Thread: Today's Rugby

Sorry LT, not sure how that happened, it was of course pseudolus' nonsense I was referring to.

Corrected.

Yeah My mistake - It should have read "never televised in Wales due to lack of coal to power their steam driven televisions during the miners strike".

Originally Posted by Bobcock

Sorry LT, not sure how that happened, it was of course pseudolus' nonsense I was referring to.

Your lucky there Bob as I was just about to give my first red card of 2013.

You ain't qualified......

is this the 2013 Super Rugby thread
it can be

This year's tournament starts on Friday, with just two matches played - featuring four Australian sides, this is to allow for them to have two bye weeks rounds 18 & 19 when the B&I Lions tour.

This weekend:

Fri: Rebels v Force
Sat: Brumbies v Reds

Will take a while for the table to even out in terms of who appears to be leading the comp, Crusaders have a bye in the opening round, potentially an Oz team could have 10 points - on paper - before that match starts.

___
the annual Hurricanes match on a farm paddock in Mangatainoka:



Hurricanes - Chiefs' pre-season match a sellout

All 7762 tickets for the Chiefs' pre-season match at Mangatainoka have been sold, just in time for a Tararua farmer to transform his paddock into a professional rugby ground.

Farmer Neil ''Skin'' Symonds said he could not wait to welcome an influx of rugby-mad fans to the small Tararua settlement.

He has spent months preparing the pasture for its annual metamorphosis into a patch worthy to host high-level rugby. To ensure the grass is green and ready to go for this weekend's face-off, he has moved sheep, watered, rolled and mowed the field to perfection.

More than 1000 square metres of marquees have been put up, 5000 bucket seats and scaffolding installed, another 3000 bench seats set up and 120 port-a-loos in place already.

Part of the event's popularity and appeal was its ''pop-up nature'', Mr Rogers said.

''It's here now and gone tomorrow... They're [rugby fans] coming for something different, for a little bit of fun and to see some top quality footy, and people in our area love their footy, this game puts little Mangatainoka - a town of 137 or so - on the map.''

what a season opener for Super rugby - last year's 13th and 14th placed teams.
Rebels and Force tomorrow 3.40pm (Thai)
So much for the season's showpiece game to attract tv viewers - I expect both the people who tune in will be disappointed.

Yeah, hardly a glamorous match is it. Still I shall be watching. And you never quite know, sometimes it's exactly these sorts of matches that promise nothing that end up delivering plenty.

I would have said a fairly even match.
But, the force without sharpe and pocock is a bit of an unknown.
For the rebels, star studded line up, depending on how many pigs kurtley ate during the off season.

In all likelihood the Southern Kings will be setting all sorts of records this season...

Most points against; least for; worst defence...

i was thinking particularly of the Australian market where they are constantly on about the competition from AFL and NRL, thought a classic derby Reds v Waratahs would have been a better option, marketing-wise, to kick things off.

Yep, I see your point.

Would love too. Long way to go for me for rugby and BBQ though!

Sorry, Bangkok Tens this weekend..... the real thing....

Rugby: Southern Kings a long way from Super 15 crown
By Mike Greenaway
5:30 AM Friday Feb 15, 2013

The chances of the Kings featuring in a promotion-relegation match later this year are outstanding simply because they are not yet ready to play at this level even if it does mean promoting Eastern Cape black rugby and players


Kiwi coach Matt Sexton will have a tough task getting the Southern Kings up to speed in Super Rugby. Photo / Star

The men in suits at the South African Rugby Union are going to be sweating over the next three months as their newly-born minnow, the Southern Kings, head into the deep waters of Super Rugby.

Last weekend, the Port Elizabeth-based franchise visited the relegated Lions in an ironic fixture given that the Johannesburg team were axed to make way for the Kings in a controversial boardroom decision, and had 40 points put past them, although the Kings' Kiwi coach Matt Sexton will argue that he took the fizz out of the grudge game by resting frontline players.

If that is the case, it showed the Kings have questionable depth given the Lions are a shadow of their competitive former selves because many leading players have been drafted to the Super Rugby franchises.

The birth of the Kings follows a gestation period going back almost a decade as Saru fidgeted and waffled about how they were going to revive rugby in the Eastern Cape region where black rugby has a stronghold, and has long been the attention of a South African government that has racial transformation at the top of its sporting agenda.


Finally, rugby's governing body was forced into a corner and they had to make a decision on how to make six franchises go into five (SA's Super Rugby representation). It was eventually ruled that the team that finished lowest in the 2012 tournament, the Lions, had to drop out and there is to be an annual promotion-relegation match to determine who will be South Africa's "fifth" team in Super Rugby. The chances of the Kings featuring in a promotion-relegation match later this year are outstanding. It is notable that the Force and Rebels finished last when they made their 2006 and 2011 respectively.

The only way the Kings will feature in 2013 is if Sanzar act on Saru's plaintive pleas for expansion.

Nobody has anything against the Kings - it is a good idea to foster rugby in their region, which is a breeding ground of black talent - but the issue is that they are not ready. It is likely they are going to get some big hidings and may the rugby gods have mercy on their souls when they visit the likes of the Crusaders, Hurricanes and Brumbies in March.

