Super Rugby Aotearoa: Round 4 - [04 - 05 July 2020]

[The Seeker]

There's only one team left with a realistic shot at the Aotearoa ***le other than the Crusaders, and that's the Blues. They play each other this coming Saturday, July 11.

Anybody know if they'll be a South African short season of Super Rugby?

 

[The Seeker]

Half Time: Hurricanes 20 Chiefs 3

 

[The Seeker]

Final: Hurricanes 25 Chiefs 18

 

[Umaga's Witness]

so, if the first one is a team yellow, should the second one be a red?

i thought this was the lowest quality game so far this year, with some sloppy discipline and poor decisions. still, there were some good things in it.

jordie was great, boshier, laulala, and savea were very good, mckenzie, coles and cruden had their moments but were inconsistent, cane and tj were good, but it was umaga-jensen who was the best on the park today. his defence was exceptional all day, including two game changing moments on the line.

 

[Oliver Madden]

It wasn't the greatest game today but I thought the scoreline actually flattered the Chiefs. felt the Canes were in control for 60 minutes and then the referee made some bizarre calls. Sam Cane should have definitely been yellow carded for the shoulder charge. Think the first yellow card for the Canes lock was dubious as well as the penalty count was similar for both sides at the time he was sin-binned. The Chiefs are having a horror run now, 0 and 4 for this competition. their attack looks dreadful.

 

[TheOvalBall]

Chiefs really look bad. Really low on confidence. Hurricanes just had a better day.

 

[TheOvalBall]

4 South Africans played in the Chiefs Hurricanes match

Dylan Nel
Ross Geldenhuys
Kobus van Wyk
Wes Goosen

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Chiefs really look bad. Really low on confidence. Hurricanes just had a better day.

And gatland keeps saying they are nearly there. I'm guessing this is because he doesn't want their confidence to be low, but at some stage you have to front up and admit you've been playing crap.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

4 South Africans played in the Chiefs Hurricanes match

Dylan Nel
Ross Geldenhuys
Kobus van Wyk
Wes Goosen

Goosen has lived in NZ since he was 4, think we can given him a pass

 

[TRF_heineken]

Anybody know if they'll be a South African short season of Super Rugby?

We are patiently waiting for our government to give the green light. The problem however is that the region where the Stormers, Bulls and Lions are situated, are the 2 hotspot areas for the pandemic, and both those areas are still showing an upwards trajectory on the number of infections.

But with that said, our Sports Ministry has been giving weekly updates on approvals for sporting codes to return-to-train and return-to-play. Rugby is unfortunately one of those sports that runs a higher risk, because of contact between players, and off-field staff, and that is why there is a delay.

According to the articles I've read so far, it appears that there will be an announcement of some sort this week sometime, but we don't know what the details will be of the announcement.

Should we get some sort of clearance in the next 2 weeks, we will have some sort of Currie Cup tournament, with the idea of not just having the Super Rugby teams being allowed to play, but all 14 local unions. Which of course includes the Cheetahs and the Kings.

With international travelling still being banned in SA, it seems unlikely that the Cheetahs and the Kings will play anymore Pro14 games, apart from against each other, which could be worked into the Currie Cup campaign as well.

I'll keep you posted on this matter as it develops, just not in the Super Rugby Aotearoa match threads...

 

[The Seeker]

We are patiently waiting for our government to give the green light. The problem however is that the region where the Stormers, Bulls and Lions are situated, are the 2 hotspot areas for the pandemic, and both those areas are still showing an upwards trajectory on the number of infections.

But with that said, our Sports Ministry has been giving weekly updates on approvals for sporting codes to return-to-train and return-to-play. Rugby is unfortunately one of those sports that runs a higher risk, because of contact between players, and off-field staff, and that is why there is a delay.

According to the articles I've read so far, it appears that there will be an announcement of some sort this week sometime, but we don't know what the details will be of the announcement.

Should we get some sort of clearance in the next 2 weeks, we will have some sort of Currie Cup tournament, with the idea of not just having the Super Rugby teams being allowed to play, but all 14 local unions. Which of course includes the Cheetahs and the Kings.

With international travelling still being banned in SA, it seems unlikely that the Cheetahs and the Kings will play anymore Pro14 games, apart from against each other, which could be worked into the Currie Cup campaign as well.

I'll keep you posted on this matter as it develops, just not in the Super Rugby Aotearoa match threads...

Thank you for the information. I have a feeling a Super Rugby SA short season is not going to happen, although I hope it does. There's a lot of great rugby fans down there that deserve it. But health and safety should definitely come first. Best wishes to everyone in South Africa.

 

[WaterboySA]

Been watching the games on YT when they show highlights. The NZ teams once again look amazing. AB's gonna be a hard nut to crack the next international season. Frizzel looks a beast, Savea(the forward, think Ardie) looks great. Would be my two flankers with a big nr8(not sure who). Could be the answer against Pieter Steph and co.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Been watching the games on YT when they show highlights. The NZ teams once again look amazing. AB's gonna be a hard nut to crack the next international season. Frizzel looks a beast, Savea(the forward, think Ardie) looks great. Would be my two flankers with a big nr8(not sure who). Could be the answer against Pieter Steph and co.

