[Super Rugby 2018] South African Teams - Pre-Season

[TRF_heineken]

So the Sharks Beat the Bulls this weekend in a warm up game in my old home town Pietersburg. The Sharks played two different teams in each half whereas the bulls played with a team that's probably going to resemble a Super rugby starting team once you add their Springboks that still needs to come in.
The game ended 31-14 for the Sharks. You would hope the Bulls team is still gelling and getting their act together as they cannot just say our Springboks was not involved in the game. Super rugby tends to injure many players and they still need to look competitive without their Springboks since they wont have them in any case every week during Super rugby.
The Sharks are looking good so far especially since they played one team in each half which is usually a bit difficult if they attempt to form some cohesion.
Mapimpi scored a brace on debut. We have four quality wings this year in Nkosi, Mvovo ,van Wyk and Mapimpi. With Bosch and Mvovo also covering full back.

Teams:

Sharks

First half: 15 Lwazi Mvovo, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Jeremy Ward, 11 S'busiso Nkosi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Cameron Wright, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha (captain), 4 Hyron Andrews, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Juan Schoeman

Second half:

15 Garth April, 14 Makazole Mapimpi, 13 Tristan Blewett, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Courtney Winnaar, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Tera Mtembu, 7 Wian Vosloo, 6 Philip van der Walt, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 John-Hubert Meyer, 2 Franco Marais (captain), 1 Mzamo Majola

Extra players: Chiliboy Ralepelle, Khuta Mchunu

Bulls

15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Jade Stighling, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Aston Fortuin, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Frans van Wyk, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Lizo Gqoboka

Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Eli Snyman, 20 Jano Venter, 21 Roelof Smit, 22 Andre Warner, 23 Marnitz Boshoff, 24 Franco Naude, 25 Jamba Ulengo, 26 Duncan Matthews


The Bulls sent a seriously second string team to the Lions with players mostly consisting of the Bulls XV to play on the same day but they were comprehensively beaten.

First time that I didn't attend the game here at Polokloftus...

Apparently the Bulls young guns had a bit of a party the night before, and some of them was even involved in a brawl at a local watering hole.

Anyways, these results don't mean a lot. How often do we see teams win all their preseason matches, and then lose a lot of their matches during the tournament.

 

[SomeOke]

I have to say I don't think that you could call that the starting Super 15 side for the Bulls.
Liedenberg/Papier/Odendaal/Ismaiel/Strauss
The only players I would call "starters" 5/15 does not a first team make.
RG Snyman/Jason Jenkins/Schoeman/de Jager/Smit/Pollard/Gelant/J Kriel/Ulengo - that's a LOT of missing quality.

Pre-season continues to not mean that much, but I suppose it can't be bad news for the Sharks.

 

[unrated]

I have to say I don't think that you could call that the starting Super 15 side for the Bulls.
Liedenberg/Papier/Odendaal/Ismaiel/Strauss and Lizo Gqoboka
The only players I would call "starters" 5/15 does not a first team make.

Pre-season continues to not mean that much, but I suppose it can't be bad news for the Sharks.

Schoeman//Smit/Ulengo + Lizo Gqoboka 9/15 give or take. Add the Springboks and you have your Super Rugby team.\
But yes i agree pre season is inconsequential. Its just nice to comment on some rugby action. Pre season is an exciting time because we are all looking for hints this is the year that our team will achieve success.

 

[SomeOke]

Schoeman//Smit/Ulengo + Lizo Gqoboka 9/15 give or take. Add the Springboks and you have your Super Rugby team.\
But yes i agree pre season is inconsequential. Its just nice to comment on some rugby action. Pre season is an exciting time because we are all looking for hints this is the year that our team will achieve success.

They didn't start but fair! I didn't watch the game at all just read a report.

I'm also super eager for the season to just start.
I fully expect the Lions and the Sharks to be 1 and 2 in SA, but there is still enough room for that to change, there is actually room for hope for every team in our conference.
Bulls and Jaguares are getting new coaches and strategic make-overs (in opposite directions ironically), and the Stormers were weirdly good last year (despite the critics) and even though we look a bit thin there is no reason we can't kick on.

As much as I feel bad for the Cheetahs/Force/Kings ultimately I do think the competition will improve this year, in terms of entertainment per round. Even keeping the undeserving Sunwolves is not that much of a big deal since there is usually at least one Aussie whipping boy anyway.

