“It’s a proper sweat fest in this Tokyo heat. Without doubt a ZA Vol 19, Iss 35...Springbok...
8
Volume 19, Number 35 20 September 2019 “It’s a proper sweat fest in this Tokyo heat. Without doubt a major factor in this World Cup. Who will cope best with shorter and more sympathetic passes? Probably the bigger, more direct sides. But then conditioning a massive factor in last 20 [minutes].” - FrontRowGrunt waxing lyrical on Twitter . Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.rugbyrsa.co.za Showdown in Yokohama: Boks vs All Blacks You haven’t been paying attention if you don’t know that Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan begins today at 11:30 (our time) with the opening ceremony. The first match kicks off in Tokyo just over an hour later as the hosts take on Russia. If the latest world rankings are anything to go by, it should be a comfortable win for Japan (ranked 10 in the world ) against opponents ranked 20th. But this is the World Cup and the self-same Japanese Brave Blossoms humbled the mighty Springboks on this stage just over four years ago so it would be wise not to begin counting poultry just yet. Besides, conditions will be challenging – very challenging. Various reports suggest that weather is likely to be a major factor throughout the tournament. And we’re not just talking about humidity, heat or buckets of rain. Consider Gareth Mason ’s video post from two weeks ago. It’s the middle of the typhoon (tropical cyclone) season in that part of the world and it is pretty certain that some matches may be affected. Looking at the Tokyo forecast for Friday, it looks like being hot, humid and, as FrontRowGrunt puts it: “It’s a proper sweat fest in this Tokyo heat. Without doubt a major factor in this World Cup. Who will cope best with shorter and more sympathetic passes? Probably the bigger, more direct sides. But then conditioning a massive factor in last 20 [minutes].” But on Saturday in Yokohama – a mere 33 kilometres south of the capital city – the forecast suggests buckets of rain . That weather , should it arrive, will play havoc with the match scheduled in that city at 11h45 that day: Springboks vs All Blacks. Rain or no rain, it’s going to be a cracker. Interestingly, there hasn’t been much comment about the weather out of the Bok camp but Kiwi supporters seem quite concerned . Oh ja, in total, there are seven games planned for this weekend at stadia dotted around Japan (see page eight ). The opener on Friday, three matches on Saturday and another three on Sunday. And then the action continues next week with five matches scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER World Cup Analysis Reaches Fever-Pitch Saffers for Other Countries at RWC2019 Springbok Women to Face Spain, Scotland Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure Page 1
Transcript of “It’s a proper sweat fest in this Tokyo heat. Without doubt a ZA Vol 19, Iss 35...Springbok...
Volume 19 Number 3520 September 2019
ldquoItrsquos a proper sweat fest in this Tokyo heat Without doubt a major factor in this World Cup Who will cope best with shorter and more sympathetic passes Probably the bigger more direct sides But then conditioning a massive factor in last 20 [minutes]rdquo - FrontRowGrunt waxing lyrical on Twitter
Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at wwwrugbyrsacoza
Showdown in Yokohama Boks vs All Blacks
You havenrsquot been paying attention if you donrsquot know that Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan begins today at 1130 (our time) with the opening ceremony The first match kicks off in Tokyo just over an hour later as the hosts take on Russia If the latest world rankings are anything to go by it should be a comfortable win for Japan (ranked 10 in the world) against opponents ranked 20th
But this is the World Cup and the self-same Japanese Brave Blossoms humbled the mighty Springboks on this stage just over four years ago so it would be wise not to begin counting poultry just yet Besides conditions will be challenging ndash very challenging
Various reports suggest that weather is likely to be a major factor throughout the tournament And wersquore not just talking about humidity heat or buckets of rain
Consider Gareth Masonrsquos video post from two weeks ago Itrsquos the middle of the typhoon (tropical cyclone) season in that part of the world and it is pretty certain that some matches may be affected
Looking at the Tokyo forecast for Friday it looks like being hot humid and as FrontRowGrunt puts it ldquoItrsquos a proper sweat fest in this Tokyo heat Without doubt a major factor in this World Cup Who will cope best with shorter and more sympathetic passes Probably the bigger more direct sides But then conditioning a massive factor in last 20 [minutes]rdquo
But on Saturday in Yokohama ndash a mere 33 kilometres south of the capital city ndash the forecast suggests buckets of rain That weather should it arrive will play havoc with the match scheduled in that city at 11h45 that day Springboks vs All Blacks
