RugbyRebels

Good news for the battling Kings:


NEWS: THE POSSIBILITY OF A LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO EASTERN PROVINCE KINGS' FINANCIAL WOES TOOK A GIANT LEAP FORWARD THIS WEEK.

The Kings' American benefactor, PRO Rugby North America's Doug Schoninger, has been in South Africa since the weekend for high-level talks.

Independent liquidator Danie Acker last week confirmed to rugby365 that he is close to 'making a deal' that will bring to a conclusion the protracted liquidation saga of EP Rugby (Pty) Ltd.

And on Wednesday it was confirmed that Schoninger and the liquidators had met - in the presence of a South African Rugby Union representative.

Acker, who was again reluctant to divulge details of the ongoing process, on Wednesday repeated last week's declaration that he is "talking to interested parties".

http://www.rugby365.com/countries/south ... tep-closer

Another developing story here:

The Sanzaar partners are likely to vote unanimously for an extension to the eligibility rule related to foreign players representing their adopted country.

As it stands, a South African player who has not been capped for the Springboks or Junior Boks could qualify to represent another country after just three years of residency, with the likes of Ireland star CJ Stander having completed this qualification.

With so many players heading abroad, SA Rugby would undoubtedly be keen to support means to curb the player drain, while it's reported that New Zealand and Australia would join South Africa and Argentina in supporting a change to the eligibility ruling.

Votes will be cast at a World Rugby council meeting in May, where a two-year extension could be tabled.

http://www.sarugbymag.co.za/blog/detail ... ity-ruling

Canes with a 38-33 pre-season win over arch-rivals Auckland. That's my boys!

2 tries to Jonah Lowe while Milner-Skudder also returned to action.

What happened to the Super Rugby champ v European Cup champ playoff this year? France staged it the last two years, but it doesn't seem to have taken place since. Did it bite the dust?

Either way, really is time they got this thing up and running on a proper basis...

Guess nobody knew the answer to that

Meanwhile, results so far from the Brisbane 10s:

The full slate of matches for today is as follows:

1pm: Rebels 19-5 Chiefs
1.28pm: Wild Knights 15-5 Waratahs
1.56pm: Reds 17-17 Blues
2.29pm: Bulls 14-10 Force
2.57pm: Brumbies 7-14 Highlanders
3.30pm: Samoa 7-12 Crusaders
4.33pm: Rebels 12-17 Wild Knights
5.01pm: Force 12-19 Hurricanes
5.33pm: Chiefs 26-14 Waratahs
6.01pm: Brumbies vs Toulon
7pm: Reds vs Crusaders
7.28pm: Blues vs Samoa
8pm: Highlanders vs Hurricanes
8.28pm: Brumbies vs Bulls
8.56pm: Force vs Toulon

It's cricket season so not many here will have too much of interest in rugby ATM -- myself included. I don't remember there ever being a SR/EPCR match, let alone two of them, but I imagine it's not been played because it's a naff concept.

Sure. Interesting, though. A couple more results just in:


6.01pm: Brumbies 10-0 Toulon
7pm: Reds 0-28 Crusaders

http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/02/11/br ... e-updates/

Last of day 1 results:

7.28pm: Blues 14-27 Samoa
8pm: Highlanders 13-5 Hurricanes
8.28pm: Brumbies 7-5 Bulls
8.56pm: Force 7-5 Toulon

Chiefs took out the Brizzy 10s:

Final

Chiefs 12-7 Crusaders

Semi-finals

Chiefs 26-14 Bulls 14
Crusaders 17-7 Hurricanes 7

Quarter-finals

Chiefs 12-10 Reds 10
Crusaders 12-7 Wild Knights
Bulls 17-12 Force
Hurricanes 7-5 Highlanders

Final pool matches:

Waratahs 14-12 Rebels
Chiefs 33-5 Wild Knights
Reds 12-5 Samoa
Crusaders 17-12 Blues
Hurricanes 32-0 Toulon 0
Bulls 26-17 Highlanders

Canes beat the Saders 33-27 in their final pre-season run yesterday. That's my boys!

Goosen got a brace and Milner-Skudder also scored. This follows a win over the Blues a few weeks ago.

