Just a quick one this week since it’s been a bit of a crazy week on the work front for all concerned. However, we thought we’d get our bugbear off our chest and then have a look at the three games we’ll be watching this weekend. We got riled up as Mike Tindall proposes yet another hairbrained cash grab and potentially meaningless tournament, while we can’t wait for three epic games this weekend as the Premiership and URC see two epic Finals. Meanwhile, Super Rugby, despite a bizarre structuring logic, gets a Semi-Final with huge implications for the Lions Tour to Australia.
Are we the only ones who think enough is enough?
Don’t get us wrong. Mike Tindall was a fine rugby player and seems a decent sort of chap by all accounts. However, it would appear that mixing in the moneyed circles of fringe Royals and their financial connections while attending horse racing has given him ideas. Without putting too fine a point on it, they are ideas that are seriously misguided and go hand in hand with World Rugby’s priority agenda it seems at the moment of turning Rugby into some sort of glamorous cash cow predominantly funded by dodgy money from the highly questionable oil monarchies of the Middle East. Somehow apart from the financial balance sheets, we have a really hard time seeing how any of this is of interest to the rugby public and more importantly how it serves to strengthen a game that seems to be increasingly suffering from its greatest ever identity crisis. Oh and how does all of this, essentially more rugby in an already seriously overcrowded calendar, improve player welfare other than giving a select group of elite players sufficient funding to pay for the permanent long term healthcare they’ll need when their careers end five years earlier than they would have done due to too much rugby?
Tindall and his mates have come up with a R360 proposal which involves the 300 best male and female players in the world in a competition spread over three or so months, assigned to super franchises and touring the globe’s exotic locations to spread the rugby gospel. To us, it just smacks of overload. The argument is that it will bring new fans to the sport, especially with it dolled up in a glamorous globetrotting package akin to sports like Formula 1. We have our doubts, and furthermore, the idea already seems to have alienated a huge section of rugby’s traditional fan base. Rugby is a very simple sport rooted in allegiance to your local club first, which gets fed into a loyalty to your national team, which will hopefully feature some of the players you cheer for week in and week out. It’s highly unlikely that fans will feel any sense of allegiance to mythical franchises drawn up to represent a random group of sexy global cities. Somehow, we just can’t see a fan base that will rally to the idea of say the London Wanderers or the Paris Globetrotters.
Meanwhile, these elite players will have limited time at their own clubs at key moments in their seasons, such as playoffs. How is that fair to the existing fanbase that is one of the cornerstones of rugby? Add into that the concern we’ve already mentioned on numerous occassions that some players could end up with a full schedule of 12 months of top level rugby, and with it all the physical demands that puts on players, resulting in such players being essentially past their prime by the age of 28-30 at the most.
Sorry Mike, we just don’t think it’s a good idea, plain and simple! The sooner it dies a natural and quiet death, the better!
The Premiership looks set to rekindle a classic old rivalry this weekend!
Hang on, we hear you say – you don’t cover the English Premiership, so what’s all this about? Correct we don’t, not because we don’t think it’s a quality tournament, it’s simply if we watched it along with France’s TOP 14 we probably would be disowned by our families as well as going slightly cross eyed from too much screen time. However, if you want a rugby treat this weekend, then you probably don’t want to miss one of club rugby’s grand old rivalries played out at Twickenham as Bath and Leicester meet in West London for the Premiership Final.
The record of these two teams since 1987 is truly remarkable. Leicester have won it a record 11 times, while Bath have 6 titles to their name in the same period. They are for all intents and purposes the Toulouse and Toulon of English rugby. In short, it doesn’t get much bigger in terms of games, and the 80,000 plus in attendance this Saturday at Twickenham will be making plenty of noise.
There are stars aplenty in both sides, with a healthy representation of this year’s Lions Tourists. Leicester’s Ollie Chessum has had an outstanding season both at Bath and for England, and the dynamic second rower has fully earned his Lions shirt. Meanwhile Bath’s back rower Guy Pepper has caught the eye all season and many were slightly shocked to see him not make England Coach Steve Borthwick’s selection for this summer’s tour to Argentina, though we have a hunch that any injuries to the existing squad will see Pepper on a plane to Buenos Aires quicker than the time needed to tie his rather impressive bootlaces – definitely an England star in the making.
