Super Rugby Unlocked: Round 2 [16 - 17 October 2020]

[TRF_heineken]

I had the same ideas about an expected dominant Stormers pack, especially at the coast. I do see however Carlu Sadie is listed as playing (unless I looked in the wrong place). Should be interesting to have that battle that dominated the warm up game IMO reignited.

I am missing a few guys for us in the backline (and of course any team will miss a fit and firing PSDT) but I still feel we will have to much for them up front and should edge this one unless the Lions get a few lekker bounces/calls and Willemse is hooribly off the mark with his shots at goal. Oddly I see the Bulls as being in the same boat as the Sotmers in that both sides will rely on dominant packs.

Ah, I see Sadie is back from injury. And Willem Alberts has withdrawn as he was in close contact with someone who has COVID.

It would have been a nice tussle to see Wandisile Simelane take on Rikus Pretorius in the midfield. Both of them I think will be in the Bok Setup very soon...

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

What a start. Very entertaining stuff so far (5 min tho)

 

[rugby rulz]

The Bulls didn't show any progress from last weekend. Same one dimensional game plan. Lack of creativity and adjust ability.

Everyone knew the Cheetahs were going to come out firing against the Bulls to prove a point. And yet the Bulls never seemed to respond to that. They basically just rolled with the punches and only showed real intent in the final 10 minutes.

As promising as Jake's tenure at the Bulls started with a good performance against the Sharks in a warm-up game, so disappointing and anti-climactic it has become in just 2 weeks.

One can't necessarily fault the players because there seems to be a clear gameplan (basically crash and bash) they are executing without reward because it is so predictable. So it has to come down on the coaches.

Team selection is also a big problem. Hendricks isn't shaping up at centre and our wings mostly only touch the ball if the opposition kicks it to them because between Steyn and the centres, the wings don't get the ball at the right times.

The forwards also seem to have lost their ability to look for offloads and are content in just going to ground with the ball.

It is really hard not to feel dissapointed and let down by Jake White at the moment because he does have a vast amount of coaching experience and the players that the Bulls have are also good quality players, but the product they are providing just isn't good. It seems to be the same old story for us Bulls supporters. A new coach comes in and gives us high hopes, and then eventually it just fizzles out and the Bulls don't play good rugby.

 

[The Seeker]

I really hope the Cheetahs win the Super Rugby Unlocked championship. It would be a revenge of sorts for the crappy way Super Rugby treated them a few years ago and how crappy PRO14 treated them this year. Show 'em both that they blew it. That's what I'm hoping for.

Let's Go Cheetahs!

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Can hardly believe we are only 4 points adrift at half time. General execution has been non existant. Wonder if we've managed more than two or three phases.. Week 1 bye biting us as usual.

 

[mdaclarke]

Burger Odendaal is an awesome player, always wonder why he has never been capped by the Boks

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Burger Odendaal is an awesome player, always wonder why he has never been capped by the Boks

I always thought Odendaal would make a better 13 than 12 and these two matches at 13 for the Lions seems to confirm that. As for the Bokke, think he is just unfortunate that in his days at the Bulls there were Serfontein and Kriel who were rated ahead of him. Then there are DDA and Am most recently. And Frans Steyn in and around the team. I think also before Am the public thought they guys who should've gotten more caps are probably RJvR and Francois Venter ahead of Odendaal.

Happy enough for the log points and the competition has proved competitive enough BUT there is a lot of room for improvement across the board. I suppose that was always on the cards all considered.

 

[TRF_heineken]

The Bulls didn't show any progress from last weekend. Same one dimensional game plan. Lack of creativity and adjust ability.

Everyone knew the Cheetahs were going to come out firing against the Bulls to prove a point. And yet the Bulls never seemed to respond to that. They basically just rolled with the punches and only showed real intent in the final 10 minutes.

As promising as Jake's tenure at the Bulls started with a good performance against the Sharks in a warm-up game, so disappointing and anti-climactic it has become in just 2 weeks.

One can't necessarily fault the players because there seems to be a clear gameplan (basically crash and bash) they are executing without reward because it is so predictable. So it has to come down on the coaches.

Team selection is also a big problem. Hendricks isn't shaping up at centre and our wings mostly only touch the ball if the opposition kicks it to them because between Steyn and the centres, the wings don't get the ball at the right times.

The forwards also seem to have lost their ability to look for offloads and are content in just going to ground with the ball.

It is really hard not to feel dissapointed and let down by Jake White at the moment because he does have a vast amount of coaching experience and the players that the Bulls have are also good quality players, but the product they are providing just isn't good. It seems to be the same old story for us Bulls supporters. A new coach comes in and gives us high hopes, and then eventually it just fizzles out and the Bulls don't play good rugby.

