Rugby | Vodacom Super Rugby
Frans Ludeke © Gallo Images Super Rugby on the iPad Photo Galleries Play our Super Rugby games and WIN 'Humble beginnings' - Dewald Potgieter SA teams just not at full gallop by Gavin Rich 04 March 2013, 06:10If Vodacom Super Rugby was played over a couple of weeks instead of over several months, it would be tantamount to stating the obvious to say that New Zealand rugby is just a different game and altogether superior product to what is dished up in South Africa and Australia.
The Vodacom Bulls, Sharks, Brumbies and the Southern Kings, who did not play this past weekend, are also ranked among the unbeaten sides, but at this stage the only non-Kiwi side that should really feel 100% contented with their form thus far are Jake White’s Brumbies.
The Chiefs started slowly but then did enough in the second 40 minutes against the Cheetahs to maintain their high rating of the opening weekend. The Blues followed up their away win against the Hurricanes with a power display against the Crusaders that should have sounded an ominous warning to other pretenders to the title.
Those two teams could be said to have been the star acts of both weekends where there has been a full round of competition, with the Brumbies taking a bye this past weekend but impressing in the all-Australian first round and then again in round two.
Even though they have won both matches they have played thus far, you would stop short of saying that either the Bulls or the Sharks have done anything to send shivers of apprehension down the spines of future opponents. Even in victory, Bulls coach Frans Ludeke was moved to do what his Stormers counterpart did at the same venue the week before by stating that his team’s effort against the Western Force was their worst in a couple of years.
That may have been an over-the-top pronouncement, and Bulls fans with a glass half full perspective on life would be quite right if they pointed out that you have to have something going for you if you play that badly and still grab a full house of five log points. The Bulls didn’t play well, but the Western Force did raise their game, and it was one of those classic early competition games where one team goes in over-confident against another that is already in a desperate mood after tasting successive defeats.
Full marks to the Bulls for still being able to win, and winning ugly is sometimes a good thing at this time of the year as it stops a team from getting too carried away with its ability. If the Force weren’t already, the words of their coach should be a wake-up call to the Bulls players.
Winning ugly is something the Sharks did in the big South African game of the weekend in Durban, and there weren’t many people hanging around the Kings Park braai fires on Saturday night who were enthused by their day out. The game was simply too much of a kick-a-thon and while there was appreciation for the outstanding defence of both teams and the sheer bruising physicality of the battle, it was the type of game that would probably be better appreciated by a northern hemisphere audience in the middle of winter.
But let’s hold that thought for a moment – was there really anyone who expected the game to be any different when two top South African teams play against each other this early in the season in the Durban humidity? Historically there have been very few fast-paced so-called expansive games in Durban early in the year in this competition, and the match was no different to a Sharks win over the Bulls at a corresponding stage of the 2007 season.
Back then both teams were criticised for putting the crowd to sleep, yet by the end of the season they had marked themselves as the form teams in what was then the Super 14 and they returned to Kings Park to play each other in the final.
Don’t bet too much against a similar scenario happening again, for the simple truth is that right now it is just way too early to say anything with any certainty. The staggered start to the season, with the Australian sides playing first, has made it even more difficult than usual to make early calls on where the teams are.
For instance, while some of the Australian teams were playing their third games this past weekend, and are thus properly getting into their season, the Crusaders team that was thrashed by the Blues was making its first competitive appearance of the year. Some sides are further advanced than others when it comes to being settled into the season, and it will take time for everything to balance out.
And South African fans should not be too disturbed that their teams are not yet firing their heavy artillery – it’s nothing new in Super Rugby for local teams to start slowly. Apart from the obvious weather factor in Durban, the lethargic start can also be sourced in the South African tendency to be more conservative in approach, which means it takes time for the game to come together. You're just not going to get a South African team starting the season by playing Sevens rugby, and it may not be a coincidence that the team that did do that for a bit, during a stage of their opener against the Sharks the previous week, was the Cheetahs team that has had more warm-up games than any other.
Even when they are playing away it is seldom that you see the Sharks playing with the flair and attacking potency in the early months that you see from them later on.
The long and the short of it is that the underperforming Stormers are just not yet at full gallop, and neither are any of the other South African teams. The top New Zealand teams have hit the season running, but then it’s not the first time they have done so and like we saw with the Highlanders last year, often it’s not sustained.
When the Stormers and Sharks clash again in Cape Town on 13 April is when we can both expect to get a better idea of where they stand and get to see them play a game that will be more aesthetically pleasing to the spectators.
The Stormers had better start finding their continuity and efficiency soon though for while coach Allister Coetzee is right that they don’t yet face a crisis, they can’t afford to drop too many more games before it does start shaping as that. He said it himself on Saturday night – it’s when you win that you get your confidence up.
In other words, there isn’t any confidence right now, and they play the high riding Chiefs on Saturday…
Results
Blues 34 Crusaders 15
Waratahs 31 Rebels 26
Reds 18 Hurricanes 12
Chiefs 45 Toyota Cheetahs 3
Vodacom Bulls 36 Western Force 26
Sharks 12 DHL Stormers 6
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