Except, they have already announced Sam Cane as their captain, so one of them on the bench, or maybe move Savea to no. 8?

 

[The Seeker]

Goosen has lived in NZ since he was 4, think we can given him a pass

Hi Jabby. I saw this posted on Facebook and copied it because I want to get your opinion since you have ties to both New Zealand and Australia. Thank you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super Rugby is FINISHED as we know it.

Pay TV was in the process of signing a new 10 year deal for Super Rugby.....which would include the Jaguares.....but the corona virus has killed off Super Rugby

During the rugby layoff.....the powers that be in Australian and New Zealand rugby, have sat down and had time to re-evaluate rugby in this region. They have decided that a regional domestic comp between ONLY Australian and New Zealand clubs is the way to move forward. The reason for this are:

1. Rugby in Australia has lost major ground to other sports. Rugby is now not even in the current top 5 of Australian sport.....being surpassed by AFL, rugby league, soccer, cricket, netball (a female sport), and basketball. Rugby Union has to drastically reinvent itself in Australia in order to gain back popularity. Unfortunately, Super Rugby in the last decade has proved unpopular with Aussie sport lovers.

2. The travel. Aussie and New Zealand players do not like travelling to places such as South Africa and Argentina to play club rugby, due to the long distance travel. The tiring Super Rugby season has a detrimental effect for players representing their countries in the Rugby Championship.....due to the RC starting not long after Super Rugby concluded.

3. Jaguares and South African teams being unpopular with antipodean audiences.

Australians and New Zealanders have had a long tradition of sporting rivalry. The sports fans are therefore only interested in watching Aussie and Kiwi teams battling it out head to head.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Hi Jabby. I saw this posted on Facebook and copied it because I want to get your opinion since you have ties to both New Zealand and Australia. Thank you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Super Rugby is FINISHED as we know it.

Pay TV was in the process of signing a new 10 year deal for Super Rugby.....which would include the Jaguares.....but the corona virus has killed off Super Rugby

During the rugby layoff.....the powers that be in Australian and New Zealand rugby, have sat down and had time to re-evaluate rugby in this region. They have decided that a regional domestic comp between ONLY Australian and New Zealand clubs is the way to move forward. The reason for this are:

1. Rugby in Australia has lost major ground to other sports. Rugby is now not even in the current top 5 of Australian sport.....being surpassed by AFL, rugby league, soccer, cricket, netball (a female sport), and basketball. Rugby Union has to drastically reinvent itself in Australia in order to gain back popularity. Unfortunately, Super Rugby in the last decade has proved unpopular with Aussie sport lovers.

2. The travel. Aussie and New Zealand players do not like travelling to places such as South Africa and Argentina to play club rugby, due to the long distance travel. The tiring Super Rugby season has a detrimental effect for players representing their countries in the Rugby Championship.....due to the RC starting not long after Super Rugby concluded.

3. Jaguares and South African teams being unpopular with antipodean audiences.

Australians and New Zealanders have had a long tradition of sporting rivalry. The sports fans are therefore only interested in watching Aussie and Kiwi teams battling it out head to head.

yeah, there have been a few threads that have touched on what SH rugby will look like in the future. I'll just add that "unpopular" is a bit far...maybe just not popular enough to get up and watch at 1-3am

The travel is also very expensive and make programming the season hard, COVID has just forced the unions to look at some of this. That is all on top of the existing unhappiness about things like the uneven draws and conference systems

Where is the article from? the "netball (a female sport)" is a little jarring, the other sports are al also played at a professional level, the AFLW and WBBL are great watches

NZU has sad as popular as SRA is its not sustainable financially and so they need a wider market and aussie/PI's are the most obvious option to build something new...ish

the big question is how many teams, does aussie go with all 5 against our 5 and risk being too thinly spread? or does aussie only get 2-3 teams? or doesn NZ get more teams to thin things out a bit

 

[mania]

3. Jaguares and South African teams being unpopular with antipodean audiences.

this is absolutely BS. kiwi's love playing against saffa sides
i'd believe this about playing aus sides

 

[The Seeker]

yeah, there have been a few threads that have touched on what SH rugby will look like in the future. I'll just add that "unpopular" is a bit far...maybe just not popular enough to get up and watch at 1-3am

The travel is also very expensive and make programming the season hard, COVID has just forced the unions to look at some of this. That is all on top of the existing unhappiness about things like the uneven draws and conference systems

Where is the article from? the "netball (a female sport)" is a little jarring, the other sports are al also played at a professional level, the AFLW and WBBL are great watches

NZU has sad as popular as SRA is its not sustainable financially and so they need a wider market and aussie/PI's are the most obvious option to build something new...ish

the big question is how many teams, does aussie go with all 5 against our 5 and risk being too thinly spread? or does aussie only get 2-3 teams? or doesn NZ get more teams to thin things out a bit

I copied a guy named Pauls' comment to an article from a America's Rugby News article on their Facebook page. It was about how most of the Jaguares players are signing with new clubs overseas. I commented that I thought the Jaguares would leave Super Rugby and join SLAR (the new South American Pro League) and Paul left the comment that I italicized. I just wanted to run it by you since you've lived in both New Zealand and Australia, because he mentions those countries predominately in his post. I had never heard of the term "antipodean" before. Thanks for your feedback!