Super Rugby a la Crème

By Abe Williams

Super Rugby is one of a kind. It is a brand of rugby that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. It is fast-paced, intense, ferocious and (as seen this past weekend) there simply are no easy games. The Rebels, Cheetahs and Force caused upsets in their games in giving their traditional stronger opposition an early wake-up call. One have to give credit where it is due and all these teams exerted a lot of pressure on their opposition at the set-piece and on defence.

I have never seen the Cheetah’s dominate the Sharks the way they did at scrum time. Talking of which, the Stormers simply annihilated the Bulls in the scrums. I have not shed much tears over the departure of Brock Harris. He simply spends too much time in the “air” at scrum time. Did the Stormers scouts get it right with the acquisition of Vincent Koch? He was simply unbelievable and played a massive game and dissected the Bulls scrum. Now let’s discuss Nic Groom and Dillyn Leyds. Both of them looked as though they had a point to prove and took their chances to prove to the coach that they are good prospects for the season.

After the Bulls applied the pressure in the first 10 minutes, the Stormers showed some great character by absorbing the pressure. One has to acknowledge coach Allister Coetzee because he did well when making the slight adjustment on defence in ordering the ‘double hit’ on the attacking player. That seemed to prevent the Bulls from gaining momentum over the advantage line. The players were committed to the structures and Captain Courageous, Duane Vermeulen, made mention of that in the post-match interview underlining the team motto, “Know your job, do your job” and that showed in the results.

The Cheetahs’ shining stars were Joe Petersen, Sarel Pretorius and Coenie Oosthuizen. All of them had something to prove and I am not aware of a more demanding scrumhalf in South Africa other than Sarel Pretorius. He is quick and exploits the slightest lapses in defence. He gets his forwards in the game and his service to the backs was pure. In the past he was criticized for not possessing a strong pass but in playing and performing the way he did this past weekend it is hard to notice that as a weakness. Joe Petersen was a revelation at flyhalf and was cool and collected. Coenie Oosthuizen looks like a serious contender for a World Cup selection and he must have earned himself a tick with Springbok coach, Heynecke Meyer.

The Sharks and Bulls have much to ponder about. Their strategy on attack needs intervention as does their desire to play for each other. The Lions needs to believe as I do know that they possess talent. On the night both flyhalfs were dismally poor and lacked vision. Perhaps the Lions lack another element to their coaching as we have seen the significant difference in the psyche of the Stormers team with the presence of Sports Psychologist, Henning Gericke.

This coming weekend we will see how the Bulls and DHL Stormers do against New Zealand teams when the Hurricanes pay a visit to Loftus Fortress and the Blues to DHL Newlands. The Chiefs will be taking on the Brumbies at the Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth while two mouth-watering derbies await in the Australian conference with the Rebels facing defending champions, the Waratahs at the AAMI Stadium in Melbourne and the Reds taking on the Force at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. The Higlanders will kick off their Super Rugby campaign for 2015 against the Crusaders in Forsyth Barr, Dunedin. The final fixture for round 2 will be the Cell C Sharks versus the Emirates Lions at Kings Parks in Durban. As with the first round it showed that in a World Cup year there may be more “shock wins” for the rest of the competition because players is playing for selection to participate in the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament for their countries.