For me the rookies cost us the most. So many unnecessary penalties given away, gifting the Cheetahs shots at goal, and Schoeman was just superb at kicking the goals.

But credit must be given to the Cheetahs pack. They emulated what the Griquas did last week against the Bulls, and hurried our backs into making decisions. Junior Phokomela and Jasper Wiese was immense for the Cheetahs.

And even with that said, we lost away from home with just 2 points, and it could easily have been a draw.

Grobbelaar needs to practice his line-out throws this week. It's unacceptable to have 5 not-straight throw-ins in your opposition 22. Had those throws been straight, we could have been in with a chance to score a couple more tries.

 

[rugby rulz]

For me the rookies cost us the most. So many unnecessary penalties given away, gifting the Cheetahs shots at goal, and Schoeman was just superb at kicking the goals.

But credit must be given to the Cheetahs pack. They emulated what the Griquas did last week against the Bulls, and hurried our backs into making decisions. Junior Phokomela and Jasper Wiese was immense for the Cheetahs.

And even with that said, we lost away from home with just 2 points, and it could easily have been a draw.

Grobbelaar needs to practice his line-out throws this week. It's unacceptable to have 5 not-straight throw-ins in your opposition 22. Had those throws been straight, we could have been in with a chance to score a couple more tries.

But that's exactly it. The Cheetahs saw what Griquas did against our forwards. They did the same and then bam, we struggled for the entire match like we did against Griquas. So in other words, everytime a team just matches us upfront then we have to play catch up rugby for the rest of the game. It shows there is no alternative. And even when the Cheetahs was rushing up each time we barely gave any tactical kicks to push them back. We just kept on bashing it up.

I agree with Grobbelaar, but that comes down to team selections again. Grobbelaar had an appendix operation a while back and Jake also mentioned with the Griquas game that he might be rushing back Grobbelaar to cover for Schalk Erasmus. Corniel Els was solid against the Griquas. So why drop Corniel Els for the Cheetahs game entirely ? I didn't hear that he was injured so I don't know why he was left out.

I am not going to go into the midfield dilemma again as I have already stated that I think our midfield combo is misfiring and I can see that Jake is trying to do with Hendricks what he did with Sburra Sithole at the Sharks by shifting him from wing to outside centre. Except, Hendricks is at inside centre. It worked for the Sharks but for us it isn't working. And Burger Odendaal was exceptional against the stormers. Unfortunately I've never seen him play like that for the Bulls, but he really showed what he is capable of. And that is exactly what we are missing. A centre that can create space for the outside players and that hits the opposition hard on defence.

It looks more and more like the sharks match previously lulled us into a false sense of security, because we have been found out in two consecutive games by teams who simply rushed up hard on defence, especially in the 10, 12, 13 channels and who matched us physically upfront. That's it.

 

[TRF_heineken]

It's kind of hard to make space for your outside players when the defence keeps rushing inwards, that's why we took the forwards orientated route. And Maybe we are underestimating just how good this Cheetah's side really is. They smashed the Griquas in the warm-ups. Then smashed the Pumas in the first round. While we clawed our way back from behind against the Griquas, and almost drew against the Cheetahs. The Griquas, by the way, lost to the Pumas.

Plus this was a home game for the Cheetahs.

I for one, won't be so overcritical about the Bulls. It's a whole new team and management, and there are always going to be stumbling blocks. There is definitely a plan there to build a squad, not a matchday 23. So there will be chopping and changing, while giving the Springbok players enough game time, but also get the rookies more exposure to senior rugby.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

So, with google being pretty useless these days, I can't just google super rugby unlocked results to get an update on what happened. And I've looked around a few sites that I thought would have the traditional fixtures and results lists, such as rugby365 which I swear used to be a South African site, but to no avail.
Does anyone know a site which has a results list?

 

[unrated]

Supersport and News 24 (sport 24) should always be the first two websites you go to for South African related rugby News and opinion.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Supersport and News 24 (sport 24) should always be the first two websites you go to for South African related rugby News and opinion.

Indeed. Although, with News24's new subscription issues, I tend to steer away from their site as it's becoming more and more tedious to read articles, while the same articles are all on Supersport.

The Daily Maverick is another good news outlet and has a few sport articles on there too.

SArugbymag is another decent news outlet for all things SA Rugby related.

If you are just looking for scores and so on, you can use https://super.rugby/superrugby/ which is SANZAAR's official super rugby website.