Official United Rugby Championship thread

[_Os_]

Sharks need some work on their defence. Defending cross field kicks is the obvious one. But feel watching that is the pack needs to find ways to improve and take some pressure off the rest of the side, they're not going forward enough through contacts, quite a lot of soft tackles where they're losing ground and weak-ish carries. Venter and Richardson are making tackles/put in a lot of work, but they're not hitting opponents backwards and it pressures the rest of the team on defence, they're thinking about trying to contest for the ball more. Du Preez twins/Alberts/Marcell would be smashing opponents back which makes defending a bit easier.

Rest is small stuff and easier to fix.

[Blake]

Difference between the Sharks player accepting his red and shaking hands and Sexton acting the cunt..

Geez he's an irritating person

What a load of bollox from the pair of you. Sharks were hunting heads through the phases. He did what a captain has to do.

I don’t understand why you’d shout at a Ref who is busy investigating the very incident you are shouting about…

[_Os_]

Geez he's an irritating person

What a load of bollox from the pair of you. Sharks were hunting heads through the phases. He did what a captain has to do.

I don’t understand why you’d shout at a Ref who is busy investigating the very incident you are shouting about…

He was trying to say to the ref that all his injured players through the entire match were the Sharks fault, but no they weren't. Ref had already said they weren't when each happened.

Ref was decent.

[Slick]

Difference between the Sharks player accepting his red and shaking hands and Sexton acting the cunt..

Geez he's an irritating person

What a load of bollox from the pair of you. Sharks were hunting heads through the phases. He did what a captain has to do.

Nah, it was well over the top. Bit of cheap pushing, gesticulating to the ref for cards, swearing at the ref, arguing.

[robmatic]

Which Glasgow is going to turn up tonight?

[Slick]

Sexton is ledge and you can wash your mouths out with carbolic soap. When he is gone who are we left with. Nobodies

Agree with that, the very top of the top class.

[Slick]

Which Glasgow is going to turn up tonight?

Nice start

[Tichtheid]

Nice start and try from the Weedgies.

What's up with Dempsey, is he crocked?

[Tichtheid]

fuckin hands from Richie Gray!

[robmatic]

What's up with Dempsey, is he crocked?

Rib injury, I think.

[Slick]

fuckin hands from Richie Gray!

Outrageous! Was so quick I thought on first and second viewing he hadn’t actually touched it and it had gone across him

[Tichtheid]

fuckin hands from Richie Gray!

Outrageous! Was so quick I thought on first and second viewing he hadn’t actually touched it and it had gone across him

He's been in great form this season.

I hear he's going back to France next year.

[Tichtheid]

Sexton is ledge and you can wash your mouths out with carbolic soap. When he is gone who are we left with. Nobodies

Agree with that, the very top of the top class.

I love him. I love that he cares so much. Rugby will be that little bit less for his retirement in this neck of the woods

To be fair you can be that competitive and not be a knob about it.

See Wilkinson

[robmatic]

Tuipulotu looks a much better player this season.

[Tichtheid]

Good stuff from Glasgow.

Maybe, just maybe, they are hitting their stride after a slow start this season.

[Tichtheid]

Tuipulotu looks a much better player this season.

Agreed.

[fishfoodie]

Agree with that, the very top of the top class.

I love him. I love that he cares so much. Rugby will be that little bit less for his retirement in this neck of the woods

To be fair you can be that competitive and not be a knob about it.

See Wilkinson

Sure BOD was a nice guy too; but we won feck all. Sexy is narky as feck with his own players, & he gets away with it because he leads from the front, & doesn't ask anything he isn't giving himself. The ref just gets the same grumpy fecker as his teammates have to deal with all week

Wilkinson was never/rarely Captain was he ?, he had Johnson being the prick to the ref, while he got along with business

[Tichtheid]

I love him. I love that he cares so much. Rugby will be that little bit less for his retirement in this neck of the woods

To be fair you can be that competitive and not be a knob about it.

See Wilkinson

Sure BOD was a nice guy too; but we won feck all. Sexy is narky as feck with his own players, & he gets away with it because he leads from the front, & doesn't ask anything he isn't giving himself. The ref just gets the same grumpy fecker as his teammates have to deal with all week

Wilkinson was never/rarely Captain was he ?, he had Johnson being the prick to the ref, while he got along with business

Jonno was a prick to the opposition, but not to the ref.

The best captain I've ever seen with a ref was actually Leo Cullen - it was his interactions with referees that made me think he would be a great coach whilst he was still playing

McCaw was good with refs, right enough.

[Slick]

I don’t think it’s massively over the top to say Zander is having a world class half here

[Tichtheid]

If that try is good then it's very very good

[Tichtheid]

yes, it's good

Horne was my favourite player a couple of seasons ago, he looks to be getting back to that sort of form

[Chilli]

Bulls on the receiving end of a hiding.

[OomStruisbaai]

Glasgow look very good, all over the Bulle. Maybe the conditions

[FalseBayFC]

Glasgow playing great! Bulls have no answer.