Rain or no rain itrsquos going to be a cracker Interestingly there hasnrsquot been much comment about the weather out of the Bok camp but Kiwi supporters seem quite concerned
Oh ja in total there are seven games planned for this weekend at stadia dotted around Japan (see page eight) The opener on Friday three matches on Saturday and another three on Sunday And then the action continues next week with five matches scheduled for Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday
KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER
World Cup Analysis Reaches Fever-PitchSaffers for Other Countries at RWC2019 Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
Sevens Series Preparation Gets UnderwaySA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores BeginsFor your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Page 1
World Cup Analysis Reaches Fever-Pitch
Speaking of the Rugby World Cup there has been plenty of analysis of the tournament as a whole and of the Springboks in particular over the past few weeks With the competition kicking off later today wersquore taking the opportunity to highlight some of what we found interesting maddening or just mad
And no we will leave assignation of the categories above to the opinions below as an exercise for the reader First up was Wynona Louw who wrote about how she would make three changes to the Springbok team selected by Rassie for the Japan clash The three changes are Kwagga Smith in for Francois Louw Trevor Nyakane in for Frans Malherbe and Herschel Jantjies in for Faf de Klerk
While her reasoning is sound but it appears that Coach Rassie Erasmus either didnrsquot see the article chose to ignore it completely or is planning to use those strategies closer to the sharp end of the tournament Indeed he announced his team to play the All Blacks in Saturdayrsquos opener this week and it was exactly the same one that ran out against Japan almost two weeks ago [Perhaps hersquos holding back his best combination for a possible second clash against the All Blacks in the final ndash Ed]
Meanwhile on a completely different track Sports24rsquos Garrin Lambley has written about the Springboks shocking record under French referee Jerome Garces who happens to be handling Saturdayrsquos match
A look back at history shows that in his 53 Test matches so far Garces has been in charge of the Springboks 14 times of which the Boks managed to win only four
More concerningly five of those Tests were against the All Blacks and South Africa lost all five It doesnrsquot bode well but then records are made to be broken right
As if thatrsquos not bad enough a South African developed deep-learning system currently thinks the Springboks will do better against Namibia than against Canada beating the neighbouring country by 63 points while only scoring 55 points against the North American team
But Ruggerbot as the system is known reckons the Springboks will be lose to New Zealand tomorrow by 14 points Given as we have already mentioned that wersquore not fielding our strongest combination thatrsquos entirely possible
Meanwhile the psychological warfare ratcheted up a couple of notches when Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick called for officials to adopt a more accurate approach at the World Cup A couple of days later his boss said that everybody ndash including referees ndash respects the best team in the world and that can result in officials developing preconceived ideas about the No 1 sidersquos dominance
Predictably All Blacks coach Steve Hansen hit back saying the referee for the match should not be influenced one way or another Fun and games
Page 2
Page 3
Saffers for Other Countries at RWC2019
The interesting thing about this World Cup is the number of South Africans and former South Africans who will be in Japan representing other countries Even at the coaching level this is true as the head coach of USA is Gary Gold who was previously part of the Springbok coaching team
But letrsquos look a little closer at players who were born or grew up in South Africa but will be representing other nations at Rugby World Cup 2019 Beginning with Pool A both Ireland and Japan have a lock and a loose forward Jean Kleyn and CJ Stander for the Irish while Wimpie van der Walt and Lappies Labuschagneacute will represent the Brave Blossoms
Scotland have a pair of props one for each side of the front row Allan Dell and WP Nel But Neither Russia nor Samoa have had to dip into the South African talent pool
In Pool B Canada has a winger DTH van der Merwe while Italy has a pair of flankers in Sebastian Negri (born in Zimbabwe but educated in SA) and Braam Steyn New Zealand certainly does not have any Saffers on staff and neither it appears does Namibia The fifth team in this pool is South Africa
In Pool C Argentina England and Tonga have made do without tapping talent with SA ties but France has a loosie in Bernard Le Roux and USA has several Hanco Germishuys (flanker) Ruben de Haas (scrum-half) and Marcel Brache (wing) Brache is a stretch because he was born in Los Angeles but grew up primarily in SA
