After looking carefully at what I saw in the first two Rounds of the URC ,my result forecast for Round 3 was as follows:-
Stormers to win by 13 points
Lions to lose by 13 points
Sharks to lose by 7 points
Bulls to lose by 7 points,
So why was negative about the teams mentioned and even under-estmated the margin of victory of he Stormers and why the losses in the remaining tests. I will try to explain why what I feared in respecvt of he winning team and then three losing teams, I will deal with he Stprmers first:-
The Stormers
In the past few years the Stormers away record in teh URC was very poor. Secondly the teams fianancial situation was poor and in their squad selecion for the current season they ahd no money tos pemt on so-called star players. They were desperately needs to retain the services of Sacha and Willemse and for h rst they wer foced to look for squad recruiting to young and inexperienced players,
In the siuation they lost Libbok because they just could not afford him anymore and had to be ery careful insofar as recruiting of players smf csame up eoth some real younger players that had the ability toyoungsters with reat potential as players, It obviously paid off as evidenced by the results of the first three matches they played in. At this stage they have a point difference of 85 on the log,
There next two matchs are against Zebre and Benetton. So I guess that point difference will be well over 120 points after the first five Rounds of the URC,
The Lions
The unfirtunate situation is that the main owner and Chairman of their Board is not prepared to invest money in the Franchise was always in a situation that they lost players like Green and Van der Merwe - while did not have money to invest in player recruiting, Under the present conditions they are in a situation that any wins in the URC are based on luck and not on ability to perform in matches, This situation was actually described by Paulse before the match started.
The Sharks
The last ime the Sharks were really competitive in the Suer Rugby was in 2012 when the team reached the finals, Plumtree was at that stage a really good coach. In 2013 the team ran into a sittuation that no coach should be in - at times the injury situation was pathetic - they didd not have players available tp select a team of 23 players to play in matches. They had too borrow club players from other provinces to have 23 players,
The end result was that Plumtree was fired as coach and replaced by a real disaster,- White as coach was for the Sharks a square peg in a round hole, He had some real destructive abilities that caused him to be fired by the Sharks before he end of 2014:-
He never had any real game plans other han forwrd domination and the tradition of plaing 10 man rugby
He treated the players like school boys.
He was divisive and had favorites in the team like Frans Steyn - and in the end there was a player revolt
The Sharks who always placded a different playing style was changed to a kind off rugby upnpopular in the sipport base of the team
In the end the Sharks after White's firing went downhill fast and in the end re-appointed Plumtree as coach. For obvious reasons Plumtree's re-appointment was for the Sharks a real poblem. His first firing scared the shit out of him and was unfit to coach the Sharks,
Under Erasmus the scenario as to rugby changed and some really top class players from the Sharks like Beast, Am and Mapimpi became top class players for the Sharks. After the departure of Beast m 2019 - Nche became a really good substitute - but Am and Mapimpi lost their glamour and the bubble burst. Plumtree - who after his previous firing was determined to play the 10 man game and very few younger players were contracted, The encxt step of Plmtree was to recruit players he believed was prove to be top class players like Etzebeth, Kolisi and Esterhuizen. Unmfortnately the steam ran out of those players what cost the Sharks a fortune without really produving the goods. The only worthwhile players he actually rcruited was Van der Merwe and Hooker - the rest were expensive playes not consistently producing the goods.
Although the "star" Sprngboks he recruited has not played in any matches in the URC their presemt would not have made any diference to the team performances, Both Etzebeth and Kolisi became injury prone - Etzebeth suffering from repeated concussions and Kolisi lost form - while Esterhuizen is a never-has-been who cannot play in a situation where he can play a positie role in backline attacking rugby,
Instead of following the route of the Stormers to contract younger players in key positons Plumtree became a failed coach and the only route open for them now is to get rid of Plumtree as coach and consider which players on contract and who should have their contracted players reviewed, The policy should be to save amoney on the elderly and invest in younger players and coach them into playing 15 man Rugby and learned how to play with game plans and stratgeies being in place,
The Bulls
The coach that has my sympathy is Ackerman who now find himself in a very poor situation where the players he now has a different coach out of a disaster. He inherited a squad of players that may become useful in time if they are prpoperly coach to plaly 15 man rugby.
The main problem for the Bulls are multiple. Whte has developed the same tendency that cost him his job at the Sharks. No game plan and not coaching of players to implement the game plans. Reasonably successful in reaching finals in he URC - but never to win the trophy, White developed the same trend insofar as the players and in the end player division and his reationship with his assistant coaches collapsed. and White was fired as a result,
White did better in recruiting good youngters - but with out an effective game plan in place and inadequate coaching the team tired to play the White game consisting of neglect of backline play and contracting of Pollard who as a result of agmg has not been a good investment, In recent matches on test level Pollard showed deficiencies and that became evident in the Eden Park test - the last test Pollard played in the Rugby Championship, Pollard was never a speed merchant - which definitely showed firher decline thsi year,
So Ackerman is in a jam which will ae at least a year to correct, Developed a 15 man game plan and coach younger players in developing their skills for he future, Forget about players like Willie and Pollard - unfortuantely they are past tense and recruite backline players that can develop as top class players in the short and medium term. The White system must be eliminated and the Lions system of 2013 and 2014 must be implemented to turn the Bulls ino a championship team. Ackerman was and is facing a serous inheritance problem that only he wil have to solve, and I doubt it if he can do that this year, Maybe Erasmus and Browne would be of hellp in that regard.
