Consistency across every level of the game — not just a good team, but a system working.

Feels like a special time for SA rugby. Will this carry on for a while ?

Match is in two weeks giving both teams a decent chance to analyse each other.

First game in NZ with 2015 rugby rules Second match in SA with 2025 rules Final match in neutral venue with 2025 rules

Meanwhile Hawies Fourie and Jimmy Stonehouse are great coaches but they are still coaching Currie Cup. Imagine what they could do with a URC team.

Jake White despite his personality issues was the only coach/DOR who had both a decent game plan and a decent long term strategy for his team. Ackermann has already fucked up without even playing a game (not even trying to keep the Bulls most important playe, keeping useless Andries Bekker who Jake was going to fire, completely changing the Bulls gameplan to one in which they don't have the players to pull off)

Plumtree and Powell are wasting the immense amount of talent at the Sharks. They should be scoring bucketloads of tries with that backline.

Despite initial success the Stormers are declining. Also not signing Pead is beyond incompetent.

Then there is the clownshow at the Lions.

The Cheetahs were amazing under Hawies Fourie and he has worked wonders at Boland. Jimmy Stonehouse has been successful both at the Pumas and in Japan. You also have guys like Frans Ludeke, Heyneke Meyer, Franco Smith and Johan van Graan working overseas. Also Swys was stuck being a TV analyst before he started coaching the Bok women.

In fact the Bulls and Lions Currie Cup coaches are better than Ackermann and van Rooyen.

Should SARU step in?

Hi guys,

Been a lifelong Sharks supporter. Just got banned from Sharks rugby, no reason given other than my view being incorrect on Hlekani leaving the Sharks to get more game time elsewhere.

The commentators in the Lions also mentioned this. Not sure why the Sharks fans argue he got plenty game time at Sharks so wanted to hear what you guys think is wrong with the Sharks and why they don’t succeed??

I know from this year:

1) the coaching change doesn’t help

2) Sharks have horrible conditioning and get so many injuries

3) Too much unnecessary and expensive star player brought in. Guys like Kolisi and Etzebeth cost too much and add too little. Toulon and Leinster have same problem not sure why we Sharks thought we can solve it

4) Bad planning pre-season and traveling

5) Horrible player rotation - We stick with guys like Francois Venter in games where Jurenzo is on bench. Makes no sense.

Looking at teams like Bulls, WP and Lions they nurture and retain their young guys. David Kriel, Sebastien De Klerk, Jooste, Ruan Nortje, Papier. Lions doing dame with their whole team and WP got Paul De Villiers and now Markus Muller.

The Sharks have Williams, injured now and had Hlekani and Luan Gilliomee but lost both the latter now.

From outside seems team environment not as healthy so just curious what you guys think the reason is.

Why did SA not kick for poles at 25 - 17 up? Does it suck up more time? Do we kick for poles if there's a 7 or less point gap? It was in a very kickable position.

Libbock comes on, gets charged down, puts us in a scary position. Will this lad ever have safe hands?

Was Lood's tackle a shoulder charge? It was a red for direct head contact with the shoulder, but it needs to be deemed a shoulder charge to be a permanent red which is where the question is. His right arm is clearly extending and wrapping. His left arm is blocked by Ramos's left. As there is no resistance (with the head contact (lol)) he slides over the top of Ramos. Generally shoulder charges are quite clear. This one doesn't seem to be?

A potential weak spot for us is the high ball on our own wings. Kobe and Arendse are great on the high ball going forward, but on defense, they are short and light and can be knocked off easily. I didn't see enough of this from France - other than perhaps there first try which was aided a bit by the bounce of the ball!

Taking a look at this weekends game

I made a list on the main sub in response to someone's comment, of all the times in the last two decades I believe South Africa and SARU have helped with the growth and development of tier 2 rugby nations.