Pool D is interesting only Australia has a player of SA extraction Dane Haylett-Petty (fullback) ndash yeah we didnrsquot know that either That brings the total to fourteen- one short of a full team but sadly missing players in key positions However we may have missed a player or two so if you spot someone do let us know
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
With all the excitement about the menrsquos Rugby World Cup beginning today the fact that the Springbok women are hosting an international series over the next few weeks almost snuck in under the radar There are three matches on the schedule one against Spain and two against Scotland
Regular readers may recall our hope a few weeks ago that SA Rugby would use the two years between now and the next womenrsquos World Cup to schedule games for the Springbok women against sterner oppositionthan they faced in qualifying for that competition This hopefully is the beginning of that
The first game in this series is billed as SA Select vs Spain Invitational XV and as such probably wonrsquot provide world ranking points But it seems like a good idea for Springbok Womenrsquos coach Stanley Raubenheimer to emulate the strategy of menrsquos coach Rassie Erasmus by focusing first on building depth
Springbok assistant coaches Lungisa Kama and Eddie Myners are in charge of the SA Select womenrsquos team at the WJ de Wet Stadium in Despatch in the Eastern Cape Wersquoll report back what happens against the Spanish side in next weekrsquos newsletter and also preview the first match against Scotland Unfortunately this weekendrsquos game doesnrsquot appear to be on any television schedule we could find
While the Bok women currently remain 11th in the world rankings Spain is 9th and Scotland is 12th A win against the Spanish would be brilliant but probably not improve the Springbok ranking However wins against the Scots at home are desperately needed to maintain their current ranking
Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway
The headline above is perhaps a trifle misleading because it is highly likely that Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would have had his squad in training well before now
But there has been little news about it so we can only deduce that the Oktoberfest7s tournament in Germany this weekend will be an increase in the intensity of preparations for the 20192020 World Rugby Sevens Series That said he has selected a pretty strong squad for the tournament that takes place on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup in Japan
Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a team laden with players that represented their country in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in the past seasons with the two most experienced players in the country Branco du Preez (71 tournaments) and Chris Dry (69 tournaments) included for the trip to Europe
There is also a return to action for Zain Davids Mfundo Ndhlovu James Murphy and Stedman Gans all of whom were injured in the latter part of the 201819 World Series
South Africa are in Pool A with New Zealand England and Australia for the tournament which will take place in the Olympic Stadium Pool B consists of Germany Fiji USA and France The playing schedule for Saturday is as follows
15h06 New Zealand17h29 England20h14 Australia
Unfortunately we couldnrsquot find the tournament on any local television schedule so yoursquod probably have to live stream it from Europe ndash if you have access to that type of technology
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
World Cup Analysis Reaches Fever-Pitch
Speaking of the Rugby World Cup there has been plenty of analysis of the tournament as a whole and of the Springboks in particular over the past few weeks With the competition kicking off later today wersquore taking the opportunity to highlight some of what we found interesting maddening or just mad
And no we will leave assignation of the categories above to the opinions below as an exercise for the reader First up was Wynona Louw who wrote about how she would make three changes to the Springbok team selected by Rassie for the Japan clash The three changes are Kwagga Smith in for Francois Louw Trevor Nyakane in for Frans Malherbe and Herschel Jantjies in for Faf de Klerk
While her reasoning is sound but it appears that Coach Rassie Erasmus either didnrsquot see the article chose to ignore it completely or is planning to use those strategies closer to the sharp end of the tournament Indeed he announced his team to play the All Blacks in Saturdayrsquos opener this week and it was exactly the same one that ran out against Japan almost two weeks ago [Perhaps hersquos holding back his best combination for a possible second clash against the All Blacks in the final ndash Ed]
Meanwhile on a completely different track Sports24rsquos Garrin Lambley has written about the Springboks shocking record under French referee Jerome Garces who happens to be handling Saturdayrsquos match
A look back at history shows that in his 53 Test matches so far Garces has been in charge of the Springboks 14 times of which the Boks managed to win only four
