Advertisement

A decisive three weeks for SA conference

rugby23 April 2019 06:34| © Cycle Lab
By:JJ Harmse
Share
article image
Jean-Luc du Preez © Gallo Images

There is still little separating the five teams in the Vodacom Super Rugby conference after the DHL Stormers failed narrowly to take their opportunity to play themselves into the pound seats at the start of their extended home leg.

The Stormers’ loss to the Brumbies, the Sharks’ unexpected loss to the Reds coupled with the Lions’ equally unanticipated win in Hamilton during the long weekend left the team who had the bye, the Bulls, as the big winners from round 10.

However, while they should now be seen as conference favourites, there are still just four log points, meaning one win without a bonus point, separating top from bottom, and a lot will depend for the Bulls on how they deal with their trip to Cape Town at the weekend for their return derby against the Stormers.

It has become a particularly massive game for the Cape side, more so than for the Bulls. A Stormers win would bring them level with the Bulls, or possibly slightly ahead, but the Bulls would still have a game in hand on them. The Bulls do still have a long tour to look forward to at the end of the competition, but the Stormers would not want to be eight or nine points adrift at the end of the next round with the leading team having a game in hand.

That is particularly so if you consider what is still to come for the Stormers, who must feel after the defeat to the Brumbies a bit like an ultra-marathon runner does when he finally gets to the top of a particularly long hill and arrives at the supposedly easy bit only to discover that it is not quite as easy as anticipated.

Granted, the Brumbies did play out of their skins, the defence of the Australian team was close to unbelievable, and the referee did aid the visitors by allowing them to slow the game down, but the Stormers have only themselves to blame for the fact that they now face a particularly stressful couple of weeks. They made mistakes and poor decisions that cost them what should have been a comfortable win.

After the big derby against the Bulls they travel to Buenos Aires to play the Jaguares. And then once they have sat out their bye week they face the Crusaders. They could conceivably lose all of those games, though just losing the first two would probably be enough to put them out of the race for conference honours, if not the wild card positions that will secure a place in the play-offs.

But it isn’t so easy for the Bulls either. They haven’t won at Newlands in Super Rugby for quite a while, and they play the Crusaders in Pretoria a fortnight later. We know what happened last time a New Zealand team visited Pretoria. This is all before they head on a four match tour of Australasia. They need to win two of the three games over the next three weekends - a home clash with the Waratahs is sandwiched in between - if they want to head off on tour feeling comfortable.

There is a lot of teeth gnashing in Durban about the the Sharks’ and so there should be given the inconsistency of the performances and also the perception that, like Manchester United are suddenly doing in a different sport and competition, the players are not always as switched on as they should be.

They couldn’t be faulted for effort against the Reds on Good Friday but they have clearly suffered a massive dent to their confidence and that contributed to their high error rate. Perhaps more damning though is the growing acceptance by the analysts that the Sharks just don’t have a dynamic enough game-plan for this competition. It’s all very well placing everything in the physical domination basket, but what happens on the days when that is not forthcoming?

Yet, despite their current travails, the Sharks are not out of the conference race either, and have an opportunity to turn the mood quite dramatically on their three match tour of Australasia. They don’t boast a good record in Australia, but you wouldn’t completely write off their chances of beating the Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday.

The Crusaders game in Christchurch will be difficult but the Sharks do have a good record against New Zealand teams and the Chiefs, who they play in the last match of their tour, look vulnerable again now that they’ve lost the services long term of Damian McKenzie.

If the Sharks return from tour with two wins in three starts, they will still be in the picture if you consider that the Bulls still have to tour. We are hearing the Lions have problems in their camp but it didn’t look like that against the Chiefs, so they are back in the hunt for the conference title they have hogged for the last three years. Their final game on tour against Crusaders is massive, though with Malcolm Marx flying home to rest, it appears they may already have accepted this one might be an insurmountable obstacle no matter what is thrown at it.

But the Hamilton game did show that Warren Whiteley makes a difference when he is present, as does Kwagga Smith. So they will be confident that they can at last pick up a bit of home momentum when they host the Waratahs after their bye week, and they host the Stormers in what could be another massively decisive derby, from a conference viewpoint, not long after that.

The Jaguares could still be the jokers in the pack. They are together at the foot of the log with the Stormers at present but have had their second bye and are still just a win behind the leaders. Their home clash with the Brumbies and the one the following week against the Stormers will determine if they remain alive in the hunt. It’s going to be an intriguing, and for some stressful, couple of weeks.

Fixtures for next three weeks (home teams first)

Round 11 April 26/27

Crusaders v Emirates Lions (Friday, 09.35)

Waratahs v Cell C Sharks (Saturday, 11.45)

DHL Stormers v Vodacom Bulls (Saturday, 15.05)

Jaguares v Brumbies (Saturday, 23.40)

Round 12 May ¾

Crusaders v Cell C Sharks (Friday, 09.35)

Vodacom Bulls v Waratahs (Saturday, 15.05)

Jaguares v DHL Stormers (Saturday, 21.40)

Lions bye

Round 13 May 10/11

Vodacom Bulls v Crusaders (Friday, 19.10)

Chiefs v Cell C Sharks (Saturday, 09.35)

Emirates Lions v Waratahs (Saturday, 15.05)

Stormers bye

Advertisement