The Bulls playing in Japan

This from Supersport Rugby:-
"The Blue Bulls completed their pre-season Currie Cup preparations with a comprehensive 50-3 thrashing of Japan's Eagles at the Machida Athletic Stadium, in Tokyo, on Friday.
The visitors dominated all phases of play and scored eight tries in total.

And to make things worse, Japanese rugby was also handed a lesson in big match organization - as many fans missed the kick-off and a large part of the first half due to traffic congestion.

Organizers said before the game that "tonight the stadium will be close to a full-house for the first time in its history".

However, there were still a lot of empty seats at kick-off.

Those in the stadium on a hot and humid evening saw the Eagles play bravely, but with their forwards giving away seven kilogrammes and nine centimetres per man and their backs 13 kilogrammes and nine centimetres, it was always going to be a long night.

And so it proved as the Bulls dominated possession and territory - though the Eagles to their credit did make them work hard in the heat.

"It was a hard fought game and we really enjoyed it," said Blue Bulls captain Pieter Labuschagne.

Tries by Deon Stegmann and Dean Greyling, both of which were converted by Louis Fouche, saw the Bulls race away to a 14-0 lead - as the Eagles struggled with the intensity and physicality of the opposition.

"They put us under a lot of pressure and that forced up to make mistakes," said Eagles captain Ryohei Mitomo.

A penalty by Mitomo closed the gap and showed that the Eagles were taking things seriously, even though this was a preseason friendly.

But that was as good as it got as the Blue Bulls - who contained six Springboks, including Francois Hougaard who will play for the Eagles in the Top League after this year's Rugby World Cup - proved they had too much firepower - even with the sides playing uncontested scrums for 55 minutes after the Eagles' two hookers were injured in the first half.

Labuschagne and Burger Odendaal both crossed early in the second half, and while the Eagles did well to stop the scoring for a short period the Bulls finished strongly with Hanro Liebenberg, Odendaal, Rudolph Snyman, Daniel Kriel all going over to ensure the vuvuzelas resonated around Machida.

I would just want to add the following comments on the report with which I entirely agree - but adding to the two players mentioned Francois Steyn and JP Pietersen as well:-
"and HM wants to play jacque Fourie and Fourie du Preez who have played in this league for a few years? How undercooked are they going to be? I just cannot imagine the All Blacks selecting a NZ player who plies his trade in an inferior league."
This is not recognised by some members - who prefer to dump the "seuntjies" and want the has-beens in the Springbok team.   Are the Japanese club players fit enough to play for the Springboks?  Not a snowballs hope in hell that they are.  We have seen them coming back from Japan to play Super 15 and test rugby and all of them had serious signs of unfitness and under-par performances with deficient pace being predominant.     


 

 The three geniuses on the site obviously does not like the above report - so they ignore it like a plague.   What is important here is the fact that the game expose the true level of club rugby played in Japan - plus the fallacy to select club members from those clubs to play for the Springbok team.
Very funny stuff we have here.    

 ...good way to extend yr career playing there as they play less games, it's less physical, the money's good...hasn't really affected NZ players like Kaino and Leitch too much..must be a bit of a culture shock though..

 Inferior, in what way? It's not a physical league, it is however considerably faster! And there is far less emphasis on kicking. It's only natural that a Super rugby team known for forward domination and territorial dominance would have thr tools to up-end the Japanese. But there is a lot of benefit for our players, which is why Du Preez is fitter since going to Japan than before he left South Africa. The emphasis on running: support play and more sophisticated running structures than South African rugby teams use is another benefit. Maybe not the best place for a tight 5 player, but the rest can and have benefited from Japanese rugby. This is another example of Michaels binary thinking which fails to pick up the details.

Disaster
This really is unbelievable -  Du Preez now fitter than he was before he went to Japan.   That is what you believe - but is as far away from the real situation you normally are.
First of all In Japan they play every fortnight - not every week.  The players who come back from there to play takes a very long time to adjust to the more demanding rugby played in the SH.   Just tell me how that would happen that they are fitter if they cannot get back into form like virtually all players have done.
Fourie turned up at th Springbok team in a shocking physical condition - why would that be so.  Fourie du Preez could not even get back because he was injured ion training in Japan - reason - he was chronically unfit.   Despite the faster rugby you said are played - Steyn and JP came back slower than the slowest carthorse.   Neither of them recovered in performance during the whole season.  
If you followed Du Preez's performance record in tests - you will find a disturbing situation.  He is good the first week in a test and anything but in the test the succeeding here. It happened in all tests he played in during 2013 and in June 2014.  He is not unique players like Grant had the same symptoms.
I have seen a NZ programme where one of the ex-AB's said rugby in Japan is far less demanding than in New Zealand - the same applies in SA.   If the rugby is far less demanding - how come the players are physically fitter.
As illogical as Disaster normally is - he spins himself into a corner and believes he is in the middle of the room.  Wha t a farce that is.