Some big SANZAAR meeting coming up, and whispers going around that we'll soon be back to fifteen sides, with South Africa (or the South African conferences, at least) set to lose two teams and Australia one. Presumably that would also be a return to a full round-robin format.

zer0 wrote:Some big SANZAAR meeting coming up, and whispers going around that we'll soon be back to fifteen sides, with South Africa (or the South African conferences, at least) set to lose two teams and Australia one. Presumably that would also be a return to a full round-robin format.

Could common sense prevail to that extent? We can only hope.

If they were dead set on adding teams willy nilly, they should really look at the J-League model. They went through the exact same process, in which interest dwindled after a few great seasons as clubs kept getting added, and diluting the competition. The initial expansion clubs were a huge success, being well-represented in the Japanese national football team and one of them pushing the eventual winners very close all the way through the season but subsequent teams did not have the same level of impact or performance.

The outcome was a complete restructure of the competition, with the professional game separated into 3 tiers - 18 teams at the top, 22 at the second tier and 14 teams +3 U-23 selections that basically live there at the third tier. Everything below that becomes amateur, so the 3rd tier teams have a risk of losing pro-status.



I think the biggest issue with Super Rugby was that the competition and commenters have been too busy talking about what teams to add, without paying much mind to what teams are still sustainable. As a result, you end up with a labyrinthine league structure that no one can make heads nor tails of, and an inherently unfair system that sees teams get fucked over because some scrub team came first in their shitty conference, and the only way forward really was to utillise a similar structure to the J-League or contract their numbers.

The Observer hints at a reduction in the number of teams: http://sobserver.ws/en/21_02_2017/rugby ... n-2017.htm

Highlanders getting thoroughly outplayed at home right now.

cashead wrote:Highlanders getting thoroughly outplayed at home right now.

Smallest home base in the competition and overall the weakest of the 5 Kiwi franchises - yet somehow managed to snatch a title (out of the Canes' jaws) in 2015. Chiefs are at the second-smallest home base in the competition but 4th-equal most successful franchise overall with two titles.

In fact, Super Rugby success contrasts starkly with population figures.

Teams by population base:

Sunwolves, Tokyo - 38,000,000
Jaguares, Buenos Aires - 12,700,000
Waratahs, Sydney - 5,000,000 - (1 title)
Rebels, Melbourne - 4,500,000
Lions, Johannesburg - 4,400,000
Stormers, Cape Town - 3,700,000
Sharks, Durban - 3,400,000
Bulls, Pretoria - 2,900,000 (3 titles)
Reds, Brisbane - 2,300,000 - (1 title)
Force, Perth - 2 million
Blues, Auckland - 1,600,000 - (3 titles)
Kings, Port Elizabeth - 1,100,000
Cheetahs, Bloemfontein - 700,000
Hurricanes, Wellington - 400,000 (1 title)
Crusaders, Christchurch - 390,000 (7 titles)
Brumbies, Canberra - 380,000 (2 titles)
Chiefs, Hamilton - 230,000 (2 titles)
Highlanders, Dunedin - 130,000 (1 title)

Quite a battle going on in Brisbane right now with the Reds coming from 18-26 down to lead the Sharks 28-26 in the final minutes. The Durban outfit are far and away the biggest chokers in tournament history now the Canes have finally managed to bag one, finishing runner-up on 4 occasions and making 4 further semi-finals.

& that's the final score. Winning start for the Reds - but only just. Sharks may do well this year regardless.

Call me crazy, but I still maintain the Sunwolves do not belong in what is essentially a Southern Hemisphere competition.

It may or may not have something to do with the fact that the Top League season for 2016/17 only just finished in January, and have only basically just come together compared to the other Super Rugby sides who all have a good couple of months on them, as well as pre-season run-arounds.

We'll see, but I fancy the Sunwolves will be propping up the table again. I suspect they won't be part of the newly revised format which will apparently come into effect next year - and will likely be announced later this year. I think this was just a temporary measure to help toughen the Japanese up for World Cup 2019. I hope so anyway, because they're dragging the level wayyy down - as well as destroying this prestigeous competition's regional identity and credibility.

Not a particularly emphatic start from the Saders, just holding of ACT in Christchurch. But the Canes started with a loss last year, afterall. Six months more of this to go . . .

I wouldn't read too much into it. They played ugly against a Brumbies team that was up for it and got the win through grit.

A more encouraging start from the Force than the Rebels anyway. If that's any indication, I think they'll have a respectable year.