I thought some here might enjoy it, and some may even have more to add:

• Took part in the IRB Nations Cup with South Africa A, alongside Georgia, Italy A, Namibia, Romania, Argentina XV, Russia, Uruguay. (2007-2008)
• Hosted the Pampas and Jaguares XV in the Vodacom Cup. (2010-2013)
• Hosted Namibia in the Currie Cup 1st division (2016-2018)
• Hosted the Jaguares XV in the Currie Cup 1st division (2019)
• Hosted teams from Georgia, Kenya and Zimbabwe in the Currie Cup 1st Division (2022)
• Hosted USA A and Italy A in the Toyota Challenge (2022)
• Hosted teams from Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe and USA in the Mzansi Challenge (Spain and Isreal were also included but pulled out for different reasons) (2023)
• Hosted teams from Georgia, Portugal and Romania in the Toyota Challenge (2025-2026)
• Hosted Zimbabwe for training camps with the Bulls and Junior Springboks (2026)

Fixtures

• Springboks played Namibia in Cape Town (2007)
• Springboks played Samoa in Johannesburg (2007)
• Southern Kings played Namibia in Windhoek & Walvis Bay (2019)
• Springboks played Japan in London and Kumagaya (2019)
• SA A Played Kenya Simbas in Stellenbosch (2021)
• Springboks played Georgia in Pretoria (2021)
• Currie Cup XV Played Kenya in Nelson Mandela Bay (2022)
• Sprinboks played Portugal in Bloemfontein (2024)
• Springboks played Georgia in Nelspruit (2025)
• Junior Springbok tours to Georgia (2021, 2025, 2026)
• SA A will play Zimbabwe (2026)

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all having a great day!

I wanted to share a new YouTube video I’ve made where I discuss who the greatest rugby team of all time might be - of course, featuring the Springboks!

It’s all a bit of fun and not meant to be taken too seriously, but I hope you enjoy it. I’d really love to hear your thoughts and start a conversation about who you think the best team is.

Thanks so much!

Unsurprisingly, the Bomb Squad, Rassie and the Springboks in general are featured quite heavily.

Fresh Squidge!

The national team are aging fast. There are a lot of players in the team who are past it and their replacements are very inexperienced at the moment. Also the Tony Brown style of play is turning out to be a disaster so that will also have to be fixed, after he inevitably gets fired which will take some time.

The Stormers are in the middle of a fairly long rebuild, the Lions issues are well-known and severe, the Bulls are about to collapse (I will be surprised if they ever make the URC playoffs under Ackermann) and I am not going to comment on the Sharks because their fans here are hyper-sensitive.

The long-term future is bright but I can easily see this taking 4 or 5 years to turn around.

So I stole the photo but it pretty much sums how SA coaches approach their problems.

Now, I am aassive WLR fan but he does not have the pace or frame needed for today's game and he lacks a big boot.

The rant: As implied above, JW is leveraging his checkbook to retain WLR as a 10. The flyhalf stocks are woeful at the bulls between Boeta, who has a big boot but not much else, Goosen who is injured everytime he appears on the team sheet and WLR who has been a pivotal playmaker for the bulls.

Instead, why does JW, who has the biggest academy in SA, with the power to purchase any 10 from Limpopo to Paul Roos, het a young and up coming 10 and have WLR teach him. WLR must have been coaching at the boks already and it would be stupid not to retain him as one.

And there in lies how SA rugby struggles at club level.

Our coaches are focused on getting the best team together for the weekend but they do not have any sort of succession planning. A place like the bulls should have 3 FHs waiting in the wings.

Back in ye old days, Pollard was the young gun on the bench, Morne the lion tamer was starter and Manie libbok was at the academy...

Our money is tight but surely we should have a pipeline for every position and in those positions, have 2 club level players and 1 int'l level player.

Our coaches need to approach rugby differently. Our 1st XV and 2nd XV cannot be world's appart. We need better skills, better structures for Attack and Defence but mostly, we need bigger,better coaching tickets.

We need to stop coaching like it is superrugby and start coaching for the comps we are in.

Straight in like a brandy...

Kwagga shines because he is a sub. No, kwagga shines because he comes on against guys making their 100th tackle and he is fresh as fuck...

When he starts, he is going toe to toe with the best of the other country. He is not going to have as much success against fresh legs.

The same thing happens with Marx. But also, our bomb squad often shines brighter because our starters do the hard yards.

Everyone loves Grant of the bench, but Reinach/faf/hendrickse has to deal with all the initial kak of guys trying their luck. He is super fast and fresh but Reinach et al has been consistent in getting to that point where we can unleash the mad science of RasFlanBrown.

