Thankfully after all the sharks supporters shedding buckets we have another commentator realisng a few basic facts:
Ex Keo
MARK KEOHANE, in his Business Day column, writes Sharks supporters need not despair. Super Rugby isn’t won in March, but in August. (This will of course be news to black udder, brycy, hakwa, sitting bull, poooooie and our nz contingent. I am hoping ou Redsman is not getting ahead of himself as well)
A week’s a bloody long time in rugby. This time seven days ago I was waxing lyrical about the physical superiority of the South African teams. They manhandled their Kiwi equivalent and they towered like giants.
Enjoy the celebration of the moment, I wrote, because it could all be different a week later.
And so it was. (Well pick show ponies and how in the world can you expect physical domination?!!!!!! some oaks have yet to learn the hard truth about the Beeno power pack concept )
This time it was the New Zealand and Australians, in the shape of the Crusaders and Brumbies, who were tossing the Bulls and Sharks around as if they were the rag dolls.(Please note this and lets have an end to these rediculous selections!!)
Don’t despair. History tells us it could all be different again in a week’s time. (If the oaks learn their lessons. Currently ou allistair might be planing an ultra lightweight backline to face the brumbies - I can only hope sanity prevails! Heneeds t odrop Carr as well from the match 22 and bring in Rhodes)
This is what makes this year’s Super Rugby tournament so exciting. It is also what made the Six Nations such good viewing.(what IU wnjoy is our sides performing to their potential. Hence much frustration)
Saturday’s viewing was vintage for the purist. The Crusaders gave the Bulls a lesson in patience with ball in hand, use of pitch width and in physicality in the collisions (No question about it the crusaders looked great but truly the bulle were poor as the simply do not select te players to give them clout). The Brumbies did likewise to the Sharks in Durban in an exceptional exhibition of total rugby in the first 40 minutes (4 lightweight players in their pack ment the Brumbies had all the front foot ball they needed- and hats off to the suprbly coached brumbies as that 40 minutes of play in those conditios nwas superb and they took full advantage of the situation) !)and Wales were monumental in physically wearing down England and then blowing them apart with championship-defining counter attack try-scoring.(Were a shadow of the side that blew the abs away - why is that? Are their guys overplayed and tired etc))
Wales’s 30-3 demolition of England had the intensity of a World Cup final and the quality of rugby exceeded what we’ve seen in the last two World Cup finals.
It was magnificent and on balance of last year’s Autumn November internationals and the season’s Six Nations the 2015 World Cup will be contested between New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, France, England and Wales. All six of the teams have shown, at one stage or another, they possess the players to be world champions and the ability to beat the other. (In NH condidions they may have chance against SH sides. Fortunately for us Meyer understands NH conditions and the requirements as the recent tour showed where he won all matches with a tired and depleted squad. The abs need to give serious attention to their powder puff pack - get that right and they will be contenders. But if they are dominated as we saw against England they will, as per normal - flop at the next wc. Also I doubt they can manipulate the ref situation again like they did in the last WC in nz -where they overplayed their hand and bryce lawrence and paddy subsequently go the boot - folk now know they cant be trusted)
England’s victory against the All Blacks was one too savour. The All Blacks, a week earlier, ripped apart Wales. Australia beat England and France fried Australia the week before. The Boks, humbled at home against the All Blacks, beat England at Twickenham a week before England’s glorious afternoon against the All Blacks.
I tipped Wales to win the Six Nations, despite losing all their Autumn internationals and being on a six match losing streak. They took a beating in the season opener in Cardiff against Ireland, trailing 30-3 with less than half the match played. What the …? (Pretty good call that Keo as Wales were looking dismal at one point)
The Wales I tipped as champs arrived in Paris, ground out a win against the French, also scalped Italy and Scotland before showing the all-round balance in defence and attack to embarrass England.
Wales, in what they did in Cardiff at the weekend, emphasized that tournaments are not won in the opening thirty of the season but rather in the final 30.
This season’s Super Rugby has been as unpredictable, entertaining and inviting. The tournament’s newcomers, the Kings, beat the Force, who a week later came within a few minutes of beating the Bulls in Pretoria while the Blues were thumping the Crusaders in Auckland. A week later the Bulls beat the Blues and at the weekend the Crusaders scored six tries to one in trampling the Bulls.
The Force, unable to beat the Kings in Port Elizabeth, beat the Reds in Brisbane and the Brumbies won on the road for a tournament record seventh time in giving the Sharks a rugby lesson in Durban.
One team’s delight has been another’s desperation, but it is a weekly thing, so don’t get too down on what happened this weekend. Feel the pain, let it pass and have an expectation that it could be very different seven days from now.
I wrote a similar thing a week ago when I urged South Africans to enjoy the moment, celebrate the dominance of the weekend but not take one weekend of being a winner as necessarily significant to the outcome of the tournament.
Super Rugby is a tournament won in August and not in March. National squads are also selected in June and not in March.
Players pace themselves. It is understandable and not a crime (Sorry Keo rather rotate them properly than having boks etc loafing on the field). Be conscious of it. This tournament is about who fires their bullets post the June internationals and not who empties the cartridge pre-June.
The Brumbies are to be applauded for their effort. Similarly Wales. The Sharks and England will feel disgusted at their lack of effort, but to dismiss the qualities of either team on the basis of one Saturday is to dismiss the dynamics of sport.
Seven days is a long time in sport and August is still a long way off in determining the champions of Super Rugby.
The Sharks were given a rugby lesson, but rather in March than in August.
There have indeed been some big swings in performance - more so perhaps than in the past. Wonder why?