[Tichtheid]

That's a bollocks decision, there's no reason to bin those players

[Chilli]

Glasgow playing great! Bulls have no answer.

Yeah.

[OomStruisbaai]

Glasgow playing great! Bulls have no answer.

Glad for Franco Smith. Look like he made a difference.

[_Os_]

Bulls got taken apart not in it at all, they have a huge amount to work on.

[weegie01]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

[weegie01]

That’s no more true this week than last. We coughed up stupid penalties at key points in attack and defence.

We scored two maul tries where we may have had two penalties

We dropped the ball at key points in the attack, the last one led to the penalty that won the game for Lions.

I haven’t looked at the full stats yet but I have the feeling that our defence was a lot better last year under Kitty than it has been so far under the new coach, we are certainly missing tackles from players who are normally secure and we’ve shipped a lot of tries - 11 after 4 games compared to 32 in 18 games last season, almost three per game compared to almost two.

edit, on the other side of that we have scored more tries than any other side in the league, our fixtures have already included perhaps our stiffest challenges, the two away games in SA

We were shite last night though, the execution was at preseason level at best.

I've still not watched the recording, but my impression at the ground was that we had them in the set pieces (until the critical ones at the end), so just played structure all match long and relied on that dominance to carry the game. It is what you will get with Pyrgos at 10, but Edinburgh never put them away, and instead of varying things, just kept cranking out the same old thing. One of the people I was with described it as a Cockerill performance where everything is planned and steady and structured. Then throw some fancy moves with lots of movement which fool no-one and make no impact.

It nearly worked, but the fact is it did not and a change in approach was not made to make things happen.

[Tichtheid]

That’s no more true this week than last. We coughed up stupid penalties at key points in attack and defence.

We scored two maul tries where we may have had two penalties

We dropped the ball at key points in the attack, the last one led to the penalty that won the game for Lions.

I haven’t looked at the full stats yet but I have the feeling that our defence was a lot better last year under Kitty than it has been so far under the new coach, we are certainly missing tackles from players who are normally secure and we’ve shipped a lot of tries - 11 after 4 games compared to 32 in 18 games last season, almost three per game compared to almost two.

edit, on the other side of that we have scored more tries than any other side in the league, our fixtures have already included perhaps our stiffest challenges, the two away games in SA

We were shite last night though, the execution was at preseason level at best.

I've still not watched the recording, but my impression at the ground was that we had them in the set pieces (until the critical ones at the end), so just played structure all match long and relied on that dominance to carry the game. It is what you will get with Pyrgos at 10, but Edinburgh never put them away, and instead of varying things, just kept cranking out the same old thing. One of the people I was with described it as a Cockerill performance where everything is planned and steady and structured. Then throw some fancy moves with lots of movement which fool no-one and make no impact.

It nearly worked, but the fact is it did not and a change in approach was not made to make things happen.

I thought it was interesting that Mike Blair said afterwards that we didn't try to "play through them" enough, ie not enough hard ball carrying up the middle - you could almost call it a more Cockerill-type approach.

It certainly looked like we were making very good ground early on with the likes of Crosbie carrying very hard and making good ground, but we coughed up penalties because of lack of support, leading to the ball carrier being isolated and turned over.

If anything, it looked like we moved away from the game that was working and tried to move it wider too soon.

[fishfoodie]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

It's an insight into the way that SA teams view the contest; but riddle me this: What NH team this weekend facing a SA team, will say to themselves; "I wish we had their half-backs ?"

The Saffas have an embarassment of riches in the pack, & loads of speed in the back three; but they've fuck all in those critical link positions, & so they rely on overpowering teams in the forwards, & giving their limited HBs an armchair ride, or just playing meathead ball to the win.

Lions were really entertaining today, because they managed to get the ball to those talented speedsters, with some lovely passing; but Leinster didn't get into the down & dirty forwards tustle, so they won they battle, in a cracking game.

[Sards]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

The NH top teams have learnt to put the ball behind us to beat the defense and to shuffle the ball and keep it alive. They also look very fit. I think they adapted very quickly. Now we need to catch up. The Sharks really showed we can with some exciting backline play. We are nowhere near as fit tho. Stormers are our real hope in this regard

[Sards]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

It's an insight into the way that SA teams view the contest; but riddle me this: What NH team this weekend facing a SA team, will say to themselves; "I wish we had their half-backs ?"

The Saffas have an embarassment of riches in the pack, & loads of speed in the back three; but they've fuck all in those critical link positions, & so they rely on overpowering teams in the forwards, & giving their limited HBs an armchair ride, or just playing meathead ball to the win.

Lions were really entertaining today, because they managed to get the ball to those talented speedsters, with some lovely passing; but Leinster didn't get into the down & dirty forwards tustle, so they won they battle, in a cracking game.