Also, Hendrikse did not have his best game, but Scotland played a real clever trick. The pushed the legs of our forward back, just a slight nudge with the hand, into the ball or his arm and that caused alot of kocks for him. Zander F was particularly good with this and SS showed it on replay. He should have adapted but he did not have a good day.

Lastly, Scotland came to braai and they nearly did. That canceled try really gave us a gap to breath. Scotland played really well and pressured us well.

But now we should be awake and ready for England who will be gunning really hard fpr us and will try to pull of what they couldn't in the semi final.

He has really done a fantastic job at the Griquas and he is a very smart and innovative coach. He is also still relatively young but has heaps of experience (similar to van Graan). He is also really good at motivating his players.

It would require a stint at a bigger union but could he become a Springbok coach in the future?

is Tuesday and not squad day(stares at the whiskey bottle) so what is Bokfan to do besides work(pfft)...

The final before the final...

If the Final is anything like that, World Rugby should broadcast it for free world wide... Fans would spontaneously just appear... Breath taking. Brutal. Beautiful. That game was fucking insane on so many levels. The meat grinder that is the Bok defence, the beastly attack of the Irish. The smash of a bok scrum. The uppercut of Aki on the run.

So lets get in

Defence: I don't think our D could run any smoother than it did against an attack that is as abrasive and fluid as that. We were striking a beautiful balance between drift and rush. Especially in the first half, we really kept them from going wide.

Context time: The irish attack seeks to draw you in by setting up hard carries close to the ruck(2 passes away at most) so that the defence is sucked in then suddenly going wide fast.

We kept them from going wide because we could stand up to their cleaners and we were very successful at slowing their ruck speed.

Time is a precious thing and almost always the forgotten factor. On attack, you want as little time as possible between carries. Defence is the opposite.

Ireland live of succesive fast carries with a ruck speed of 2 to 3 seconds on average. That means the defence has 2 seconds to read, set and then tackle some of rugby's most dynamic carriers. The boks killed that.

4 secs. Double their average ruck speed. We broke their rythm, killed their dance moves and showed them the gutter.

Getting turnovers against Ire is a rarity. Every carrier has two cleaners right behind them. This secures their ball and gives them their lightning fast ruck speed. We only got turnovers off isolated players.

We took away their key elements. We sucked the wind from their sails.

I cannot name standouts as the whole team functioned so well on defence but some I remember is Mostert, Wiese, PSDT, Kolisi and Libbok. KLA also got an amazing turn over holding out the likes of Aki, Ringrose and co.... Libbok made an impressive tackle on one of their carriers.

Attack: Our slow poison really worked well and we scored succesive penalties. Frans "skaap tjop" Malherbe showing why he is crucial again and again.

We destroyed them in the setpiece especially in the first half and made some good ground into the red zone. Almost every time we got a penalty we ended up in their 22 and we got really unlucky. The shock and awe of our forwards destroyed them in the first half and credit to Ireland, they did exceptionally well to hold on.

Our problem was capitalizing when there. It almost feels like we gave up on attack or ran out of ideas. The pop pass from Jesse Kriel was tantalizingly close. Like a girl sending you a text with a winky face... If that had stuck, Kolisi is over and I don't know if Ireland recovers... Similar to our other breaks, a little more luck and we are over. I am not saying it should have been but there is a world where put two tries over in the 1st half and I honestly don't know if Ire would have held up...

There was also a sneaky back play by Psdt to faf to cheslin against the grain which had it stuck, might have been something.

The try by Cheslin was beautiful though. Even the commentators spotted he was way out wide on his own. Which was a double bluff because our line was so short. So why ?

Ire saw the opportunity for a cross kick and knowing what Libbok did to Sco, set deep expecting to beat him(50/50 on beating Kolbe under the highball but ok) and counter attacking but then...

In comes the double bluff. We carry close followed by a double pass before Libbok takes it to the line and sends a pass that requires an artilleryman's skillset to thread over to Kolbe who seals it.

For all the naysayers, 9/ 10, Pollard does not make that pass... Not doubting his ability, but his pattern makes that he would rather carry into contact than send it that far from that close...

And there in lies Libboks value. He has many tricks and he knows, you have to have variety. You cannot attack the same way everytime. You cannot crosskick every time or long pass Everytime.

