Super Rugby Unlocked: Round 7 [20 - 21 November 2020]

[TRF_heineken]

​

Saturday, 21 November 2020

Venue: Loftus Versfeld
Time: 19:00 CAT (SA, GMT+2)

Venue: Toyota Stadium
Time: 16:30 CAT (SA, GMT+2)

Venue: Jonnson's Kings Park
Time: 19:00 CAT (SA, GMT+2)
***CANCELLED***​

 

[TRF_heineken]

Please bare with me. I had to do some changes based on the breaking news that was just announced.

The Sharks vs. Stormers game has been cancelled due to a couple of Sharks players testing positive for CoVID.

The Bulls vs. Pumas game has been moved to Saturday, to allow the Pumas more time to field a CoVID-free team, as they have to go for tests again later this week to ensure no one else got infected after last week's infections.

So at the moment there is only one game the is definitely on the cards to be played, and that's the Karoo-Derby between the Cheetahs and the Griquas.

 

[Al Bangor]

(if they play)

 

[Al Bangor]

Please bare with me. I had to do some changes based on the breaking news that was just announced.

The Sharks vs. Stormers game has been cancelled due to a couple of Sharks players testing positive for CoVID.

The Bulls vs. Pumas game has been moved to Saturday, to allow the Pumas more time to field a CoVID-free team, as they have to go for tests again later this week to ensure no one else got infected after last week's infections.

So at the moment there is only one game the is definitely on the cards to be played, and that's the Karoo-Derby between the Cheetahs and the Griquas.

Is this the final round ofcompetition?

 

[TRF_heineken]

Is this the final round ofView attachment 8837competition?

Yes.

Next week the Currie Cup Starts, and the teams log points for the SR Unlocked tournament is carried over to the CC log.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Boo! I hope the Currie Cup has more integrity as an actual tournament. But congratulations to the Bulls for what its worth.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Boo! I hope the Currie Cup has more integrity as an actual tournament. But congratulations to the Bulls for what its worth.

I think they need to reconsider the procedure when games are cancelled/postponed due to COVID. And maybe take the example of the Autumn internationals of this past weekend and award the team who was COVID-free the 4 points and the team who got COVID, gets the loss.

Perhaps it would also be wise to delay the playoffs of the CC until all games were played, so that there are a couple of weekends left after the regular season, to fill the holes if any matches were postponed.

 

[Al Bangor]

Yes.

Next week the Currie Cup Starts, and the teams log points for the SR Unlocked tournament is carried over to the CC log.

Thank you. I hope ESPN+ streams the Currie Cup, but I doubt it. They didn't stream any of the Unlocked games even though they streamed all of the Aotearoa and AU games and now the Tri-Nations as well. So were not seeing any of the South African teams play here in the USA, unfortunately.

Go Cheetahs!

 

[unrated]

Thank you. I hope ESPN+ streams the Currie Cup, but I doubt it. They didn't stream any of the Unlocked games even though they streamed all of the Aotearoa and AU games and now the Tri-Nations as well. So were not seeing any of the South African teams play here in the USA, unfortunately.

Go Cheetahs!
View attachment 8838

Which is weird considering just before all this started Supersport signed a deal with ESPN and now we have loads of American sports on our channels. There is Baseball, NFL etc and they are advertising the ESPN sport documentaries on Supersport. I wonder why it's not the other way around. Maybe ESPN was not willing to pay for the broadcast rights and/Or ESPN thought their audience would much rather watch some Kiwi showboating rugby instead of ours and decided to hedge their bets In the pursuits of the Niche rugby profit market in the states.

 

[Al Bangor]

Which is weird considering just before all this started Supersport signed a deal with ESPN and now we have loads of American sports on our channels. There is Baseball, NFL etc and they are advertising the ESPN sport documentaries on Supersport. I wonder why it's not the other way around. Maybe ESPN was not willing to pay for the broadcast rights and/Or ESPN thought their audience would much rather watch some Kiwi showboating rugby instead of ours and decided to hedge their bets In the pursuits of the Niche rugby profit market in the states.

ESPN+ streams PRO14 too as well as those showboating Kiwi's. I guess they couldn't work out a deal, but that sucks because I'd really like to watch South African rugby again like I did the past three seasons with Super Rugby.

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Pity that the tournament fizzles like this at the end because there has been some good rugby played of late. Those first two rounds it was only the Bulls and Cheetahs that didn't show a ton of rust and that's the ***le for them. Other teams catching up but left it too late. Overall happy with were my team is at but concerned for depth looking long term.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Pity that the tournament fizzles like this at the end because there has been some good rugby played of late. Those first two rounds it was only the Bulls and Cheetahs that didn't show a ton of rust and that's the ***le for them. Other teams catching up but left it too late. Overall happy with were my team is at but concerned for depth looking long term.

I think with regards to depth, we'll see a lot more of the youth players during the Currie Cup. Most of the U/21's played the U/21 tournament during the SR Unlocked tournament. And very few of them were in the Senior Team's squad lists.

I know Jake White has mentioned that he'll give a few youngsters a run during the Currie Cup.

It's a pity though that the Currie Cup will be just a single round format. As I was hoping that there will be a home/away setup. But the Currie Cup is basically just the flip side of the SR unlocked, in that the teams who had home games during the SRU, will now have away games against those teams.

So where the Bulls had 4 home and 2 away games during SRU, they now have 4 away and 2 home games.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

We should actually just look at SRU and CC together in that case.

Having a look at our squad I feel it is more a case the quality of depth than the actual depth I suppose. Or, more the experience than anything. The young players are generally quality but the inexperience does tend to show. In SA we like to back the youngsters which is good to an extent but there comes a point where your team is too green. I suppose a lot of that is down to money making our veterans/journeymen play abroad.

 

[TRF_heineken]

We should actually just look at SRU and CC together in that case.

Having a look at our squad I feel it is more a case the quality of depth than the actual depth I suppose. Or, more the experience than anything. The young players are generally quality but the inexperience does tend to show. In SA we like to back the youngsters which is good to an extent but there comes a point where your team is too green. I suppose a lot of that is down to money making our veterans/journeymen play abroad.

But I think you are selling the Stormers a bit short. Moerat, Augustus, Jantjies and Rikus Pretorius are all youth players some of them played SA U/20 last year. And they are regular starters now. I think of the big 5, the Stormers are using their youth players a lot more than the others, maybe the Sharks also to an extent this year.