Meanwhile, the battle between Leicester’s Springbok fly half Handre Pollard and Bath’s all star Scotland and Lions 10 maestro Finn Russell will be a fascinating battle of contrasting skill sets. In short, this should be an outstanding match and will be essential viewing ahead of the Lions Tour and England’s Tour to Argentina. So for knowing who’s who in the zoo you won’t want to miss it!
Bath vs Leicester – Saturday, June 14th – 10:00 AM (Eastern) – Sporstnet+, Premier Sports Asia and Stan Sport Australia (live and on demand)
Will Leinster trip again at the last hurdle, or will the Bulls finally master the art of travel?
Dublin’s legendary Croke Park will be the venue for this weekend’s URC final between South Africa’s Bulls and Ireland’s rugby royalty Leinster. This has all the makings of a classic, and it’s our hope that the decision to hold it at the 80,000 seat capacity Croke Park is justified, as we were rather alarmed to see the rows and rows of empty seats at the Aviva last weekend for Leinster’s semi-final clash with Glasgow. Compare that to a packed Loftus Versfeld for the Bulls encounter with the Sharks last Saturday. If Leinster are struggling to fill the 51,000 seats at the Aviva, then is Croke Park really the right choice? Leinster even struggled to fill the Aviva for their Champions Cup semi-final last month against Northampton, although they did sell out Croke last year for the same Champions Cup fixture.
The problem is Leinster now have a bad habit of choking under pressure in the last few years and it would appear that their once devoted fan base are reluctant to part with their hard earned cash for yet another washout. So far, ticket sales would indicate that Croke will be at half capacity, but that would have been a full Aviva. We’ll have to see on the day, but we hope to see a much more solid attendance that last weekend’s Semi-Final.
All that aside, though, this should be a belter of a game. Two physically intense and powerful sides meet to determine who has the mental fortitude and skills to lift the trophy this year. Is it Leinster’s all-star team of Irish internationals, or the Bulls group of young Springboks in the making and some seasoned South African veterans? Can Leinster’s giant Springbok second rower RG Snyman dictate proceedings against the club that put him on the international radar? Will All Blacks superstar center Jordi Barrett put in his biggest performance of the year as a farewell gift in his last game for Leinster? We simply can’t wait to find out.
As for the Bulls, they traditionally have not traveled well until this year and seem to have finally mastered the art of long distance rugby. Of the 18 games they played this year, they only lost 4, and only two of those losses were on the road. What will trouble them from last weekend was the loss to injury of their outstanding number 8, Cameron Hanekom, and their rather shocking lack of discipline against the Sharks last Saturday. Do that against Leinster, and they will be in a world of hurt. However, with scrum half Embrose Papier’s distribution being one of the highlights of their semi final performance, along with Johan Goosen’s vision in the ten jersey and pace out wide to burn in the shape of Canan Moodie and new sensation Sebastien de Klerk they have some genuine sparkle. This is all allied to one of the most reliable and powerful forward packs in the competition, and the Bulls will be exceptionally hard to handle this Saturday.
For Leinster, there is every reason to think that on home ground and with the exceptional talent they have at their disposal, the end result of this game is a foregone conclusion. In theory, yes, but the harsh reality of Leinster’s track record in Finals in recent years does not paint a pretty picture. Furthermore, young Sam Prendergast, despite his talents, has proved to be a huge defensive liability and susceptible to poor decision-making under pressure. The Bulls bruising set of forwards will be targeting the Leinster fly half all afternoon. Leinster did look the part last weekend however, against a quality Glasgow side and you can be sure that their highly capable forward pack will make every effort to keep rampaging Bulls away from their young prodigy in the ten jersey.
