Rainbow Cup Pre Season Discussion Thread

[Leonormous Boozer]

Thought I'd start a thread purely to discuss the rugby and forget about trying to predict the format and comment on how good/bad it is.

So, South Africans, who's coming runner's up to Leinster? Please don't say Munster!

 

[unrated]

Rainbow Cup: Which SA side runs into luminary Leinster first? https://www.news24.com/sport/rugby/...de-runs-into-luminary-leinster-first-20210403


All the South african sides are really excited to measure themselves against Leinster in Ireland, as it would give us the first indication of what the Pro 14 is really about. We will know after the first game what the best standard of the pro 14 is . the rainbow cup hopefully will provide this foretaste.

It wont be about the result. But that novelty value to measure the true strengh of cross hemisphere competition will be great as this will be the first competitive cross hemisphere club/ franchise game in history. Not a friendly in other words.

We will be able to see, how the famed Leinster would stack up against a Crusaders for example. In a very theoretical way.

I cant wait for the Sharks meeting with Leinster or Munster. Also to play against some South Africans in the Munster or other teams .

I hope we draw Leinster, and for now i think we will beat them. If they prove me wrong then i will be happy too because that would mean the standard is tops and we again have something to aim for in terms of standards, almost in the same way the Crusaders set the standard in Super Rugby.

I would be highly ****** if Leinster plays a second string side against us. With all resoect to them, i think their period of dominance is coming to an end. May the best team win

 

[big ginger 8]

What does the Sharks strongest team currently look like?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I would be highly ****** if Leinster plays a second string side against us. With all resoect to them, i think their period of dominance is coming to an end. May the best team win

Just warming you that I wouldn't be surprised to see a weakened side for the rainbow cup, it's a structure that's definitely going to result in the tournament being forgotten about and taken fairly lightly by NH sides after an already gruelling season with the Lions tour to think about too. Could see us being dead and buried after the first three rounds if we win our Heineken Cup QF next week. It's a novelty, next season is the real deal.

You're definitely right that Leinster's dominance will come to an end, we managed to win this tournament as a bad team in 2014 and in the current four in a row run we've had at most one serious challenger. You'd expect SA to have between 1-3 genuine contenders each season, we'll always be there or thereabouts come the knockouts and if any of Munster, Ulster, Glasgow and a Welsh region could step up every 2-3 years you'd have a seriously entertaining product.

I expect to get 5 in a row next year as the SA clubs get acclimated, after that a Pro X win should be almost as difficult to achieve as a European one.

 

[unrated]

What does the Sharks strongest team currently look like?

You probably wont know many of them, since we play in different competitions. But this will change with our introduction to your competition.

Our best 15 currently is par or slighlty better than the Bulls IMO among the South African teams.

15. Fassi (uncapped for the Springboks but he will take Willie le roux's sprinkbok spot for the British and Irish lions this year. He is really good, probably our best player now, he is also black so because he fits the transformation agenda and he is actually really good you can bet your house that he will become one of the most capped springbok fullbacks by the end of his career.)

14 Mapimpi (started for the springboks final in the final enough said)
13 lukhanyo am ( Sharks captain. He is an introvert though, started for the boks in the final against England)

12 Marius louw (he is abrasive and now takes the place of our departed Springbok inside centre Andre Esterhuizen who now plays for the harlequins, louw is a flanker who converted to centre and he provides a lot at the breakdown.)
11. Sbu Nkosi (springbok wing, played in the WC, ripped England a new one in their SA tour before the WC
10. Curwin Bosch (our hopes for the next ten years lies with him. Already very good, capped for Springboks, very young and only expected to get better.)
9. Jaden hendrikse (big fast scrummie, really good, in his debut season he outplayed our then current first choice and now he is first choice)
8. Nothse (a decent agile 8th man found a new rugby lease on live after his move from the Stormers)
7. James Venter (a poacher like you have not seen since pococks peak days.) He is also big on Crosfit, not very tall but probably the fittest physical speciman in our team.
6. Siya Kolisi (Springbok Captain)
5. Ruben van Heerden (our lock quality is low, i think our current starters are kinda ****, the bulls showed us out. We need to replace)
4. JJ van de Mecht (not really a starter yet, but he is soooo good. Future Springbok, guy is huge and everybody can see his potential. He will become a good Springbok. His name will become known across the world soon.
3. Ox Nche (a Springbok prop, or new beast)
2. Kerron van vuuren (very fit, strong and big, thats about it, he is workmanlike but i doubt one of our hookers in the current squad can break into the springbok setup.)
1. Thomas du Toit the tank (springbok, also holds the record for the biggest Springbok by weight in History, very smart guy and helped with out scrum coaching at the world cup. Still very young and will take over as forst choice springbok prop soon.

 

[big ginger 8]

You probably wont know many of them, since we play in different competitions. But this will change with our introduction to your competition.

Our best 15 currently is par or slighlty better than the Bulls IMO among the South African teams.

I'd say I'm familiar with a decent amount of the players certainly Mapimpi, Am, Nkosi, Bosch, Kolisi, Nche and du Toit (not sure I'd call him very young any more though) although I only saw bits of SR unlocked so no clue how most of them are getting on currently. Certainly a dangerous backline at the least.