56,437 posts
After looking carefully at what I saw in the first two Rounds of the URC ,my result forecast for Round 3 was as follows:-
So why was negative about the teams mentioned and even under-estmated the margin of victory of he Stormers and why the losses in the remaining tests. I will try to explain why what I feared in respecvt of he winning team and then three losing teams, I will deal with he Stprmers first:-
The Stormers
In the past few years the Stormers away record in teh URC was very poor. Secondly the teams fianancial situation was poor and in their squad selecion for the current season they ahd no money tos pemt on so-called star players. They were desperately needs to retain the services of Sacha and Willemse and for h rst they wer foced to look for squad recruiting to young and inexperienced players,
In the siuation they lost Libbok because they just could not afford him anymore and had to be ery careful insofar as recruiting of players smf csame up eoth some real younger players that had the ability to youngsters with reat potential as players, It obviously paid off as evidenced by the results of the first three matches they played in. At this stage they have a point difference of 85 on the log,
There next two matchs are against Zebre and Benetton. So I guess that point difference will be well over 120 points after the first five Rounds of the URC,
The Lions
The unfirtunate situation is that the main owner and Chairman of their Board is not prepared to invest money in the Franchise was always in a situation that they lost players like Green and Van der Merwe - while did not have money to invest in player recruiting, Under the present conditions they are in a situation that any wins in the URC are based on luck and not on ability to perform in matches, This situation was actually described by Paulse before the match started.
The Sharks
The last ime the Sharks were really competitive in the Suer Rugby was in 2012 when the team reached the finals, Plumtree was at that stage a really good coach. In 2013 the team ran into a sittuation that no coach should be in - at times the injury situation was pathetic - they didd not have players available tp select a team of 23 players to play in matches. They had too borrow club players from other provinces to have 23 players,
The end result was that Plumtree was fired as coach and replaced by a real disaster,- White as coach was for the Sharks a square peg in a round hole, He had some real destructive abilities that caused him to be fired by the Sharks before he end of 2014:-
In the end the Sharks after White's firing went downhill fast and in the end re-appointed Plumtree as coach. For obvious reasons Plumtree's re-appointment was for the Sharks a real poblem. His first firing scared the shit out of him and was unfit to coach the Sharks,
Under Erasmus the scenario as to rugby changed and some really top class players from the Sharks like Beast, Am and Mapimpi became top class players for the Sharks. After the departure of Beast m 2019 - Nche became a really good substitute - but Am and Mapimpi lost their glamour and the bubble burst. Plumtree - who after his previous firing was determined to play the 10 man game and very few younger players were contracted, The encxt step of Plmtree was to recruit players he believed was prove to be top class players like Etzebeth, Kolisi and Esterhuizen. Unmfortnately the steam ran out of those players what cost the Sharks a fortune without really produving the goods. The only worthwhile players he actually rcruited was Van der Merwe and Hooker - the rest were expensive playes not consistently producing the goods.
Although the "star" Sprngboks he recruited has not played in any matches in the URC their presemt would not have made any diference to the team performances, Both Etzebeth and Kolisi became injury prone - Etzebeth suffering from repeated concussions and Kolisi lost form - while Esterhuizen is a never-has-been who cannot play in a situation where he can play a positie role in backline attacking rugby,
Instead of following the route of the Stormers to contract younger players in key positons Plumtree became a failed coach and the only route open for them now is to get rid of Plumtree as coach and consider which players on contract and who should have their contracted players reviewed, The policy should be to save amoney on the elderly and invest in younger players and coach them into playing 15 man Rugby and learned how to play with game plans and stratgeies being in place,
The Bulls
The coach that has my sympathy is Ackerman who now find himself in a very poor situation where the players he now has a different coach out of a disaster. He inherited a squad of players that may become useful in time if they are prpoperly coach to plaly 15 man rugby.
The main problem for the Bulls are multiple. Whte has developed the same tendency that cost him his job at the Sharks. No game plan and not coaching of players to implement the game plans. Reasonably successful in reaching finals in he URC - but never to win the trophy, White developed the same trend insofar as the players and in the end player division and his reationship with his assistant coaches collapsed. and White was fired as a result,
White did better in recruiting good youngters - but with out an effective game plan in place and inadequate coaching the team tired to play the White game consisting of neglect of backline play and contracting of Pollard who as a result of agmg has not been a good investment, In recent matches on test level Pollard showed deficiencies and that became evident in the Eden Park test - the last test Pollard played in the Rugby Championship, Pollard was never a speed merchant - which definitely showed firher decline thsi year,
So Ackerman is in a jam which will ae at least a year to correct, Developed a 15 man game plan and coach younger players in developing their skills for he future, Forget about players like Willie and Pollard - unfortuantely they are past tense and recruite backline players that can develop as top class players in the short and medium term. The White system must be eliminated and the Lions system of 2013 and 2014 must be implemented to turn the Bulls ino a championship team. Ackerman was and is facing a serous inheritance problem that only he wil have to solve, and I doubt it if he can do that this year, Maybe Erasmus and Browne would be of hellp in that regard.