More concerningly five of those Tests were against the All Blacks and South Africa lost all five It doesnrsquot bode well but then records are made to be broken right
As if thatrsquos not bad enough a South African developed deep-learning system currently thinks the Springboks will do better against Namibia than against Canada beating the neighbouring country by 63 points while only scoring 55 points against the North American team
But Ruggerbot as the system is known reckons the Springboks will be lose to New Zealand tomorrow by 14 points Given as we have already mentioned that wersquore not fielding our strongest combination thatrsquos entirely possible
Meanwhile the psychological warfare ratcheted up a couple of notches when Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick called for officials to adopt a more accurate approach at the World Cup A couple of days later his boss said that everybody ndash including referees ndash respects the best team in the world and that can result in officials developing preconceived ideas about the No 1 sidersquos dominance
Predictably All Blacks coach Steve Hansen hit back saying the referee for the match should not be influenced one way or another Fun and games
Page 2
Page 3
Saffers for Other Countries at RWC2019
The interesting thing about this World Cup is the number of South Africans and former South Africans who will be in Japan representing other countries Even at the coaching level this is true as the head coach of USA is Gary Gold who was previously part of the Springbok coaching team
But letrsquos look a little closer at players who were born or grew up in South Africa but will be representing other nations at Rugby World Cup 2019 Beginning with Pool A both Ireland and Japan have a lock and a loose forward Jean Kleyn and CJ Stander for the Irish while Wimpie van der Walt and Lappies Labuschagneacute will represent the Brave Blossoms
Scotland have a pair of props one for each side of the front row Allan Dell and WP Nel But Neither Russia nor Samoa have had to dip into the South African talent pool
In Pool B Canada has a winger DTH van der Merwe while Italy has a pair of flankers in Sebastian Negri (born in Zimbabwe but educated in SA) and Braam Steyn New Zealand certainly does not have any Saffers on staff and neither it appears does Namibia The fifth team in this pool is South Africa
In Pool C Argentina England and Tonga have made do without tapping talent with SA ties but France has a loosie in Bernard Le Roux and USA has several Hanco Germishuys (flanker) Ruben de Haas (scrum-half) and Marcel Brache (wing) Brache is a stretch because he was born in Los Angeles but grew up primarily in SA
Pool D is interesting only Australia has a player of SA extraction Dane Haylett-Petty (fullback) ndash yeah we didnrsquot know that either That brings the total to fourteen- one short of a full team but sadly missing players in key positions However we may have missed a player or two so if you spot someone do let us know
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
With all the excitement about the menrsquos Rugby World Cup beginning today the fact that the Springbok women are hosting an international series over the next few weeks almost snuck in under the radar There are three matches on the schedule one against Spain and two against Scotland
Regular readers may recall our hope a few weeks ago that SA Rugby would use the two years between now and the next womenrsquos World Cup to schedule games for the Springbok women against sterner oppositionthan they faced in qualifying for that competition This hopefully is the beginning of that
The first game in this series is billed as SA Select vs Spain Invitational XV and as such probably wonrsquot provide world ranking points But it seems like a good idea for Springbok Womenrsquos coach Stanley Raubenheimer to emulate the strategy of menrsquos coach Rassie Erasmus by focusing first on building depth
Springbok assistant coaches Lungisa Kama and Eddie Myners are in charge of the SA Select womenrsquos team at the WJ de Wet Stadium in Despatch in the Eastern Cape Wersquoll report back what happens against the Spanish side in next weekrsquos newsletter and also preview the first match against Scotland Unfortunately this weekendrsquos game doesnrsquot appear to be on any television schedule we could find
While the Bok women currently remain 11th in the world rankings Spain is 9th and Scotland is 12th A win against the Spanish would be brilliant but probably not improve the Springbok ranking However wins against the Scots at home are desperately needed to maintain their current ranking
Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway
The headline above is perhaps a trifle misleading because it is highly likely that Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would have had his squad in training well before now