Like TAB I don't expect any of the Irish provinces to play their strongest side every week in the Rainbow Cup, if it goes ahead.. It's not a disrespect thing, just a reality of our player welfare system and the highly condensed season. A lot of our guys will have played in 5 of the 6N games, straight into the Pro14 final, fortunately (from a welfare POV) getting a week off this week, HCQF next week, then a full interpro series with with potential HCSF and final sandwiched in there. Nevermind the games that were played from September to January and the fact that we're likely to be the biggest contributing club to the Lions.

How's the depth from the South African teams? I think going forward the league will be a lot more interesting due to the first team's the SA teams can field but one of Leinster's biggest point of difference is our quality across the squad rather than just our star players. We have a good few injuries at the moment (missing at least four nailed on starters this week and a bunch of other guys who would likely have been in the 23 for this week) but we were still due to field a 23 with 21 out of 23 players being internationals.

Looking forward to the long term impact of the South African teams but worry this Rainbow cup might be a bit of a let down for South African fans.

 

[unrated]

I think you guys will blow us out the water in terms of depth. We got a mandate to build it more for the new competition, so the SA teams has been building squads to the 50 player mark.

But it will take a while to build quality depth for such a large number considering players are still getting poached.

I have no doubts that leinster just to name one example has more depth, Super rugby sides always had this problem, a few big injuries and your whole season goes down the drain because we were already depleted by foreign poaching.

 

[jcahill1]

I think you guys will blow us out the water in terms of depth. We got a mandate to build it more for the new competition, so the SA teams has been building squads to the 50 player mark.

But it will take a while to build quality depth for such a large number considering players are still getting poached.

I have no doubts that leinster just to name one example has more depth, Super rugby sides always had this problem, a few big injuries and your whole season goes down the drain because we were already depleted by foreign poaching.

I think this will be a big change, particularly if you guys start playing European Cup as well. The European season is much longer than the Super Rugby and for a team with a lot of front-line Boks like you guys, you'll need to rotate heavily. Should be an interesting challenge!

 

[big ginger 8]

Who could have predicted this?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

What we were promised

What we'll get

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Will they cancel the whole thing or just the games with SA sides?

If the former: what a pointless waste of time this whole thing was

If the latter: what a pointless waste of time this whole thing was

Should've just ran a complete pro rugby season instead

 

[big ginger 8]

 

[big ginger 8]

Will they cancel the whole thing or just the games with SA sides?

If the former: what a pointless waste of time this whole thing was

If the latter: what a pointless waste of time this whole thing was

Should've just ran a complete pro rugby season instead

Imagine they'll still do the interpros, they were the only games confirmed the games vs the South Africans were always TBC.

If I was an Ulster fan I'd be really ******. With a playoffs they could have reached another final.

 

[mdaclarke]

I wonder if they could bubble in Wales? Celtic Manor?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Presume the whole of the UK is under the same entry rules

 

[Kiwiwomble]

jeez, thats ****, hopefully there will be some clarification soon

 

[TRF_heineken]

Well the news this side of the pond is that "forces outside rugby" are behind this. And that SA Rugby had already notified the local teams that they are pulled from the tournament.

BUT

It was the Rapport newspaper. And only the Rapport Newspaper. Which begs the question of how true this is. Rapport has lost a lot of Credibility the past couple of years, and have become prone to posting articles prematurely.

 

[unrated]

Rapport is still one of the most reputable in my mind. If they arent reputable then Beeld, the witness, City Press, news 24, netwerk 24 and the whole media 24 group is not reputable. And since rapport is owned by the same people that owns Supersport, we can also say Supersport is not reputable anymore.

I dont think this is the case. Rapport has some good sources, with Supersport and the inner workings of these teams, remember rapport indirectly holds shares in teams like the Sharks via Supersport.

What i came here for is this, the uk just announced the lifting of the lockdown.
Does this now trow a spanner in the works? Can the rainbow cup today reevaluate their position?

 

[TRF_heineken]

Rapport is still one of the most reputable in my mind. If they arent reputable then Beeld, the witness, City Press, news 24, netwerk 24 and the whole media 24 group is not reputable. And since rapport is owned by the same people that owns Supersport, we can also say Supersport is not reputable anymore.

I dont think this is the case. Rapport has some good sources, with Supersport and the inner workings of these teams, remember rapport indirectly holds shares in teams like the Sharks via Supersport.

What i came here for is this, the uk just announced the lifting of the lockdown.
Does this now trow a spanner in the works? Can the rainbow cup today reevaluate their position?

According to Supersport we will have an answer by Friday.

Rapport is reputable yes. But they tend to jump the gun, and be all doom and gloom when writing articles. Has nothing to do about them being part of Naspers. It's their own writers that write in a certain way, and get people to jump up and read their articles when there isn't always a clear answer.

 

[big ginger 8]

Rainbow Cup under threat due to Covid-19 restrictions - report https://the42.ie/5406636

This article reports it's based on an interview with the Sharks' CEO in IOL?