Comments on: SA RUGBY ANALYSIS 2004-2008

By: Sanjay

Sanjay — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:24:19 +0000

Hi Ahmed,
Judging from all the Sharks you picked in your Springbok team i’m aussuming you live in Durban!?
You do make many good points that we need to change our rugby. I agree with you, check out my article which covers my opinions.
Whilst I agree we have to change and use more skill, we don’t necessarily have to imitate NZ or Aus. We can play a direct SA way. We have proven over the years we can do it, Mallet’s Boks in 98, Straueli in 2002, Jake White in 2004. All Springbok coaches agree, but when they feel the pressure they revert back to a tight game. I hope De Villiers is made of stronger stuff and follows his convictions. I am still not 100% sure. We saw when he lost a few games, he started to change his thinking. Time will tell, we have to beat the Lions and perform in the tri-nations.

By: ahmed zubair

ahmed zubair — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:04:55 +0000

if you look at how the aus and nz teams play super rugby and international rugby you will see that there is not much difference. sa rugby was old school rugby up until 2006 7s rugby started to get some recog
nition and our backline started to get involved.hopefully our new coach makes a difference
when you look at the hiding the springboks caught the past five years you will see that our defence was no were to be found
and another important is that if you dont play or try to play the typ of rugby your opposition is playing then you not going to understand their game plan
for eg howmany s.a players have you seen use the hand of,howmany s.a players have you seen side stepping,howmany players have you seen trying to stay on their feet breaking through tackles.
we need players like ryno benjamin more sevens players because if you look at the nz ans aus teams, count howmany sevens stars they have.another important point is coaching i think s.a is a breeding ground for rugby players, if you look around the world almost every country playing rugby has s.a players but our coaching needs to catch a wake up
if you listen to the nz and aus commentators hear what they say they talk about so much detail about indentifing weak points,gaps,retention of the ball,challenging for the ball on the ground about different ways to cheat its smart rugby when to attack when to enter the rucks,how to seperate a attacking player from his support
hopefully, like i said before maybe our current coach will make a difference

By: Sanjay

Sanjay — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:32:02 +0000

Yes the Bulls have been the dominant team in SA rugby for some time now. When you add in the Vodacom cup, it shows we are dominant and consistent at every level.
I believe this is because we have great pride in the history, tradition and performance in the Bulls, which administrators and players have worked hard on since we had a very lean period from the mid 90′s to about 2002.
The challenge is for other SA teams to match them.
Go Bulle Go!

By: rheanna

rheanna — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:13:25 +0000

wow, so the bulls are really on top in all cases. interesting to see the cheetahs so close in the currie cup.
but bulls way ahead in super rugby!