[2019 Super Rugby] Round 1 (15 & 16 February 2019)

[Dai Perk]

Chiefs - better side, less injuries than previous years at the start of the competition

Wow, then the Chiefs must have been the walking wounded last year, 'cuz it looks like a lot of people will be out tomorrow... from the official website's Preview:

"A surprise in the Chiefs line-up is the inclusion of former New Zealand Under-20s, and former Blues, player Orbyn Leger at first five-eighths. He has played much of his rugby at second five-eighths and is required to take on the unfamiliar role as a result of injuries already being experienced by the side. All Black Damian McKenzie has suffered an ankle injury, Tiaan Falcon ruptured his Achilles tendon and is out for the year. Marty McKenzie has a hip injury while Jack Debreczeni has an abdominal strain. Falcon's replacement Stephen Donald has been listed in the substitutes. Anton Lienert-Brown will be at second five-eighths with Tumua Manu at centre. All Blacks Sevens star Etene Nanai-Seturo will be on the left wing."

That seems like a LOT of subs...

 

[WaterboySA]

Chiefs wiping the floor with the Highlanders.......

Edit: Spoke too soon, lol.....

Sigh....I never get this right, no wonder I don't do the Superbru thing.....

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Very silly stuff from the chiefs. Cant believe they lost.
Entertaining game thou. Didnt mint the early wake up call at all.

 

[unrated]

I knew Highlanders would win this, just has a sneaky feeling that Chiefs would falter

 

[SomeOke]

Good game to start off with, feel bad for the Chiefs, but did not feel like a first game of the season fairly high standard. ALB was everywhere.

Josh Ioane didn't miss a beat at this level.

Edit:

I'm even enjoying this Aussie derby! Rebels look sharp on attack but predictably the Brumbies have them covered up front, winning the mauls and scrums handily.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Up the landers! glad to see some smart rugby from the boys, kicking goals rather than chasing tries, kept us in touch for a late push

 

[Dai Perk]

Chiefs wiping the floor with the Highlanders.......

Edit: Spoke too soon, lol.....

GREAT comeback for the boys, especially down to 14... what a match!

 

[unrated]

The Sharks has ***le aspirations therefore we have to show it against the Sunwolves a bit later today. A bonus point victory is essential otherwise there will be doubts.

 

[BobbyM]

That's a huge call on the deliberate/not deliberate knock on. I thought the rule was about no genuine intention to catch the ball causing a knock on?

 

[petite]

just watched the return of nonu what a game!
the blond centre such a brilliant game, the blues are gonna be o had team this year! way improved from last one. they pushed the champions big time and the cruzaders displayed an epic defence. they are so hard to beat. never giving up, allways out number the opposition. so great the season started. speck man just scored his second try.. BTW the Bulls are going to shine this season. poor jags we aint going far..

 

[petite]

That's a huge call on the deliberate/not deliberate knock on. I thought the rule was about no genuine intention to catch the ball causing a knock on?

didn't get that either. it was intentional knock on imo. I

 

[mdaclarke]

Bulls and Sharks both impressive

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Really? Just finished watching the replay from Bulls vs Stormers and the only thing that impressed me was how bad the Stormers were. Pollard was superb, but that's not really that rare.
This could be a very, very long season for the Stormers.

Of course it's ridiculously early to tell, but if we extrapolate the games so far, it's as if the difference between the best and the worst has shrunk a lot vs previous seasons.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

We dropped the ball 3 times a split second before scoring. 3 bloody times. That is 15/21 points we gave away.
And we are too predictable. We should open a bit more every now and then.

It s not that we made a million mistakes, but we made silly mistakes in key moments.
Too angry right now.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Jaguares mauled by the Lions, predictably. Third try also from a defensive scrum. Worrying for the Lions because they again are showing limitations in scoring from open play (and not every side will have such a week pack). Worrying for the Jaguares and Argentina as it is hard to see how they can improve their packs performance between now and the RWC.

Also, Sunwolves have barely a native Japanese guy in their lineup it seems; which is pretty depressing. I know Joseph is basically going to keep the national team together as much as possible this year for preparation, but surely competing in Super Rugby under his head coaching would have been the ideal preparation? Even if he only had the international players play home matches or something, to minimise travel.

 

[SomeOke]

Sharks looked good, but to be fair it was only the Sunwolves, a very clinical performance with some promise of a bit of flair hidden there as well. Need to see more but it's a strong start.

Stormers were worse than poor, some truly woeful defense, a malfunctioning line-out and basically no momentum going forward as well as getting handily beaten in the kicking battle. The only upside was our scrum.

As for the Bulls I thought they looked great, Pollard controlled the game suberbly, Gelant had a few nice touches, Kriel looks to have carried forward his form from last year, Rosco was fantastic made the Stormers defense look very foolish indeed. Lood was a Behemoth in the line-out and Duane is such a good player he elevates the entire team, even Hanro looked good despite me ******** on him the other day.

Hopefully the Bulls can keep it up, and maintain some momentum away from home as well, based on week 1 should be looking to top the conference.

Stormers might be too far gone, but I'll try to remain optimistic.

I missed the Lions v Jags game - 23:40 is too late.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Not sure what game you saw Bruce, but i was clearly not the same game i watched.

Compare it to 2018 where every scrum we had vs the Lions was a penalty for them while we won all our own scrums. I expected much worse to be honest. We managed to get the ball from every scrum we thew in the ball to, and even got a penalty for us. Against the lions and considering our inexperienced props, that's a huge win in my book.

The Lions line out/maul thingie is monster that troubles all teams (except crusaders maybe) so i don't wanna be too harsh with my guys there. It's not that we are bad. It's that they are very good at it.

Regarding mauling, one of our line/mauls pushed their forwards over 30 meters before we dropped the ball over the line. Again, we made at least 3 very costly errors.

Third try also from a defensive scrum.

Not true. Was line/maul. Here is the game. Min 50 from the game (i.e. not the youtube timer).

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Sorry, poor English on my part perhaps. I didn't mean the third try sequentially, just 2x from maul, the third from Jaguares put in at a defensive 5m scrum. You are right that the Jaguares aren't the only side the Lions bossed with their pack last season but I do think the Lions won't score 3x forward orientated tries away from home against many sides this year (and I dont think they will finish top of the SA conference either).

I hope your perception will be more accurate than mine regarding your pack. I only saw snippets of the game (not concentrating on it) and highlights, so you are better placed to judge.

How did Bonilla do at 10? Is there hope there?

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Bonilla was v nervous imo, but did ok. He's got big shoes to fill, so i'm giving him a couple of games to get used to the team's/ competition's tempo.
Regarding the forwards, lets wait and have a look at the game against the bulls. I am quite confident our pack will be more than ok.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Oh what a weekend! Sharks and Bulls looked very impressive in their first outing, and seems like you can't read too much at what happens in the warm-up matches. And the Lions managed to get that elusive win in Argentina.

What does a Samoosa and the Stormers have in common?