Kiwi Super Rugby teams leading the way?

We have now witnessed three weekends of Super Rugby. Three weekends to watch, scream, shout, support and analyse the Super rugby teams from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

The Australian teams seem to be blowing hot and cold, with some average performances from Australia's leading sides. There are glimpses of what may come, but it is safe to say that no Aussie side is setting the world alight at this stage. In my opinion the Reds look to be the obvious choice as the leading Aussie side but I'd watch out for the Brumbies under the very astute eye of Jake White.

The South African sides in comparison seem slow and at times lost. The decision-making abilities of South Africa's Super rugby teams seem to have been cast into the wilderness and basic handling is found wanting. Perhaps just early season rust, but that should never have found it's way into the Super rugby tournament to start off with. It's difficult to say who is the leading South African side at the moment, but I guess you'd have to go with the Stormers. If their tight five can shift a few gears, they have a solid backline who are able to produce results especially with Peter Grant back at 10.

The Kiwi sides seem to have started off well. Playing some attractive rugby with most matches bringing some excitement to the early stages of this years installment of Super rugby. Surprise losses by the Crusaders in games they could've won suggests that they are missing their big name players. However, until then the Highlanders will be the team from NZ to watch having taken advantage with some surprisingly stellar performances. Consistency will be the key for the men from Otago.

All in all it has been an interesting start to the Super rugby season. After the World Cup with many seasoned internationals leaving the game or heading to the Northern Hemisphere, this season was always going to give us some food for thought.

As a South African, I am a bit concered (or maybe irritated is a better word) about the standard of play produced by our sides thus far, but I am hopeful that this will improve as the competition progresses. For the moment it seems to me that the Kiwi's have their noses in front.

Comments, positive or negative, are welcome!

Of the Kiwi sides only the Chiefs and Highlanders strike me as serious contenders. The Blues have had their moments, but are not the complete package. Very much agreed on the Brumbies, they still have a long way to go, but they have overcome two very severe tests. The Cheetahs really did stretch their defence, and though I do not agree with how the game was won, it's undeniable that they played some quality rugby. The first game being very much underrated. So, from Australia, definitely the Reds and Brumbies. The South African sides are the Bulls and Cheetahs, followed by the Lions. The rugby played by the Stormers and Sharks is simply shocking. The most complete performance by far has come from the Bulls!

I do not agree with your stance on our sides though. The Bulls, Cheetahs and Lions are every bit a match for any other side in the competition! The Stormers and Sharks are suffering from a very poor understanding of backplay and key players not stepping up to the mark (Bismarck, Lambie, Jean to name but three). Furthermore, the quality of performance has not been great in all those Kiwi games. The Blues/Chiefs game was shocking, as was the several others. I noted in particular how shoddy the set pieces were and how rushed their play was. Sure, there were moments of brilliance, but it often hinged on an individual doing something to break from untidy play rather than seamless interplay of the many units on display.

Before I forget, welcome to SARugby.com FrontRo ;)

Which side are you following?
 

Interesting hearing other opinions and views on what is happening and what is not, but I guess that is why we discuss and debate. Agreed that some senior South African players seem off the boil, but I think they know that if they do not perform then there is a youngster ready to take their place. This can only be good for SA rugby.

I support all South African sides against foreign oppostion, although not from Durban I do support the Sharks when there are South African derbies. End of the day, as long as a South African side wins the competition then I am happy, as I see Springbok rugby as the most important part of our rich rugby culture and heritage.

Thanks for your comments and opinions dA.

I share that sentiment FR, which was why I was fuming when the Cheetahs destroyed the Sharks, ultimately costing them a play-off spot. They had to save their best performance when it costed SA most! LOL. I will always prefer the best outcome for SAs chances.

Welcome to the board, Fruntro...we might have chatted on a different site, I'm not sure.

"I support all South African sides against foreign oppostion, although not from Durban I do support the Sharks when there are South African derbies. End of the day, as long as a South African side wins the competition then I am happy, as I see Springbok rugby as the most important part of our rich rugby culture and heritage."

I'm happy to say we're on the same page, also agree about Saffa sides being off to a slow start and that Kiwi sides have hit the deck running. We can only hope that our three top sides turn things around.

yes welcome fruntro and hope you enjoy the debates.

Aristocat you must be joking re the Sharks and Mighty Stormers. Surely you cant believe the Lions and Cheetahs will end up ahead of them on the Log!

The Sharks had the Cheetahs well in hand in their match and should have won by more. The bulle clobbered the Cheetahs. As for the lions well they are trying hard but I cant see them as semi finalists.

No, the Mighty Stormers the bulle and sharkies remain, once again, our most reasonable hopes this season on the evidence thus far.

I'm talking about the quality of the rugby being played. There's no denying that the Bulls, Cheetahs and Lions brand is much better suited to this competition.

Well the Cheetahs have been playing this sort of rugby without the personnel to back it up so it is difficult to say conclusively that they now have the personnel to do it or that the rules this year have tipped things in their favour. Ditto the lions.

I would have loved to see the Cheetahs with a strong squad playing as they do. Ruan, Frans, Viljoen, Bissie, Jannie, Vermulen, Basson, Kirchcner Sarel, Juan Smith, CJ etc ie all Cheetah players back home. There can be little doubt they would have won a Super  comp or two by now.

I like the Cheetahs style, a good combination of foward and backs combing well. Ability to score tries and unlock defences. Simply do not have the manpower to sustain a Super 15  campain. To me that has not changed.

