Thus far in Super 16 there has been two teams that played way above themselves and those ar the Cheetahs and the Kings. Both have fairly limited player resources - but both are doing quite well against strong opposition. To be quite frank - I really am impressed with what coaches like Drotsky and Sexton achieved in respect with their teams and the performances.
Lets look at the other three franchises:-
The Sharks
Other than the disastrous performance against the Brumbies - th Sharks won all their matches thus far. Howevr, the team was not without problems. Plumtree is an astute coach and he worked out what went wrong in the Brumbies gae a well as other games in which the Sharks struggled to score tries or showed other deiciencies:-
* After an acceptable start in the first round - there were ominous signs of deterioration n backline play. Bearin in mind that Steyn was not up o standard. Steyn was consequnetly removd from the no 12 position.
* becasue of bad play Burden was removed from the Hooker position.
* Du Toit was selected as a starter
In the latest game of the Sharks - the backline functioned better than before and there are positive signs that the changes are achieving improved results.
The Bulls
The Bulls have some ry real problems in their props situation. Their props are their only weak link. However, their main problem remains a s sterile one-dimentional and deficient game plan. They need to use heir backline mor and the constant kicking awy possession is not producing resuls.
One of their main problems remains the selection of players. There one really ood loosie is Arno Botha, but Ludeke prefer the donkey style Potgieters ahead of him. The same can be said about the constant non-seletion of Serfontein and Visser.
The main problem is that they need to gt their best players on the field and stop the dreaded ten-man approach to rugby.
The Stormers
Really the Stromers are the worst-performing team in the SA Conference is concerned if their really good player resources are taken into account.
In this case Coetzee made some crucial mistakes. He signed up Jantjies on a lease basis - and Jantjies proof to be really the worst signing imaginable. He should never have done it and let Catrakillis go to the Kings. Having made the said mistake - he then went ahead and selected Jantjies as hs pivot. Jantjies had so far in the competition one avrage game - he flopped badly in the rest.
He also saw some really good attacking moves by the center pairing of De Allende and De Villiers - but then chose to split them up and bring in De Jongh - really useless in attacking play - and in the Cheetahs game he was atrocious in defence as well. This is really one player that kills backline attcking moves. As long as he is in the backline- there is no chance of a revival of the fortunes of the Stormers.
The Stormers are plagued with injuries - but thy ccan domuch beter in their backline if they get rid of the useless in their backline and start looking at more productive players from their Vodacom team.
The real bad news remains the selection policies of Ludeke and Coetzee - pklus a very one-diensional and sterile back line. Unlessthis is improved upon they will linger in the bottom half of the log.
The problem with SA franhises is not the payer availability - it really is that the coaches are buggering up the whole process by team selection.