The Kings have a good infrastructure in place at the magnificent Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, which was built for the 2010 soccer World Cup, and have a wily director of rugby in Alan Solomons while Sexton is a promising coach. They have an inspirational captain in the charismatic Luke Watson but what they don't have is big name players or the experience to survive in the ruthless world of Super Rugby.

And they can expect no mercy from their South African colleagues, who will regard them as a bonus-point win. After hosting the Force in their first game, the Sharks come to town and last year's beaten finalists are looking better than ever.

They have kept intact their team from last year and have brought back crowd favourites in Ryan Kankowski, who was in Japan, Butch James (the Lions) and Francois Steyn (Racing Metro). The latter will captain the side in the absence of regular captain Keegan Daniel who crocked knee ligaments in a warm-up game.

The Sharks have an exceptional coach in another Kiwi, John Plumtree, and his old mate John Mitchell would have been the third New Zealander in charge of a leading team had he not been sacked by the Lions last year. Incidentally, he still lives in Johannesburg and does TV work.

The team the Sharks dramatically beat in the semifinal last year, the Stormers, will again be among the top finishers but for them to go further than last year they must hone their attacking edge. Last season, the Cape side had the best defensive record but at the same time they battled to score tries. The Stormers also have consistency in their squad and have added new young Springboks Elton Jantjies, Jaco Taute and Pat Cilliers (all from the Lions). In 2012, the Capetonians discovered the brilliant 20-year-old lock Eben Etzebeth, and he again features in a highly physical pack.

Sadly, Springbok flanker Schalk Burger remains on the injury list and it is now almost a year since he first injured his knee. He has not played in the interim.

Juan Smith, the former Cheetahs captain who played many a test in the Bok loose trio with Burger, has had similar misfortune with an Achilles tendon injury and after two warm-up games the injury flared up again and he has announced his retirement, a blow for both the Cheetahs and the Boks.

Otherwise the Bloemfontein side is looking pretty good and will be better for the maturing of youngsters such as Springbok first five-eighths Johann Goosen, popular prop Coenie Oosthuizen and Bok openside Heinrich Brussow. The Cheetahs are perennial underachievers but this year have better depth.

The Bulls were supposed to fall apart in 2012 following the retirement of Bok greats in Victor Matfied, Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez and Danie Rossouw and the migration of their management team to Heyneke's Meyer's Springboks, but they surprised many to finish fifth.

There is no reason to believe they cannot build on last season's performances.

Matfield is also back with the team as forwards coach, and they have recruited exciting young talent from the Lions in prop CJ Stander, wing Lionel Mapoe and lock Paul Willemse.

Greenaway's predicted conference finish

Sharks 1st, Stormers 2nd, Bulls 3rd, Cheetahs 4th, Kings 5th.

Rugby: Southern Kings a long way from Super 15 crown - Sport - NZ Herald News

^ don't know about a relegation match....
I would think, as has just been shown that a provincial team would always get pasted by a team coming out of a year or more of Super Rugby.

Originally Posted by trabant

This weekend:

Fri: Rebels v Force
Sat: Brumbies v Reds

Hi ya guys. My picks for round one.

Rebels v Force -- Rebels

Brumbies v Reds -- Brumbies

Originally Posted by Bobcock

Bangkok Tens this weekend..... the real thing....

Playing? Coaching?

photographer and some coaching probably.

No playing. My team is not in and I haven't played since my knee surgery and frankly I'm not sure if I will again.

You be there?

Originally Posted by Bobcock

You be there?

Keep your eyes open !!

Well, after a pretty ordinary first 20 min by the Rebels, that turned out to be an enthralling game.
Plenty of tries, some punch ups, some cards and an after the siren finish possible.

My first tip in the comp up with a powerplay bonus point.

Told ya!

I missed it in the end... Sneaky Fri arvo round of golf instead

Saw 2nd half on Brumbies v Reds
Brumbies looked in control for that 40, great defence for the times Reds did try to attack; Pocock, Mogg and an out of retirement Clyde Rathbone looked on form. Early days for the comp but points are points and that's 4 for Brumbies 0 for Reds.

A mean-spirited highlight:

78 minutes, Reds down 6-17 need a try to at least get a bonus point
Commentator says: “The Reds haven’t looked like scoring tonight, have they Clarkie?”
“No, not once”
Seconds later, Quade throws a pass to Brumbies’ Jesse Mogg.
A gift try!
Game over 6-24.

Brumbies: Try: Mogg 2, Con: Prior, Pen: White 2, Mogg 2
Reds: Pen: Harris 2

Originally Posted by happynz

Originally Posted by trabant

This weekend:

Fri: Rebels v Force
Sat: Brumbies v Reds

Hi ya guys. My picks for round one.

Rebels v Force -- Rebels

Brumbies v Reds -- Brumbies

Two outta two.

It was a pretty shite spectacle, you are lucky to have missed the 1st half where it was all errors and handbags.

Commentators kept saying "frisbee" every time the reds 9 passed from a breakdown. Got abit annoying until I realized it was the name of the 3rd string 9 who replaced the starter.