 

[unrated]

The Sharks play Racing 92 this weekend in Hong Kong. Now there is a couple of reasons im looking forward to this game.
1. French clubs poach players all around the world to play with their local players and in a sense club rugby there has become more important to them than the national side. So will interesting to see one of the best Super Rugby sides taking on the 3d ranked side in The Top 14, .
2. The Sharks are still trying to gain match fitness in preparing for Super rugby while Racing has been in good form to place as high as they are currently doing in the top 14. Cant wait for us to beat them with players that is not even ready for rugby yet against such an expensively assembled side.
3. They (Racing) stole our captain in Patrick Lambie. We need to show dominance over them not only to show Lambie his old team is still better but to show Racing that they can buy players all they want but they still cant beat one of the Southern hemispheres best.

The game will be live streamed on the sharks facebook page at 10.00 sa time on Saturday.
This will be the link to the stream: https://web.facebook.com/TheSharks/?_rdc=1&_rdr

If we lose then i really put my neck out in the open. But its just a game and its more interesting when you don't sit on the fence.

 

[unrated]

Sharks beat racing 92 Full Time 31-12 Halftime score 12-0
Our defence was outstanding constantly pushing back the attacking racing players. Sharks almost never kicked it away and just dominated possession for most of the match. We are still without some of our Springboks so Super Rugby is really looking promising. That first game against the Lions will be tough and i feel it will determine which team goes into the rest of the campaign with the confidence of beating a close rival. If Lions win first game i feel they will have the upperhand for most of the season and the Sharks would constantly need to play catch up. But if The Sharks win that game then they should really gain some confidence and if this happens i think it might be a special year.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Stormers suffering Wilco Louw injury. That is particularly bad as we are without Etzebeth and seemingly PS du Toit is under concern. That is 3/5 of our Bok tight 5 + Malherbe so none of our 2 Bok tightheads...

Its so hard to be a Stormers fan sometimes..

Does anyone know if Carr will be back? Our loosie and outside back stocks are actually looking pretty good for a change. Tight 5 and halves... not so much. Can't we have 1 season where the stars align?

 

[SomeOke]

Stormers suffering Wilco Louw injury. That is particularly bad as we are without Etzebeth and seemingly PS du Toit is under concern. That is 3/5 of our Bok tight 5 + Malherbe so none of our 2 Bok tightheads...

Its so hard to be a Stormers fan sometimes..

Does anyone know if Carr will be back? Our loosie and outside back stocks are actually looking pretty good for a change. Tight 5 and halves... not so much. Can't we have 1 season where the stars align?

I have a bad feeling about this season, I really hope I'm wrong as I actually thought we were pretty good last season, there shouldn't be much reason why we are worse.
RdP didn't even play much last year so we should be at least equally good.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Nah, actually I think we should be fine and those injuries apart from Etzebeth aren't long term. I fully expect us to make it to 7th/8th place. It would take something out of an ordinary Stormers season (starting strong but fading under a raft of injuries) for us to go further than just pitching for 1 play off match as a pinata.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Hi there. I understand the bulls are playing a friendly against jaguares this weekend. If anyone knows where that is being broadcasted in RSA kindly post here. As silly as it sounds, jaguares and uar refuse to let us know wether we can watch that game or not.
Some people couldnt organize a **** up at a brewery...

 

[TRF_heineken]

Hi there. I understand the bulls are playing a friendly against jaguares this weekend. If anyone knows where that is being broadcasted in RSA kindly post here. As silly as it sounds, jaguares and uar refuse to let us know wether we can watch that game or not.
Some people couldnt organize a **** up at a brewery...

The match isn't being broadcasted. At least not by any official broadcaster. I'm still checking the Bulls facebook page if they might do a live broadcast, but they haven't said anything yet.


