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You, have placed a thrill, in my heart

rugby19 February 2019 17:05| © SuperSport
By:Johan Coetzee
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SuperWrap – week one, 2019

As far as starts go, the South African onslaught on the 2019 edition of Vodacom’s Super Rugby tournament couldn’t have been dreamier if it came right after Mike Tyson gave us all a heavy dose of Valium and followed it up with one of his surprisingly soporific uppercuts.

It’s been three days and we’re still not quite up off the canvas, are we? (Ok, when I say 'we', I obviously don’t include Stormers fans. They’ve been insomniacs since the third minute of that Loftus derby, scared that even the slightest blink would force them to relive the nightmare that started with that step of Rosko Specman on Dillyn Leyds.)

Saturday was a wonderful day for South African rugby - officially our most convincing opening-round display in the tournament’s 24-year history.

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS

While this was the 11th occasion on which South African teams managed to win three games on an opening weekend (it helped that we had six teams at one point), the +81 points-difference accumulated by our winning teams this year is much higher than anything we’ve seen before (it rarely goes over +30).

Records also crumbled at individual franchise level.

The Bulls’ 40-3 win over the Stormers on Saturday was their biggest ever in an opening match, finally beating out the old Northern Transvaal’s 30-8 victory over the Sharks in the inaugural tournament way back in 1996. It also brought to an end a three-match run of painfully sized losses against their Cape foes in season kickoffs.

The Sharks equalled their own opening round record of +35 points after they ran away with proceedings in the second half of their match against the Sunwolves in Singapore. This year’s result was a tad more impressive, though, as they didn’t have the luck - this time round - of only having to travel to Port Elizabeth to play the Kings in their first-ever Super Rugby match.

For the Lions this was their first win ever over the Jaguares in Argentina. Their failure to do so in previous years has cost them dearly on each occasion, in all probability costing them the actual title once.

WHO AM I TO DISAGREE?

Now, I am as big a cynic as any of you, but I can’t agree with people that are writing off these accomplishments because they feel the opposition lacked quality. You’re wrong, those were decent teams (with the exception, once again, being the Stormers).

The Sharks went into this weekend’s match having travelled to Asia only once before. Back in 2017 it was a relatively comfortable 38-17 success. Last week they would have been a little more circumspect. Both the Bulls and the Stormers came unstuck there just last year, and both those teams left there winless on a previous occasion as well.

It is very easy to slip up in your first game of a season, and all the more so if that game is in a place you’d much rather have come to visit as a tourist. Forget about your own thoughts on the quality of that particular ‘Wolves outfit, the Sharks deserve credit.

So too do the Lions.

Not only did they win their first game ever in Argentina, they did so with a lot of question marks surrounding the quality of their forward pack and especially the lack of size in their loose-trio.

We all know how they’ve bled irreplaceable talent these last couple of years, but clearly they’ve not lost the one thing that caused the rise to their current position as the most feared team in SA: the ability to punch above their weight.

Ask any athlete, nothing starts a season quite as well as being able to do something you’ve never done before.

I’VE TRAVELLED THE WORLD AND THE SEVEN SEAS

For the Sharks, the Lions and ultimately the Springboks, the most pleasing aspect of this past weekend’s results will be that they came at the far end of a long-haul flight.

South African rugby players are notoriously bad travellers, and breaking a bad habit couldn’t have come any sooner in this World Cup year. For one of those wins to have come in the Far East is an added bonus.

Singapore is not Tokyo (and all but one of the Sunwolves’ wins have come in Tokyo), but it is – literally and figuratively – at least halfway there. This weekend’s win means we all are.

EVERYBODY’S LOOKING FOR SOMETHING

The real stand-out this past weekend, however, was the manner in which our teams won.

While the Sharks and the Lions both impressed, it was the Bulls who gave us the most hope.

On Saturday they finally showed us that they now grasp what we’ve all been asking for all this time: that you don’t have to choose between being an attacking or a defensive team. Nor between having a dominant pack or an expansive game plan. That you can kick and entertain at the same time.

The Bulls were everything to every one of the more than 25 000 souls that witnessed their attempt live. The Bulls were what all of South African rugby can be, and we should all be relieved – elated, even - that they realised it right at the start of our all-important 2019 season.

Ok, ok, I hear you. Everything I wrote down here may be one big dream. But nothing significant has ever emerged without one.

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Here's our look at what happened elsewhere in the world of rugby...

TRIES OF THE WEEK:

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BEST OF SOCIAL:


All we want to know is, did he make the kick?

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They are missing a tighthead.

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Is this the moment the Springboks won the World Cup?

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Sticking with our theme: You rhythm mix?! Captain, our captain!

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Tat Who?

One of the week's more interesting stories was that of England prop Ellis Genge's intriguing tattoo collection.

The big man from Leicester keeps a pictorial record of his test career in ink on his right foot.

So far he has a Puma, a Wallaby, a Shamrock and (shamefully), a Springbok marked on his body.

Good thing he plays for England. Imagine how big a foot someone like Bakkies Botha would have needed if he ever felt the need?

The mirror.co.uk won the prize for the best chirp, however. They ran a headline ahead of this weekend's Six Nations grudge match reading "Ellis Genge poised to star as The Boy with the Dragon Tattoo".

The new City of Love?

To finish off with this week, we're going to leave you with the titillating news that the worlds of adult-content websites and rugby union have finally met up.

Over on cnn.com they called it a case of "naked ambition", but in this column we prefer to keep our puns classy.

CNN reports that French rugby club US Carcassonne recently announced it will accept sponsorship from adult site Jacquie & Michel ahead of its match against Biarritz on March 1.

Based in the south of France, Carcassonne is currently ninth in the Pro D2, the second tier of French rugby.

"The objective of this partnership is to improve our visibility and our digital notoriety," said a statement on the club website.

"We wanted to provoke enthusiasm and some fallout. That objective was achieved this morning, with the increase in demand at the box office for the match."

For the record, here at the SuperWrap desk we've always dreamed of one day supporting a team called the Loslyf Lions.

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