For Leinster, though, we’re also really excited to see some names that need to be fast tracked for Ireland’s rebuild as they look towards the next World Cup. Center Jamie Osborne has been outstanding, but winger Tommy O’Brien has been a revelation in the second half of the season. Ryan Baird in the back row showed us just what a talent he could be last weekend and even without the legendary Josh Van der Flier, Leinster hardly seemed to miss a beat in the back row with newcomer Scott Penny. Nevertheless, Leinster will relish having Van der Flier back for proceedings on Saturday along with fellow International Gary Ringrose in the center channels.
Should be a cracker at Croke!
Leinster vs Bulls – Saturday, June 14th – 12:00 PM (Eastern) – Sportsnet+, Premier Sports Asia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
In terms of what’s at stake for Australia, this is arguably the biggest club game of the year!!
Let’s get the elephant out of the room first on this one. We really struggle to understand the format of Super Rugby this year. Even though the Chiefs lost their playoff game last weekend, they still progress to the Semi-Finals. Alright, we can get our head around that as they topped the log at the end of the season, and last weekend wasn’t strictly a quarter final as there were only six teams in it to decide those Semi-Final berths. However, the Brumbies won their game against the Hurricanes, and the Chiefs lost their game to the Blues. So sure, they Chiefs still get to go through, but somehow they also get a home Semi-Final to boot even though they technically lost their first knockout game???? How is that fair when the Brumbies won theirs??? In short, it isn’t and already puts the Brumbies at a bit of disadvantage one would have to think while rewarding failure on the Chiefs part. Hopefully, next year won’t see such a farcical setup.
All that aside, though, this still should be an epic game of rugby. The Brumbies simply have to win this even if, to some degree, the odds are stacked against them. If no Australian sides make it to the Super Rugby Final, it doesn’t set the stage for the upcoming Lions Tour that the Wallabies would have liked. It’s arguably the best Lions Squad to arrive on Australian shores in a long time, and the Wallabies will want their players honed to peak performance in a competition like Super Rugby, and if none of their teams can make it to the Final it could unsettle nerves ahead of a daunting Series. The Brumbies are likely to have the highest percentage of players in Wallaby Coach Joe Schmidt’s side, and up to now, they have a track record to justify it.
The Wallabies forward pack has been solid and reliable when they need it most, with individuals like Rob Valentini in the back row an absolute wrecking ball and just the kind of big damaging loose forward you need to cause chaos in opposition defences, while suffocating go forward ball for your opponents. Fly half Noah Lolesio has really come into his own this season, though he’ll be hard pressed to match the mercurial talent of Chiefs and All Blacks fly half Damian Mackenzie when he’s on song. Andy Muirhead and Corey Toole have been exceptionally quick and difficult to stop out wide for the Brumbies, and fullback Tom Wright is arguably one of the five most important players in Australia right now. When it comes to dynamic play and an ability to think on your feet and create something out of nothing, there are few that can rival Wright in his present form. He plays like a classic French back, always keeping you guessing or pulling off the unthinkable. In short, he’s definitely Australia’s most fun player to watch.
As for the Chiefs, they have been the best team in the competition during the regular season, hands down. Their loss last weekend to the Blues was on a knife edge for the full eighty minutes, and there really wasn’t anything between the two sides. It’s very hard to find fault in this team, and any inconsistencies they show on the day are rarely repeated a week later. Everyone knows their roles, and the team is imbued with a culture of how to win, even if you’re not having your best day. If the Brumbies can hatch something that arguably the most prepared team in the competition hasn’t thought of in their planning, then perhaps the Canberra men have a chance in front of a noisy and fiercely passionate Waikato crowd. Beating the Chiefs on their home ground will not be easy, and if you do, it is likely to only be by the slimmest of margins.
Expect a thriller to start your weekend with in the wee hours of Saturday morning, or catch it on demand after you’ve enjoyed the festivities at either Twickenham or Croke Park. Like we say, if you have any interest in the upcoming Lions Tour to Australia, this is a game you simply have to watch.
Chiefs vs Brumbies – Saturday, June 14 – 3:05 AM (Eastern) – TSN+, Premier Sports Asia, Stan Sport Australia and FLO Rugby (live and on demand)
Enjoy the rugby this weekend folks it’s going to be a good one!
The Lineout 