Lessons to be learned from the matches in URC Round 4

In dealing with this issue I bear in mind something about rugby my father told us when we were kids and he was a ruigby fanatic himself, He told us the core of rugby is to have a Jew playing in the backline - reason hey were clever and take correct decisions during matches leading to top results in winning matches,

Before he 1980's the emphasis on rugby succes were based on backline control and attacks - but that shift to domination of forward play thrugh limiting all sstems to total fowwad control of matches, In essense the eams had to have loose forwrds to become part of what is called the Tight 5 players and rn it into a situation where he lossies are an extension of the Tight 5 and it became the Tight 8. Mozart in his wisdom called the system "Traditional Springbok Rugby".. New Zealand successfully had a different approach to the 10 man game and extended he role of especially the roe fo forwards in playing attacking rugby - with mobility becomig a major factor when it came to that comprehensive rugby being played and ruled rugby for near to 30 years,

Now back to the matches on Saturday:-

The Connacht - Bulls Match

Pobably from a rugby perfomance he wost failure o any SA team this weekendwas the performance of the Bulls was a pathetic example o ten man rugby going astray, It was indeed a ghastly display how rugy should NOT be played, The Bulls wo the match by 1 point and in desperation Willie was used to ry and stop te rot, He was playing what wa an effort to bring the backline into play and it worked in the case where two of the Bulls tries were scored, For the rest the backline were neutered and came close to losing the match they should have won by 20 points since their Tight 5 was in total control.

The problem as havng a failed flyhalf and insid center whose contributon was zero-minus, They had no dea about how to manage the match to the benefit of the team as whole and the only playes who did make a positive contribution to te match were De Wet at scrummie and De Klerk on he wing, Moodie trid as well - but he got little opportunites because the system failed in general. Willie made a useful contibuion to two tries of he Bulls - but he failed badly in eh es of he games,

The bittle lesson remains - do not conract the elderly and rather recruit and signed conracts ih youge players and develop them into future stars through top class coaching. Ackerman will have a mounain to climb before he has a top class squad wiih real ability to win seies like he URC and he Euriopan Champions Cup.

The Lions Scarlets Match

Te fac is scarles is the worse team on URC level tsi year. Despite a teem losing top class players like Green snd Van der Merwe they put ip s bvery decnt performance against the Scarlets, Thy do not have top class players but the tam did try and successfully so to play 15 man rugby,

The Sharks - Ulster Match

From a South African Perspective this was indeed a horror show of ttal frontline dmination and total backline collapse, Let me get clearer on that one, Two of the four tries scored by the Sharks came from penalty tries awarded based on 100% forward control. Despite having dominant control up front guaranteeing the Sharks with 61% should have won he match easily.

The problems solely was the fact that the backline failed miserably and extremely poor penalty record because of loss of discipline.by some players. I h ave never seen such a poor match when it came to poor and substandard backline attacking play than this one for years, It was so frusrasating that Hooker shouted to playes that h e and Van der Mere needs to get t he ball as part of attacking strategies in years. The Shark had three younger and attack-minded players in te backline in Hooker, Van de Merwe and Julies - but hey virtually neve saw he ball as part of an attack,

In that regard attacin g abckline play requires deisionmaing by the half backs and the number 12 center and insfa as the scrummie is concerned it onl happend once esterday when th scrummie made a long pass to Mapimpi and he scored a try,as result/ For the resdt he scrummy had a good match - but in the case the flyhalf an inside center thinking rug by collapsed totally. Masuku ws neve a good enough flyh alf on fanchise level and Esterhuize yesterday thrive on BS of total deicient attacking play.anbd stood around breakdowns in non-thinking manner.

Zebre - Stormers Match

Five tries showed that the Stormers b ackline was se in a ery fgood ttcking match and the team s continuing in an amazing manner, Both Roos and De Villiers played the best loosie play I hav seen for a long time and if they are not in the Springbok squad it would be a disgrace, At this stage with Hanelkom out as a result of injury onm Franchise level the two best loosies in South Africa on Franchise level.

The Present Log positons after Round 4 is as follows:-

1 Stormers = 19 points witha PD of + 103

6 Bulls = 14 points with a PD of + 1

11 Lions = 6 points with a PD of - 30

14 Sharks = 3 points with a PD of - 50

That shows why the standard of rugby played by even the Lions are far better than the Sharks thus farr in the series, with the following matches in Round 5 to be played this coming weekend:-

Glasgow vs Bulls

Lions vs Ulster

Sharks vs Scarlets

Leinster vs Zebre

Benetton vs Stormers

Dragons vs Ospreys

Munster vs Connacht

Cardiff vs Edeinburgh

The Stormers is a top team for winning another match - while the Bulls and Lions seems doomed to suffer more losses and the Sharks becoming a national disgrace in a match they lose again in a match they should win at home.

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TLDR;

Everybody was shit besides the Stormers.

Mike is a Stormers fan.

Great review Mike. Really excellent.

Stormers played like shit too. Lucky for them they had Sacha as well as opposition that was comically incompetent. To look that bad against such poor opponents is not a good look.

Sharks won't come right. They have no combinations, no structure, no coaching. You can change whatever players you want, buy or transfer whatever players you want, it's not going to matter. No one knows what the next guy is doing. They won the weekend trophy for players bitching at the ref though, so congrats I guess.

Didn't watch the Lions, they looked okay on the highlights but that says nothing.

Bulls were lucky to win, but they're showing glimpses of something coming together. They already looked better than their shambles last week, but they have a long way to go.

Pakie

There is a huge difference as to contracting of players, White and Plumtree spent millions on contracting old players who played test rugby and are on the way down in performances in that -

White contracted Coetzee, Pollard, Willie and Serfortein; and

Plumtree contracted Etzebeth, Kolisi and Esterhuizen.

White left Ackerman in deep shit and he will have to act drasticlly to change the situation. Lets face facts Plumtree is a very poor coach and the sooner the Sharks get rid fo him and the rugby geriatrics still on Shark contract th better it would be for that franchise, I have on sugestion as a replacement coach for the Sharks and that is Jones - a present an assistant for Erasmus, An expert in player performance analysis and in all facets of play - he would be the ideal coach to save Sharks Rugby, He has close ties with Erasmus and the members on the Erasmus panel of coaches and will get valuable help from them as well.

Th other two franchises has had serious financial problems and had to try and contract youngsters to replace the rugby generatrics like the Bulls and Sharks have on contract and find replacements as soon as possible,

Hanekom, Moodie, Wilco, Coetzee, Elrigh, Nortje, De Klerk, Wiese...to name but a few.

Yeah, the Bulls have terrible players. What a terrible group of old fogeys White put together

Plum

I onow about the list you quoted had regular matches for the Bulls this season and the key positons inn the backline 10 and 12 are missing from that list. I refered oly to key playes n backline play and amngst the loosies I oly mentiond Coetzee. That left Ackerman wth a nightmare. You cn ahve a backline with mssive potntial - if the 10 and 12 players are not fuicntiioning properly.

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Mike who is the Bulls' 12?

Well - Sefontein played at 12 on Satirday and was so hopeless he was replaced by Vorster - who in the previous matches was the starting player, I used tro like Vorster at center a lot when he played for the Lions - but he has gone down outside a whole series of failed flyhalfs. However, that partly was the case with Whte as coach anyway and now he is still caught in the web left to Ackerman by White,