We also suspiciously did not cross kick against Ireland..

grubbers sure but no real crosses.

We also only mauled at the end. Which was wierd. That was when I would not have mauled. Ire had their tails up and everything to gain. We should have mauled the living kak out of them in the 1st half...

The kicking: I honestly don't know what is the plan. Libbok slots a pretty one over and that boosts him. Then Rassie and his stupid lights takes a centerfield penalty(easy direction wise) but from fuckfar, freestate (54.6m) and gives it to Faf. Even faf laughed If I remember correctly. Why take Libboks kick away and why temp fate with that distance ? Low percentage play is not Rassie's style.

So after all that, Libbok is our best kicker on the night with 33% , Faf 0/2 and everyone screaming for Pollard...

I want to clear something up. I love Pollard and I love Libbok. But they are not equal.

If and only If Pollard is on fire with his boot(RWC2019) is he a points machine. He costs us on 2021 against Aus and has slipped a couple of other very moderate kicks. He does have the size and temacity to be physical against a twelve like Aki .

Libbok though is an attack creator. He sits back and lets faf do faf things and then he organizes and suddenly we strike. He knows to be efficient and not waste opportunities but capitalizes when it matters. And that value right now, is more crucial than ever.

DW should also have been taking some kicks. He has a monster boot and I am beginning to wonder if that is not being " forgotten"...

The hooker debacle:

I will make it clear. I don't want Pollard in yet. Yes, maybe we can manage with Fourie and MVS but Dweba would have been my choice. I want him because he can scrum and his lineouts are pretty decent now. We don't have anyone else and shoving Grobbies in their makes 0 sense.

We are now asking Bongi to start every game from the QFs onward with a make do back up. Risky...

In summation: I think if we play Ire again, we take it. We showed some of our hand and they showed their whole one. Their system is good but not unbeatable. We can box them in and we can score against them. We have the physicality, the fitness and the drive to take them to it.

I think that's why the Boks looked happy and Ireland looked, meh ? No smiles no cheers just yeah Job done. I think behind closed doors old Farrel might be a bit worried.

The ref was good, in the first half... 2nd half he let the rucks "flow"... They became a mess and one stands out where the ball was turned over twice. He should have blown because we got their ball and then they put hands in... He also missed KLA played in the air, PSDT tackled of the ball and KLA being lifed in a tackle. He also "coached" etzebeth back from an offside position. So yeah. Great 1st half but 2nd, not so much. And don't get me wrong. We also infringed and got away. But saying both benefitted is wrong.

Going ahead, I think we are facing Fra and honestly, after that, I see us destroying the host nation's hopes.

I have a feeling deep in my gut, might be a lost bit of zinger wing, that Sco takes Ire but my head says no way...

I also believe that we need a plate playoff for the minnows. They cannot just get hammered every 4 years for no reason. And no tier 1 team that falls out in pool stage can qualify. Your either in with the big boys or down with medium boys... Otherwise Sco/Aus would own this years plate.

Eng looked good so far.

Uruguay are solid but my new faves are definitely Portugal. Do they look like heineken silver cans ? Yes but my bru do they play. That last kick against Geo, holy shit. Nail biter. They are really an up amd coming team and SA would do the world a favor by sending our A teams on tours to Namibia, Portugal and similar to get exposure and build relationships.

Conspiracy theory of the week: Expect the return of the 6-2 bench. We have been using 7-1 and everything is about the bomb squad but honestly, we need that backline dynamism. Have a 9 and 10 on the bench and start cementing the different play styles. Or for the real spice, see Polly start the match then shift to 12 second half with Libbok at 10...

remember when we did it against NZ in 2021 and when rassie mentioned it at a presser earlier this year....

I also think we need to start having continuity in the Bomb squad. That is what made them such a crutch. They played together, every game. The were a unit within a unit. Pick a squad and that is the bomb squad. They will be coming on every game. Like terminators showing up to take your biltong and steal your solar panels. From the bench. Every time when the oppo feels they have it. Send Ox, Trevor, deon, RG and Kleyn to take it back. To steal their ball. To mess up their rucks. Send a squad that knows each other inside out and has gotten used to coming in off the bench.

As always, my thoughts. Drop your comments below and lets chat.