : i dont know how they gave him a contract