But there has been little news about it so we can only deduce that the Oktoberfest7s tournament in Germany this weekend will be an increase in the intensity of preparations for the 20192020 World Rugby Sevens Series That said he has selected a pretty strong squad for the tournament that takes place on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup in Japan
Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a team laden with players that represented their country in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in the past seasons with the two most experienced players in the country Branco du Preez (71 tournaments) and Chris Dry (69 tournaments) included for the trip to Europe
There is also a return to action for Zain Davids Mfundo Ndhlovu James Murphy and Stedman Gans all of whom were injured in the latter part of the 201819 World Series
South Africa are in Pool A with New Zealand England and Australia for the tournament which will take place in the Olympic Stadium Pool B consists of Germany Fiji USA and France The playing schedule for Saturday is as follows
15h06 New Zealand17h29 England20h14 Australia
Unfortunately we couldnrsquot find the tournament on any local television schedule so yoursquod probably have to live stream it from Europe ndash if you have access to that type of technology
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
Page 3
Saffers for Other Countries at RWC2019
The interesting thing about this World Cup is the number of South Africans and former South Africans who will be in Japan representing other countries Even at the coaching level this is true as the head coach of USA is Gary Gold who was previously part of the Springbok coaching team
But letrsquos look a little closer at players who were born or grew up in South Africa but will be representing other nations at Rugby World Cup 2019 Beginning with Pool A both Ireland and Japan have a lock and a loose forward Jean Kleyn and CJ Stander for the Irish while Wimpie van der Walt and Lappies Labuschagneacute will represent the Brave Blossoms
Scotland have a pair of props one for each side of the front row Allan Dell and WP Nel But Neither Russia nor Samoa have had to dip into the South African talent pool
In Pool B Canada has a winger DTH van der Merwe while Italy has a pair of flankers in Sebastian Negri (born in Zimbabwe but educated in SA) and Braam Steyn New Zealand certainly does not have any Saffers on staff and neither it appears does Namibia The fifth team in this pool is South Africa
In Pool C Argentina England and Tonga have made do without tapping talent with SA ties but France has a loosie in Bernard Le Roux and USA has several Hanco Germishuys (flanker) Ruben de Haas (scrum-half) and Marcel Brache (wing) Brache is a stretch because he was born in Los Angeles but grew up primarily in SA
Pool D is interesting only Australia has a player of SA extraction Dane Haylett-Petty (fullback) ndash yeah we didnrsquot know that either That brings the total to fourteen- one short of a full team but sadly missing players in key positions However we may have missed a player or two so if you spot someone do let us know
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
With all the excitement about the menrsquos Rugby World Cup beginning today the fact that the Springbok women are hosting an international series over the next few weeks almost snuck in under the radar There are three matches on the schedule one against Spain and two against Scotland
Regular readers may recall our hope a few weeks ago that SA Rugby would use the two years between now and the next womenrsquos World Cup to schedule games for the Springbok women against sterner oppositionthan they faced in qualifying for that competition This hopefully is the beginning of that
The first game in this series is billed as SA Select vs Spain Invitational XV and as such probably wonrsquot provide world ranking points But it seems like a good idea for Springbok Womenrsquos coach Stanley Raubenheimer to emulate the strategy of menrsquos coach Rassie Erasmus by focusing first on building depth
Springbok assistant coaches Lungisa Kama and Eddie Myners are in charge of the SA Select womenrsquos team at the WJ de Wet Stadium in Despatch in the Eastern Cape Wersquoll report back what happens against the Spanish side in next weekrsquos newsletter and also preview the first match against Scotland Unfortunately this weekendrsquos game doesnrsquot appear to be on any television schedule we could find
While the Bok women currently remain 11th in the world rankings Spain is 9th and Scotland is 12th A win against the Spanish would be brilliant but probably not improve the Springbok ranking However wins against the Scots at home are desperately needed to maintain their current ranking
Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway
The headline above is perhaps a trifle misleading because it is highly likely that Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would have had his squad in training well before now
