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The Cheetahs are going to be good this year and 7 other predictions for the Super Rugby season
While we wait for Super Rugby season to kick off on Thursday (yes, Thursday) night, Jamie Wall takes a stab at some predictions for the months ahead.
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A year ago, I looked ahead at the upcoming 2016 Super Rugby season and wrote: “The Hurricanes’ will put on a show, before having their hopes and dreams crushed in brutal fashion.” Ah. Whoops. With that barely credible introduction, here are some predictions for 2017:
1. Rounds 2, 3 and 4 will be huge. The New Zealand Conference has been the most competitive and entertaining part of Super Rugby for the last few years, and all the teams will be involved in local derbies over these three weeks – a must-watch set of games.
2. Handre Pollard will make the Bulls worth watching. The difference Pollard is set to make to the former champions will be immeasurable. The Bulls first-five, who missed all of last season with injury, is the closest thing anyone has to Beauden Barrett right now (apart from Jordie Barrett, who also belongs to the Hurricanes).
3. The Kiwi teams will get distracted by their fixtures against the Lions. No, not the Lions they play every year. All five New Zealand sides play The British & Irish Lions on their June tour, and all five will want to win. In fact, NZ Rugby will release the All Blacks to play in the Blues and Crusaders matches, which shows the importance of the fixtures. This also means that just before the tour, there will be some potential banana-skin games for the Blues against the Reds, the Hurricanes against the Force and the Chiefs against the Waratahs. Meanwhile the Crusaders and Highlanders will be bashing each other up.
4. The Australians can’t do any worse. 2016 was the year it became rather popular to decry the state of South African rugby, but at least one of their teams made the final and played some great rugby in doing so. The same can’t really be said of any of the Aussies. Going by what they brought to the table at the Brisbane Tens (a tournament they got to play on home turf), it could be more of the same this time around – especially considering they seem to be knocking on retirement door homes to fill their squads.
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5. The Cheetahs won’t be the worst. Hear me out here. While the Cheetahs have become synonymous with turning shying off tackles into a form of performance art, there is one key reason why 2017 might finally be their year: the last five winners of the Currie Cup have seen their respective Super Rugby teams go on to top the South African standings, and last year the Free State Cheetahs lifted the trophy.
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6. Other teams will try (and probably fail) to match Los Jaguares in the mascot stakes. Jaguardo had quite a year in 2016, which is more than one can say about the team he represents. At the momentArgentina is streets ahead in the mascot game with Japan a close second.
7. The Sunwolves will be disappointed with Invercargill. It’s just under 10,000km from Tokyo to Invercargill, but it might as well be in another galaxy in terms of things to do in your downtime. The Sunwolves play the Highlanders there in April, however it’s doubtful they’ll be as frank about their thoughts on the town as the Rolling Stones once were.
8. Refs will prove that there’s more to life after rugby than being a commentator. Former players Jamie Nutbrown, Nic Berry, Glen Jackson and Egon Seconds have all played Super Rugby, and will now all control games at the same level. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll always get it right, though.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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 commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments