Good Weekend for SA Rugby- our Forwards are dominating the wee New Zealanders

Stormers and Cheetas provide a lesson in Rugby about forward power and domination. The backs have also clicked and playing much better than last week

Sharkbok as I said I cant see the chiefies beating a full strength Stormers side. I just hope we see the Mighty Stormers at full strength. 

I hope this will shut ou rooitwits huge mouth. Bwahahahahahahhahahahahhaha. Mud in the eye for all the doomsayers as well. 

I see less and less reason why we cant beat up on the abs this year.

Nice game from Allende. Jean showed what i always have said 13 is his number. Its his distribution skills that are so good. he can set up the wings etc. Also showed a nice turn of speed. Good to see Tiaan flying in to the opposition. Also nice to see some thinking. Having Deon and Kolisi gave a bit of pace to the loosies at the end.

No with Taute, Etzebeth and Schalk also in the mix its a pretty potent side. Van der Heever may get a chance. Hope Bryan is not seriously hurt.

Well the Mighty Stormers are back boys so watch out.

Great win boys. 

Agree great weekend for the SA teams thus far. But please forward domination..if that really was the case the Stormers should've won by a huge margin and scored more tries, the Cheetahs were gifted the game by the Highlanders, so this forward dominant myth is still that a myth! Because the vaunted forward dominance approach certainly hasn't translated into consistent wins or trophy laden cabinets which explains  why are the Boks are  ranked the 2nd best team (sometimes 3rd) in the world.  Chiefs were jetlaggged and not at full strength anyway.

 Hi there Poly - no excuses please the better side won.

Just be thankful fate conspired to give you a Super 15 trophy last year and that you never met the Mighty Stormers at full strength.

You are correct Beeno in that respect that on the day the better team did win. Are any SA teams ever at full strength?

Congrads to the Cheetahs for their win over the Highlanders!

Their systematic dismantling of the Highlanders was so painful to watch! Painful in that you would expect the Highlanders to come out of the shed with a different gameplan in the 2nd half but they did not! Their forwards did not earn any right to go wide yet they continued to go wide! The Cheetahs did not do anything fancy, they were patient and capitalized (with a capital C) any mistakes from their banana defense whereas the Highlanders tried to run it even from their own 22 and so many forced passes - I was cringing the whole 80minutes!

hakwa

I was always worried by the Highlanders tryiing to get elderly ex All Blacks for their squad and indicated previously that I do not think they should do that.   Take for instance Thorn - he was a complete waste of space being outplayed by a 20 year-old rookie.  He never got where the play was in time and at one stage escaped a yellow card for a professional foul because the ref and his assistance followed the ball and did not watch him pulling back a player.   I am afraid that Hall is also past his "sell by" date to give you some examples.

i was facinated by the way the Cheetahs played and especially with some unexpected performnances by players.   I believe that Labuschagne  was the MOM - he was awesome.  He showed some real class against the Sharks in round one and was the best loosie on the park against the Chiefs.  Yesterday he really was awesome.   If he keeps that up - he is going to be hard to keep out of the Springbok team.

Yeah Mike...jumped from good to excellent...not often will you see 3 out of 3 against NZ sides and 2 being away and one against last years champions. The Bulls added and put the cherry on top against a NZ side that wacked the Saders. Cheetahs I'm proud of you...to come back from your first devasting loss against the Chiefs and do this to the Highlanders, Bulls as well, Stormers too even though at home but missing several key players ...a huge achievement.

The sad thing is although my Sharkies have had it easier than the other 3...an away game in Bloem,one home game and  the Kings just down the road, they despite their 3 wins have been the only disappointment...two tryless games despite the overload of Bokke.

Looks like the other 3 have opened it up to be a really interesting competition. Lets hope the Sharks get down from their pedestal and start playing the real rugby that is expected of them. Too many errors that are totally unacceptable....no use blaming Lambie who did his job 100% record in penalties when Reinach was below par and his other team mates were error prone.

It's early days still but if one had to make a choice now for Bok 9 and 10, Pretorius and Goose would get my unaminous vote. They stood out amongst the rest.

Terrible weekend for NZ rugby lack of commitment to beat a well structured and determined forward packs of SA just not good enough. SA forwards had all the ball and territory to smash any weak defence and there was plenty of weak areas. Bulls forwards just gave the Blues forwards plenty of tackle practice the whole game.... that was spent inside the Blues 22. Highlands ....well they where just being the highlanders they had no anwser and no clues. Chiefs played better of the worst teams but still not good enough. Over all NZ need a wake up call and if this isnt a wake up call then I dont know what is!!!. Need to shut down lose play around the fringes to crush momentum and close up gaps. Sa have great defence and have what looks like spare men on the park with tag team tackles.

 I call it netball rugby. 

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Right now nz refs could be regathering and it might not be long before the usual starts.

Have to say in fairness to the kiwis the refs in the bulle and cheetahs matches looked reasonable? Has somethig happened behind the scenes.

 and the Bulls cap of a perfect weekend for SA teams. Just the Sharks need to work on the backline attack, although the Kings have such a commited defence

The more I read beano's silly and seemingly desperate comments the more i think he'd rather the game was played by 15 man teams of props and hookers. (I think beano likes the fatties!)

wp weekend for the Saffa's for sure, however nationally i have so far (and we're only a few weeks in) seen enough emerging talent from the nz sides to be alot happier than i was a few months ago.

As for the Saffas.... Well it just looks like more of the same to be honest, haven't seen any improvment where it's needed.

allblacknblue

I have watched all the games thus far and most of them repeatedly.   What I have seen in New Zealand teams are massive backline performances making for very attractive rugby 0 but with a question mark as to defene at times.  I am very umpressed with in particular the Chiefs bakline and I rate Savea as the really outstanding backkline player in Super 15 thus far   There also is a minor problem - less noticeable in the Chiefs backline - of handling errors - some of whch was reallly bad.   In he latter regard I thought the match betwen the Hurricanes and the Crusaders was a real mess,   

Yoou must know by now that I am severely disappointed in the  backline performances of virtually all SA players.   The coaches try and kill all innpvative backlie play and that has a ruinous affect on SA Rugby.   Because the backline play is so poor - there are the thoughtless people that would shout and scrream about forward dominaion as the only way SA teans can ever win matches,   

Insofar as I am concerned I believe that rugby is a 15 man game and both backline and forward performances are essential to really get a comprhensive team together.   However as much as is being shouted by .Beeno and co about forward dominationfact is that backline play in SA is seriously defective.

I must on the other hand admit that from careful analysis it is evident thatthere are indeed problems relating to forward play in New Zealand.   Wjist playing local derbies these deficiencies are nott obvious - but against other teams it really becaomes clear.   Take for instance the top lock at present in New Zealand - or so some nZ supporters seems to thihk - he was very poor on Saturday.   The other negative I have noticed is th ease with which SA teans are using rolling mauls against New Zealand teams.   That indicate serious weaknesses in some elements of New Zealand forward play.   It would be unwise to ignore the problem and nottry and correct a deficiency in New Zealand tems,

On performances this weekend there is really no New Zealand loosie that us bettr than the top tthree lossies in SA teams.   The same applies to hooker, props and locks.    If I was in NZ Rugby I would star planning on how to deal with that partcular deficiency,   SA Rufby is braindead abour bacchline play - so let he idiots stew in their own use,

 .