SuperRugby: Chiefs v Bulls. 25/05/2012

[smartcooky]

This was one of the most intense & physical games in SR this season. It looked and felt like a Test match, and both teams were up for it.

Cruden and Messam were outstanding, and I think this performance by SBW should finally shut the naysayers up permanently. His late line-break and the way he kept his nerve to deliver a perfectly timed inside offload to Sam Kane for the winning try, was trademark SBW from his RL days. He surely has to be frontrunner for the starting 12 spot in the AB's against Ireland.

But it wasn't all the Chiefs. I thought the Bulls never gave up, but in the end the physicality of the game on top of the three previous weeks of tough encounters caught up with them in the last 20 minutes. I think Morne Steyn had some of his deficiencies cruelly exposed in this game; his philosophy of kick means kick, run means kick and pass means kick is never a great idea when you are kicking it to a Chiefs back-line containing, Cruden, SBW, Horrell and Masaga. Steyn's defence is good, his kicking of goals and dropped goals is good, but his lack of ability to create space for his outside backs by making a wide pass or taking the ball to the 'A' line makes him a limited fly-half. He seems rather more comfortable "doing a Jonny Wilkinson", i.e. sitting back in the pocket and kicking the ball away, but by doing that, if he does pass or run the ball, he is starting his backs 3-4 metres further behind the 'A' line, and that makes them easy pickings for the Chief rush defence.

IMO, if the Bulls had a player like the Cheetahs Sias Eberson or the Lions Elton Jantjies on the bench, someone who has a good long accurate pass or is willing to take the ball to the line, they could have subbed him on and had a better chance to win this match

 

[Hairy Scot]

Reffing was average but consistent.
There were a couple of incidents that occured right under the the nose of an assistant ref but weren't called.
One looked like a trip. Player caught an opponent's ankle with his foot and brought him down. Thought those were illegal?
Another was blatant handling in a ruck just after the trip.
(Guess who was the assistant.)

 

[smartcooky]

Reffing was average but consistent.
There were a couple of incidents that occured right under the the nose of an assistant ref but weren't called.
One looked like a trip. Player caught an opponent's ankle with his foot and brought him down. Thought those were illegal?
Another was blatant handling in a ruck just after the trip.
(Guess who was the assistant.)

Does his name rhyme with "Rice Abhorrence"?

 

[Hairy Scot]

Does his name rhyme with "Rice Abhorrence"?

You've got it!

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Is the Bulls scrum any good? There was parity in this game, which I thought was pretty good for the Chiefs considering it was Afeaki's first game since Week 1, and Smith has only had two games back from injury too.

 

[Hairy Scot]

Is the Bulls scrum any good? There was parity in this game, which I thought was pretty good for the Chiefs considering it was Afeaki's first game since Week 1, and Smith has only had two games back from injury too.

The Bulls seemed to fall short in those areas which they normally dominate. Teams are now combatting the Raging Bull Maul more effectively.
They really need to do something about the centipede!

 

[Darwin]

Overall a good win for the Chiefs. A few random thoughts on the game:

- Latimer continues to play at a high level, but Cane always make an impact when he comes on.
- Messam had a great game, showing a lot of physicality.
- Kerr-Barlow was good, and I was particulairly impressed with his defense. He really put a lot of pressure on Hougaard at times. It will be interesting to see whether he or Leonard starts next week
- Cruden and SBW were classy as always - I really love the way SBW is running straight and hard this year
- Masaga showed why he isn't good enough for the AB's - he makes poor decisions with ball in hand, and can be a liability on defense (his miss on Basson was particularly poor). Tikirotimu was a bit shaky too.
- Horrell had and outstanding game - man of the match for me. Despite mainly being a 10/12 he is still a far better fullback option than Robbie Robinson.
- I thought Spies was pretty quiet with ball in hand, but I was impressed with his work-rate. Though Stander had one of his quieter games, I really like the look of him.
- I remain un-convinced about Hougaard at halfback. This is not say that he isn't an outstandingly talented rugby player, just that I think his talents best suited to the wing, with many of his skills somewhat wasted at halfback. His clearance from the base of the breakdown is a bit slow at times, his box-kicking lacks accuracy, and he doesn't always control the game that well from halfback. Don't get me wrong, I think he is by far the best halfback South Africa has (assuming du Preez is unavailable), and he has the potential to be a very good international halfback - I just think he could be a phenomenal international wing.

 

[austingtir]

Yeah hougaard was poor very slow delivery and to busy trying to convince the ref that the kerbarlow was offside everytime he came though and disrupted him of which most looked like pretty legal challenges to me.

Spies to me must be the most overrated player in the southafrican conference. His D is rubbish and to me he just doesnt live up to the billing he had a few years back. How he makes the bok squad year after year is a bit of a mystery to me. That guy that plays for the lions looks far more impressive to me.

 

[Larksea]

Spies is a very impressive specimine but to me he goes missing when his pack goes under pressure actually I see Vito the same way - brilliant when his team are on the front foot but vanishes from the game when his pack is under a bit of pressure. I think SA have at least two better #8's the Sharks and Stormers 8's are both superb.

I pretty much agree with Darwin's observations

Though Barlow had a good game but towards the end some of his kicking put the chiefs uner some real pressure, overall the chiefs kicking was pretty average. They really should have put Leonard on with 20 to go. they really dodged a bullet.

Horrell is just mind blowing. He's come from nowhere and he's been brilliant. I honestly dont think I've seen him make a single mistake everything h touches seems to turn to gold. While Cruden and Barlow had very avarage kicking games Pretty much every kick from Horrell was spot on.

Chiefs Really needed that win, they got some tough games coming.