Nevertheless  do bear in mind the Stomers played pretty dull rugby for two seasons and finished second on the log twice. 

I can't see the lions or cheetahs ending the season ahead of the Bulle sharks or Stormers save an unusual level of injuries and bad refs I.e. given normal conditions and normal good fortune Lions and Cheetahs will be the bottom sides in SA Conference.

We shall see.

Sides like the  Bools are the Rafa Nadals of rugby. There is no subtlety or variation of tactics. You know what they are going to do.....the up and under, the rolling maul.....but they do it so well at their best, they are hard to defend.

Aussie sides are more like the Federers of rugby. Imaginative, with a full array of tactics.....but dealing with a fatal weakness, tight forward play. Generally when executing at their best, the top South African teams can crush the Australian creativity with repitition and process. They can rip the heart out of that weakness, just as Nadal dismantles the Federer backhand. 

The top New Zealand sides are more like the Joker of 2011 vintage. They do everything well, if not quite with the Aussie flair. But importantly they tend to not have the Aussie forward weakness for us to exploit. So their greater variety of weapons poses huge challenges. Like Nadal we are always a hard biscuit to chew. But in the end, the game is sometimes taken away from us with weapons we don't use.

Our rugby desperately needs to evolve, keeping the strengths we have, but adding sophisticated backline play. We did that under Eddie Jones. It's incredibly frustrating to see us slip back into the dark ages again. Regardless of results, South African teams will never be admired as long as they play ugly rugby.

Moz a too gloomy view perhaps although it all depends on getting in the backline expertise and playing a decent set of forwards.

How difficult is it to recognise we need a top backline coach. Super 15 sides should also realise this.

But what is to me very encouraging is that a fairly ordinary talented side like the Cheetahs and Lions have succeeded in scoring some very nice tries. Cheetahas last year were great. Loss of Sarel and Viljoen hurt then as did the loss of Basson. At the Strormers ou Alistair and Fleckie don't seem to have any clue and likewise the sharks backline coach.

Bulle a bit better off with Slapchips doing a reasonable job and bulle importing players for all they are worth.

No The Lions and Cheetahs give hope that with decent coaches our backline play can improve considerably.

BUT lets not also forget that our scrumming is nowhere where it should be.  I hold to the truism that it begins with the tight five and we have not got that right for some time. For that reason I am not closing the book on brussouw just yet but in a back peddaling pack he is not in my view the answer.

On the contrary, the Bulls have been the only well rounded SA franchise in Super rugby. They do everything well, and offer variation where they need it. Granted they have their preferred pattern of play, but they are the only side here that can adapt. Their professionalism off the field adds to this, and they are the benchmark for the Boks and the rest of SA rugby.

"Our rugby desperately needs to evolve, keeping the strengths we have, but adding sophisticated backline play. We did that under Eddie Jones. It's incredibly frustrating to see us slip back into the dark ages again. Regardless of results, South African teams will never be admired as long as they play ugly rugby."

Well said Moz, exactly my thoughts as well, no-one Flyhalf is going to unleash an ignorant backline until the ignorance is replaced with nous. As a matter of fact we had the above example under Eddie and Jake.

It's interesting to note that Jones worked specifically on the motion of the ball. That essentially includes the things I talked about in the opening post. I recall us using a stacked midfield against Namibia and later using another backline formation to attack in a wave. That was the first time I saw Schalk offload more and link in play. He had Habana coming in more giving the ball carrier options. what Dave fails to see is that your flyhalf is more of a link. The question should be, "What is happening around your 10? How is this affecting play?". A flyhalf that is attacking like a madman is easily countered, thus we can see from Australia's very poor record with Cooper at the helm. A few small adjustments are all we need, and we have everything else in place to become the best team in the world. If we are veing honest, we have the greatest potential to become the most complete side. If only we had New Zealand's culture for coaching!!

I think most of us agree that we have the talent in South Africa, not only is it obvious but we have it in abundance! The problem, imo, with the South African sides is that we need more coaches who are willing to learn, try out new things, bring in new ideas and be at the forefront of evolving rugby.

From a fans point of few, it seems that the coaches are sometimes clueless. And this seems to transend to the players and onto the field. Jake White is a very clever coach, as are the likes of Eddie Jones and Nick Mallet to name a few. My hope is that Heyneke Meyer can bring back this kind of coaching nous where we have dwindled in the past four years.

Players need to be players and coaches need to be coaches. As good as a Captain Smit was and as much experience as Matfield and co had, they needed to be concentrating on playing and not coaching.

But back to my point, South African rugby is like a super computer and all it needs is for someone to come in and know how to turn it on. Jake knew how, Div wasn't sure where the reset button was but hopefully Heyneke can rewrite the operating system!

Very much agreed FrontRo. I do not understand why, but there is a strong unwillingness for South Africans to learn. It's one of the most frustrating things I have encountered. Ollie le Roux stated that South African rugby has progressed off the field since the 50s. A tad extreme, but it's hard to argue against that assertion. You can see it in how they smuggly sneer at all players who move abroad. They refuse to acknowledge that anyone else can teach them something or add value to their players. Like we all say and can see, everything is there, but the cerebral content. Australia by contrast have the the professionalism, all the intellectual capital, but very little talent to work with.

..sitting bull find another mistake... no need for question mark as Kiwi Rugby teams leading the way Full Stop.