Boks get their excuses in early...

[Teh Mite]

World renown South African sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes believes that the SANZAR countries might be shooting themselves in the foot by expanding the Super Rugby tournament.

Noakes reckons that winning the World Cup will come down to managing the workload of top players - a tough thing to do when they are expected to play in a tournament that lasts six months.

A successful Super Rugby franchise could play as many as eighteen or nineteen matches in the new expanded format. A country will have to win seven Tests to lift the World Cup. For top players in southern hemisphere countries, who would have just finished four games in the Tri-Nations, the potential exists to play 30 top-level games by November.

"It adds up to 29 or 30 games, while I believe the ideal for 2011 would be 16 or 17 games. We have to find a way of bringing 29 down to 17," told Supersport.

"If one of South Africa, New Zealand or Australia win, it will be because they managed their players the best. If your top players play throughout the entire season, there is no way that you will win the World Cup.

"In that case it will open the door for countries like France, England and Argentina."

The major change in the new Super Rugby format is the addition of more local derbies, but Noakes believes these are exactly the kind of games top players need to sit out.

"Don't play your best players against South African teams in the Super 15," he suggested.

"It makes a lot more sense to want to beat New Zealand and Australian teams. You have to beat your opponents if you want to be successful in the World Cup."

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3824_6392910,00.html

 

[Seaton]

Hows this an excuse spefically for SA?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

It's a South African saying it?

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Wwwwoooowww ..... try AP or ML where there are more games :lol:

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I was thinking that:

Noakes reckons that winning the World Cup will come down to managing the workload of top players - a tough thing to do when they are expected to play in a tournament that lasts six months

Magners, Top 14 and Aviva all run for 8months (regular season) then another month of playoffs

 

[Seaton]

It's a South African saying it?

Aye, but he is not saying that SA wil specfically suffer from the new format, in fact he directly says that between NZ, Aus and SA, the team who wins the WC would be the team with the best managed players.

So he is making excuses for the southern hemisphere (bar the Argies) in general.

 

[smartcooky]

This is rubbish and poorly thought out

Super Rugby from 2011 has four extra pool matches for each team (the local derbies between five teams) and one potential extra post-season match due to the elimination semi-finals. That is potentially five extra matches for the top players.

In RWC year, there are no June Tours (so take away three matches), and the Tri Nations is only two rounds instead of three (take away another two matches). Thats five matches less for the top players.

Add five then take away five. Net result = ZERO. There is no extra workload.

 

[User1245]

As a professor of sports science I'm sure he has some grip on the subject. I do however think he is painting the worse case scenario here. As in if a S15 team was managed by somebody from Black Out Rugby and he forgot about his team with the default tactic on 'Play like there's no tomorrow'. Ahem..

Players in longer leagues get rested, it's a common practice. In SH rugby (Super Rugby especially) resting players is not a common practice. High intensity & short leagues are the general theme. Coaches will have to change their approach, simple as. Greater squad depth will need to be developed. However this is a double bladed sword. Whilst our talent pool will increase, there is a danger of lowering the quality rugby on display.
Countries like SA and NZ brag about depth in talent, so this expansion of the comp will either expose or emphasis that claim. Australia on the other hand...

 

[Shaggy]

Wwwwoooowww ..... try AP or ML where there are more games :lol:

It's not just South Africa, Graham Henry has also talked about the All Blacks missing two games in addition to the two game byes that all super rugby sides get.

This issue is about the timing of the comps as much as it is about the number of games being played ... don't these comps start in September and finish in May?, where as the super comp will finish in July, add to that tri-nations, the season extends to the end of August (27 August). The RWC first match is on 9th September, so it makes sense (to me at least), that the top players get some form of rest, at some stage, so that they are both fresh and match fit.

 

[squirrel]

i think he makes a point that they should aim to play well against the foreign clubs,i think the local derbies are boring

 

[Shaggy]

I heard on NZ's Radio Sport, that there is no blanket rest policy for AB players, but there will be individual fitness programmes for 35 - 40 players, and that the Super franchisers must be mindful of player welfare etc ... in other words, they've cut a deal behind closed doors, and aren't going to make it public

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

This is rubbish and poorly thought out

Super Rugby from 2011 has four extra pool matches for each team (the local derbies between five teams) and one potential extra post-season match due to the elimination semi-finals. That is potentially five extra matches for the top players.

In RWC year, there are no June Tours (so take away three matches), and the Tri Nations is only two rounds instead of three (take away another two matches). Thats five matches less for the top players.

Add five then take away five. Net result = ZERO. There is no extra workload.

More or less right. The guy wouldn't be the first "professor" to overlook things like this. For the players likely to make test duty it's no more work.

It is however more work than the player would have endured in a previous world cup build-up had the same situation been in place for elimination of June tours and a shorter Tri-Nations.

 

[squirrel]

deans wants the aussies to play as much rugby as possible which is understandable because of the inexperience of most of the squad