It's a problem starting with our Springbok coaches. They want hard tacklers and crashball backline players. The game is played in the forwards. And won or lost in the forwards. The majority of our tries come from the forwards.
Even the Stormers rely on their forwards to batter the opposition. It's simple. I remember the breakfast I attended when Rassie was announced coach. He said at that breakfast that he looking for players that will bully the opposition. So now we sit with this gameplan. Stormers are trying something different from the rest but it's still very forwards orientated. Skillful players that bring something different are frowned upon because they aren't big tackling defenders. Yet it was delightful to watch the skill and intelligence displayed by Leinster and the warriors. And it trumped brute force. Too easily

[Sards]

What to do about the Sharks. Look. Where will you ever get a more perfect kicking game like Leinster pulled off last night again. We just did not Cope. Yes Fassi is a poor tackler but would I give up watching that thorough bred stallion in full flight. No chance. They must fix it. And Abrahams just too small against those kicks. Nah. He is class. Rohan really was asleep this past weekend. Looks like he will be able to sleep in for a couple of games. Where to from here.
Well. Our backline will look a lot different with Am and Mapimpi. Although it will be very short term with the NH tour looming so any fix should exclude them. Something to think hard about because teams have seen what Leinster did and will try the same.
Will be good to have Ox back.
Boeta really isn't stepping up. His place kicking is poor. Compare him to Sexton and you get my meaning. But we have quality coming back from injury. I am loving their backline play and you can see a difference. Maybe Powell.
Look. Leinster were freaks last night. I doubt any team could repeat such a performance.

[OomStruisbaai]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

Well Franco have it spot on. But then in rugby the forwards always decide the win, backs the score. This rule for any team.

Glasgow was great last night.

Leinster is a great team but hopefully they won't field C teams against SA opposition.

The Bulls and Storners however have an average pack. Stormers lose trio and backs and gameplan is something different from the other Saffer teams.

[OomStruisbaai]

What to do about the Sharks. Look. Where will you ever get a more perfect kicking game like Leinster pulled off last night again. We just did not Cope. Yes Fassi is a poor tackler but would I give up watching that thorough bred stallion in full flight. No chance. They must fix it. And Abrahams just too small against those kicks. Nah. He is class. Rohan really was asleep this past weekend. Looks like he will be able to sleep in for a couple of games. Where to from here.
Well. Our backline will look a lot different with Am and Mapimpi. Although it will be very short term with the NH tour looming so any fix should exclude them. Something to think hard about because teams have seen what Leinster did and will try the same.
Will be good to have Ox back.
Boeta really isn't stepping up. His place kicking is poor. Compare him to Sexton and you get my meaning. But we have quality coming back from injury. I am loving their backline play and you can see a difference. Maybe Powell.
Look. Leinster were freaks last night. I doubt any team could repeat such a performance.

Sharks need to sort out their defense. Was kak in the last three games

[OomStruisbaai]

The Stormers and specially the Lions had solid defenses which is about the physicality Franco alking about. SA teams and the Springboks take defense to different level

[FalseBayFC]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

It's an insight into the way that SA teams view the contest; but riddle me this: What NH team this weekend facing a SA team, will say to themselves; "I wish we had their half-backs ?"

The Saffas have an embarassment of riches in the pack, & loads of speed in the back three; but they've fuck all in those critical link positions, & so they rely on overpowering teams in the forwards, & giving their limited HBs an armchair ride, or just playing meathead ball to the win.

Lions were really entertaining today, because they managed to get the ball to those talented speedsters, with some lovely passing; but Leinster didn't get into the down & dirty forwards tustle, so they won they battle, in a cracking game.

Excellent post. Its why this competition will be so good for the NH teams and Saffer teams. South African rugby has become so reliant on their forward dominance that they've neglected backline attacking skills. We've had these super athletic counter attackers who've made up for this with individual brilliance. But 9/10/12 play to a very predictable blueprint. The Stormers and the Lions are starting to break out of the mould though and achieving some good results.

[robmatic]

Interesting comment from Smith that the northern teams learned last year that they needed to step up the physicality and some have done so, or are at least making progress.

It's an insight into the way that SA teams view the contest; but riddle me this: What NH team this weekend facing a SA team, will say to themselves; "I wish we had their half-backs ?"

The Saffas have an embarassment of riches in the pack, & loads of speed in the back three; but they've fuck all in those critical link positions, & so they rely on overpowering teams in the forwards, & giving their limited HBs an armchair ride, or just playing meathead ball to the win.

Lions were really entertaining today, because they managed to get the ball to those talented speedsters, with some lovely passing; but Leinster didn't get into the down & dirty forwards tustle, so they won they battle, in a cracking game.

That's a fair point, especially the 10s. I can't think of one from the SA teams I would take at Edinburgh, even though our own options there are hardly perfect.

I guess there isn't much incentive to change plan A when it seems to be working, although in the playoffs last year and many of the victories so far this season, the margins have been quite small. A few different penalty kicks here and there and the SA teams would be looking much less successful.