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What does the 2018 draw mean for your Super Rugby team?
The 2018 Super Rugby schedule was released yesterday, and here’s the first takes: there’s still an awful lot of travel, a very tough assignment for one NZ side and absolutely no possibility whatsoever of people not complaining about the fairness of the competition.
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After breaking down the 19 rounds of the competition next year, here’s the teams that have done well and the ones that haven’t.
Good draw:
The Hurricanes have (according to my sources) got what they were after, which is an early trip to South Africa. The Canes had to play two away games to start their 2016 campaign, and lost both before coming right and maintaining consistency on both sides of the Tasman to win the title that year. Conversely, last year’s champs the Crusaders have two tough assignments in Johannesburg and Buenos Aires in consecutive weeks, but have the luxury of a bye upon their return in round nine. Meanwhile, the Brumbies – aside from benefitting from the fact that they’re the only good Australian team – have a trip to Tokyo to play the Sunwolves in round one but then don’t have to travel to South Africa till round 15. Plus they get to play the Sunwolves, Rebels and Reds twice.
Not so bad:
The Chiefs have to go to Tokyo and then play the Highlanders in successive weeks, which will be a tough ask. But after that they have it pretty good – no away fixtures against the Jags or Lions. The Lions, meanwhile, once again have the luxury of being the best of the South African conference with daylight second. However, they don’t get away with not playing any NZ teams this year, with a trip to Wellington and Dunedin set to be the pivotal moment of their season. The Waratahs, Sharks and Stormers can’t really complain about the hands they’ve been dealt.
Bad news:
The Highlanders don’t have quite as big a travel burden on them, but definitely have a tough run of games away from home. The Sharks and Bulls in South Africa will be a big ask at the midpoint of the season, and then they face the Hurricanes, Chiefs and Crusaders in three of the last four weeks of the season. The biggest losers of the NZ conference are a team that probably needs a bit of a break, though. The Blues start with two local derbies against the Highlanders and Chiefs before having to play the Lions in Johannesburg. As well as that, they then have another trip to Tokyo – scene of their capitulation against the Sunwolves last season. Spare a thought for the the Bulls, though. They have a brutal trip to NZ against the Chiefs and Crusaders, then an away fixture against the Jags, as well as a little jaunt over to Singapore to play the Sunwolves.
Despite evidence to the contrary, new Bulls coach John Mitchell seems to be pretty happy with their draw:
Not going to make a difference:
The Reds and Jaguares will be good for a few home wins, no matter what order they come in given the respective climate and travel issues visiting teams face. However the Rebels and Sunwolves could play all their games at home on three weeks rest and still have about as much chance of a making the playoffs as Warren Gatland sending Sean O’Brien a Christmas card.
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Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments