[2017 Super Rugby] Round 16: Lions vs. Sunwolves (01/07/2017)

[TRF_heineken]

Venue: Emirates Airlines Park​

Time: 17:15 CAT (SA, GMT+2)​

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I'm holding thumbs Kwagga Smith is gonna play and have another blinder for Fantasy rugby reasons. One upshot of Whiteley being unavaiable is this is likely especially one would imagine against the 'Wolves.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Sunwolves: 15 Yasutaka Sasakura, 14 Takaaki Nakazuru, 13 Ryohei Yamanaka, 12 Derek Carpenter, 11 Teruya Goto, 10 Jumpei Ogura, 9 Keisuke Uchida, 8 Willie Britz (c), 7 Shokei Kin, 6 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 5 Kotaro Yatabe, 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Yasuo Yamaji, 2 Atsushi Sakate, 1 Masataka Mikami

Replacements: 16 Takeshi Hino, 17 Koki Yamamoto, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Uwe Helu, 20 Malgene Ilaua, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Rikiya Matsuda, 23 Kotaro Matsushima

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Major experimentation from the Sunwolves here and a first choice Lions backs. The Sunwolves will be doing well to keep this within 40 points.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

In Jo'burg... I expect the Sunwolves sent a 'B' team of sorts not hoping to get near it in any case. Could get ugly.

 

[SomeOke]

Must be nice to have teams send you their second stringers because they are already accepting the loss. Stormers and Bokke need to get on this train!

 

[die_mole]

as an american i apologize for our exportation of the conference system and over-expansion of sports leagues... we have done harm to the world

 

[Big_Grumper]

It was a close game. The Sunwolves were hanging in there till the final 15 mins where the Lions pulled away.

 

[unrated]

H

as an american i apologize for our exportation of the conference system and over-expansion of sports leagues... we have done harm to the world

haha Sunwolves brought it upon themselves to send a second string team.

This game broke the Super 18 scoring record for one team.
Previous record was held by the Cheetahs (92) vs the Sunwolves.

If Faf de Klerk did not nail the conversion then the Cheetahs still would have the record.




Oh and yes kick out the cheetahs and Kings from super rugby so that the Sunwolves can remain in the competition to take more beatings.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

As brutal as I feared. Not sure why the Lions put out such a strong side when they send second stringers to Argentina, but that is their right.

 

[Brigantine]

Remarkably, none of the 101 points scored in the match came from penalties.

That... is amazing.

 

[TRF_heineken]

As brutal as I feared. Not sure why the Lions put out such a strong side when they send second stringers to Argentina, but that is their right.

Again you shouldn't compare this match with the Jaguares match.

This was the first game after a very long break, some of the guys didn't play at all for a month now. Some returned from injury like Ruan Combrink for example, and Ross Cronje who sustained a concussion in the second test. But most of all, the Lions have a bye this coming weekend, then their last match of the regular season against the Sharks and then it's the playoffs.

It would have made no sense to send out their B team for the Sunwolves match. It would have meant that some players wouldn't have played at Super Rugby level or higher for six weeks!

 

[unrated]

Also the Lions needed to be sure that they would bank the full house of five points to keep the pressure on the Crusaders. They could not risk sending out a weakened first team and lose out on the bonus point. Ackerman just did not want to take risks. Otherwise he could have rested guys like Jantjies and Andries Coetzee as there was no other need to play them.