But there has been little news about it so we can only deduce that the Oktoberfest7s tournament in Germany this weekend will be an increase in the intensity of preparations for the 20192020 World Rugby Sevens Series That said he has selected a pretty strong squad for the tournament that takes place on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup in Japan
Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a team laden with players that represented their country in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in the past seasons with the two most experienced players in the country Branco du Preez (71 tournaments) and Chris Dry (69 tournaments) included for the trip to Europe
There is also a return to action for Zain Davids Mfundo Ndhlovu James Murphy and Stedman Gans all of whom were injured in the latter part of the 201819 World Series
South Africa are in Pool A with New Zealand England and Australia for the tournament which will take place in the Olympic Stadium Pool B consists of Germany Fiji USA and France The playing schedule for Saturday is as follows
15h06 New Zealand17h29 England20h14 Australia
Unfortunately we couldnrsquot find the tournament on any local television schedule so yoursquod probably have to live stream it from Europe ndash if you have access to that type of technology
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
Saffers for Other Countries at RWC2019
The interesting thing about this World Cup is the number of South Africans and former South Africans who will be in Japan representing other countries Even at the coaching level this is true as the head coach of USA is Gary Gold who was previously part of the Springbok coaching team
But letrsquos look a little closer at players who were born or grew up in South Africa but will be representing other nations at Rugby World Cup 2019 Beginning with Pool A both Ireland and Japan have a lock and a loose forward Jean Kleyn and CJ Stander for the Irish while Wimpie van der Walt and Lappies Labuschagneacute will represent the Brave Blossoms
Scotland have a pair of props one for each side of the front row Allan Dell and WP Nel But Neither Russia nor Samoa have had to dip into the South African talent pool
In Pool B Canada has a winger DTH van der Merwe while Italy has a pair of flankers in Sebastian Negri (born in Zimbabwe but educated in SA) and Braam Steyn New Zealand certainly does not have any Saffers on staff and neither it appears does Namibia The fifth team in this pool is South Africa
In Pool C Argentina England and Tonga have made do without tapping talent with SA ties but France has a loosie in Bernard Le Roux and USA has several Hanco Germishuys (flanker) Ruben de Haas (scrum-half) and Marcel Brache (wing) Brache is a stretch because he was born in Los Angeles but grew up primarily in SA
Pool D is interesting only Australia has a player of SA extraction Dane Haylett-Petty (fullback) ndash yeah we didnrsquot know that either That brings the total to fourteen- one short of a full team but sadly missing players in key positions However we may have missed a player or two so if you spot someone do let us know
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
With all the excitement about the menrsquos Rugby World Cup beginning today the fact that the Springbok women are hosting an international series over the next few weeks almost snuck in under the radar There are three matches on the schedule one against Spain and two against Scotland
Regular readers may recall our hope a few weeks ago that SA Rugby would use the two years between now and the next womenrsquos World Cup to schedule games for the Springbok women against sterner oppositionthan they faced in qualifying for that competition This hopefully is the beginning of that
The first game in this series is billed as SA Select vs Spain Invitational XV and as such probably wonrsquot provide world ranking points But it seems like a good idea for Springbok Womenrsquos coach Stanley Raubenheimer to emulate the strategy of menrsquos coach Rassie Erasmus by focusing first on building depth
Springbok assistant coaches Lungisa Kama and Eddie Myners are in charge of the SA Select womenrsquos team at the WJ de Wet Stadium in Despatch in the Eastern Cape Wersquoll report back what happens against the Spanish side in next weekrsquos newsletter and also preview the first match against Scotland Unfortunately this weekendrsquos game doesnrsquot appear to be on any television schedule we could find
While the Bok women currently remain 11th in the world rankings Spain is 9th and Scotland is 12th A win against the Spanish would be brilliant but probably not improve the Springbok ranking However wins against the Scots at home are desperately needed to maintain their current ranking
Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway
The headline above is perhaps a trifle misleading because it is highly likely that Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would have had his squad in training well before now
But there has been little news about it so we can only deduce that the Oktoberfest7s tournament in Germany this weekend will be an increase in the intensity of preparations for the 20192020 World Rugby Sevens Series That said he has selected a pretty strong squad for the tournament that takes place on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup in Japan
Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a team laden with players that represented their country in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in the past seasons with the two most experienced players in the country Branco du Preez (71 tournaments) and Chris Dry (69 tournaments) included for the trip to Europe
There is also a return to action for Zain Davids Mfundo Ndhlovu James Murphy and Stedman Gans all of whom were injured in the latter part of the 201819 World Series
South Africa are in Pool A with New Zealand England and Australia for the tournament which will take place in the Olympic Stadium Pool B consists of Germany Fiji USA and France The playing schedule for Saturday is as follows
15h06 New Zealand17h29 England20h14 Australia
Unfortunately we couldnrsquot find the tournament on any local television schedule so yoursquod probably have to live stream it from Europe ndash if you have access to that type of technology
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
Page 5
Page 6
Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
With all the excitement about the menrsquos Rugby World Cup beginning today the fact that the Springbok women are hosting an international series over the next few weeks almost snuck in under the radar There are three matches on the schedule one against Spain and two against Scotland
Regular readers may recall our hope a few weeks ago that SA Rugby would use the two years between now and the next womenrsquos World Cup to schedule games for the Springbok women against sterner oppositionthan they faced in qualifying for that competition This hopefully is the beginning of that
The first game in this series is billed as SA Select vs Spain Invitational XV and as such probably wonrsquot provide world ranking points But it seems like a good idea for Springbok Womenrsquos coach Stanley Raubenheimer to emulate the strategy of menrsquos coach Rassie Erasmus by focusing first on building depth
Springbok assistant coaches Lungisa Kama and Eddie Myners are in charge of the SA Select womenrsquos team at the WJ de Wet Stadium in Despatch in the Eastern Cape Wersquoll report back what happens against the Spanish side in next weekrsquos newsletter and also preview the first match against Scotland Unfortunately this weekendrsquos game doesnrsquot appear to be on any television schedule we could find
While the Bok women currently remain 11th in the world rankings Spain is 9th and Scotland is 12th A win against the Spanish would be brilliant but probably not improve the Springbok ranking However wins against the Scots at home are desperately needed to maintain their current ranking
Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway
The headline above is perhaps a trifle misleading because it is highly likely that Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would have had his squad in training well before now
But there has been little news about it so we can only deduce that the Oktoberfest7s tournament in Germany this weekend will be an increase in the intensity of preparations for the 20192020 World Rugby Sevens Series That said he has selected a pretty strong squad for the tournament that takes place on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup in Japan
Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a team laden with players that represented their country in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in the past seasons with the two most experienced players in the country Branco du Preez (71 tournaments) and Chris Dry (69 tournaments) included for the trip to Europe
There is also a return to action for Zain Davids Mfundo Ndhlovu James Murphy and Stedman Gans all of whom were injured in the latter part of the 201819 World Series
South Africa are in Pool A with New Zealand England and Australia for the tournament which will take place in the Olympic Stadium Pool B consists of Germany Fiji USA and France The playing schedule for Saturday is as follows
15h06 New Zealand17h29 England20h14 Australia
Unfortunately we couldnrsquot find the tournament on any local television schedule so yoursquod probably have to live stream it from Europe ndash if you have access to that type of technology
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
Page 6
Springbok Women to Face Spain Scotland
With all the excitement about the menrsquos Rugby World Cup beginning today the fact that the Springbok women are hosting an international series over the next few weeks almost snuck in under the radar There are three matches on the schedule one against Spain and two against Scotland
Regular readers may recall our hope a few weeks ago that SA Rugby would use the two years between now and the next womenrsquos World Cup to schedule games for the Springbok women against sterner oppositionthan they faced in qualifying for that competition This hopefully is the beginning of that