All 4 SA squads have now been announced:

South African 2018 Super Rugby squads:

Bulls (38)

Warrick Gelant, Duncan Matthews, Travis Ismaiel, Jamba Ulengo, Jade Stighling, Divan Rossouw, Burger Odendaal, JT Jackson, Francois Brummer, Jesse Kriel, Johnny Kotze, Handre Pollard, Marnitz Boshoff, Manie Libbok, Ivan van Zyl, Andre Warner, Embrose Papier, Roelof Smit, Ruan Steenkamp, Hendre Stassen, Hanro Liebenberg, Jannes Kirsten, Nic de Jager, Tim Agaba, Jason Jenkins, Ruben van Heerden, RG Snyman, Lood de Jager, Aston Fortuin, Pierre Schoeman, Conraad van Vuuren, Frans van Wyk, Matthys Basson, Lizo Gqoboka, Trevor Nyakane, Jaco Visagie, Adriaan Strauss, Edgar Marutlulle

Lions (40)

Jacobie Adriaanse, Cyle Brink, Robbie Coetzee, Andries Coetzee, Ruan Combrinck, Ross Cronjé, Ashlon Davids, Hacjivah Dayimani, Ruan Dreyer, Aphiwe Dyanti, Willie Engelbrecht, Lourens Erasmus, Andries Ferreira, Corne Fourie, Rhyno Herbst, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Elton Jantjies, Johannes Jonker, Jaco Kriel, Robert Kruger, Sylvian Mahuza, Lionel Mapoe, Malcolm Marx, Len Massyn, Christiaan Meyer, Howard Mnisi, Franco Mostert, Marvin Orie, Shaun Reynolds, Marnus Schoeman, Sti Sithole, Courtnall Skosan, Dillon Smith, Kwagga Smith, Dylan Smith, Madosh Tambwe, Jacques van Rooyen, Harold Vorster, Warren Whiteley

Sharks (45)

Akker van der Merwe, Coenie Oosthuizen, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Daniel du Preez, Franco Marais, Gideon Koegelenberg, Hyron Andrews, Jacques Vermeulen, Jean Droste, Jean-Luc du Preez, John-Hubert Meyer, Juan Schoeman, Keegan Daniel, Kerron van Vuuren, Khuta Mchunu, Lubabalo 'Tera' Mtembu, Mzamo Majola, Philip van der Walt, Ross Geldenhuys, Ruan Botha, Stephan Lewies, Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira, Thomas du Toit, Tyler Paul, Wian Vosloo, Andre Esterhuizen, Cameron Wright, Courtney Winnaar, Curwin Bosch, Garth April, Grant Williams, Jeremy Ward, Johan Deysel, Kobus van Wyk, Leolin Zas, Louis Schreuder, Lukhanyo Am, Lwazi Mvovo, Makazole Mapimpi, Marius Louw, Michael Claassens, Rhyno Smith, Robert du Preez, S'busiso Nkosi, Tristan Blewett

Stormers (47)

Juarno Augustus, Craig Barry, Nizaam Carr, Jaco Coetzee, Damian de Allende, Jan de Klerk, Paul de Wet, Stephan de Wit, Dan du Plessis, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Johan du Toit, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Dewaldt Duvenage, JJ Engelbrecht, Eben Etzebeth, Neethling Fouche, JC Janse van Rensberg, Steven Kitshoff, Siya Kolisi, Dan Kriel, Dillyn Leyds, Wilco Louw, Frans Malherbe, SP Marais, Bongi Mbonambi, Salmaan Moerat, Dean Muir, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Scarra Ntubeni, Caylib Oosthuizen, Sergeal Petersen, Justin Phillips, Raymond Rhule, Carlu Sadie, Ramone Samuels, JD Schickerling, Seabelo Senatla, Joshua Stander, Kobus van Dyk, Chris van Zyl, Alistair Vermaak, Jano Vermaak, EW Viljoen, George Whitehead, Cobus Wiese, Damian Willemse, Eddie Zandberg

 

[Gena_ZA]

Energy levels picking up, can't wait for the new or should we say "old" (and better) S15 to kick off again
Will have the usual difficulty to sleep again from next week Wednesday onwards

Here my gut feel on the potential of SA teams in 2018:

Sharks: Year for them to take the step up, vibe and belief are there, players and coaching platforms stable, expect the Sharks to top the SA conference
Lions: Still a great team but they lost one of the best motivational coaches ever. Need to see if they can pick themselves up when they loose a few
Stormers: Going to cause upsets when on form, strong pack but shy on backline depth. Further injuries will cripple them
Bulls: Will be better but halfway through the season, for the umpteenth time they will realize traditional strength does not mean much in an ever evolving game