The first game in this series is billed as SA Select vs Spain Invitational XV and as such probably wonrsquot provide world ranking points But it seems like a good idea for Springbok Womenrsquos coach Stanley Raubenheimer to emulate the strategy of menrsquos coach Rassie Erasmus by focusing first on building depth
Springbok assistant coaches Lungisa Kama and Eddie Myners are in charge of the SA Select womenrsquos team at the WJ de Wet Stadium in Despatch in the Eastern Cape Wersquoll report back what happens against the Spanish side in next weekrsquos newsletter and also preview the first match against Scotland Unfortunately this weekendrsquos game doesnrsquot appear to be on any television schedule we could find
While the Bok women currently remain 11th in the world rankings Spain is 9th and Scotland is 12th A win against the Spanish would be brilliant but probably not improve the Springbok ranking However wins against the Scots at home are desperately needed to maintain their current ranking
Sevens Series Preparation Gets Underway
The headline above is perhaps a trifle misleading because it is highly likely that Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would have had his squad in training well before now
But there has been little news about it so we can only deduce that the Oktoberfest7s tournament in Germany this weekend will be an increase in the intensity of preparations for the 20192020 World Rugby Sevens Series That said he has selected a pretty strong squad for the tournament that takes place on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup in Japan
Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a team laden with players that represented their country in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in the past seasons with the two most experienced players in the country Branco du Preez (71 tournaments) and Chris Dry (69 tournaments) included for the trip to Europe
There is also a return to action for Zain Davids Mfundo Ndhlovu James Murphy and Stedman Gans all of whom were injured in the latter part of the 201819 World Series
South Africa are in Pool A with New Zealand England and Australia for the tournament which will take place in the Olympic Stadium Pool B consists of Germany Fiji USA and France The playing schedule for Saturday is as follows
15h06 New Zealand17h29 England20h14 Australia
Unfortunately we couldnrsquot find the tournament on any local television schedule so yoursquod probably have to live stream it from Europe ndash if you have access to that type of technology
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
SA Youth Exodus to Foreign Shores Begins
We touched on this a couple of months back with the brouhaha over the exclusion of Kade Wolhuter from an SA Schools side because he had signed a contract to play overseas Now apparently a mass exodus of promising junior rugby players has begun No fewer than eighteen school players of 2019 will play their rugby abroad in 2020
The alarmist piece linked above suggests this will only increase the number of South Africans playing rugby abroad and ultimately representing other countries Perhaps The article blames the new contracting system introduced by SA Rugby as well as a shortage of junior competition in South Africa
ldquoThe fact that there will only be a week-long u19 tournament from this year going forward as well the fact that the only junior inter-provincial tournament after school will be u21 and not u20 without a doubt will also have had an impact on the decision of the players to leave the countryrdquo
Another target of the distraught author is transformation We paraphrased that paragraph for you the Strategic Transformation Plan also had an impact on the number of players seeking opportunities offshore Just over 30 players were offered junior contracts by local unions for 2020 ndash compared to the 105 players who signed junior local contracts at the end of 2018
The author goes on to list the players taking up foreign contracts - or known to be in negotiations to do so And when all is said an done who can blame high school rugby players for taking the opportunity to play and grow as a player in a foreign country when the prospects back home are so poor
But to maintain that these players will be forever be lost to Springbok selectors is fallacious SA Rugby has proven of late that a Springbok call-up can come irrespective of where in the world you play your rugby
Page 7
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
For your weekend rugby viewing pleasure
Between today and next Thursday itrsquos the opening rounds of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and looking at local television guides thatrsquos likely the only rugby around for six weeks or so
Thanks for reading our newsletter We need feedback to improve it ndash and only you can give us that feedback Please take the time to send us an email We want to hear from you ndash good bad or ugly a pat on the back or a kick in the butt Remember to look us up on Twitter where youll find many of our contributors on our timeline
The Rugby Team at Leopard Newsletters
Page 8
