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South African teams are no closer to winning a Super Rugby title as drought enters ninth year

South Africa's Super Rugby title drought will enter it's ninth year. (Photos/Gettys Images)

The conference-leading Sharks have a win-loss record of 5-5 and the cellar-dwelling Lions have a win-loss record of 5-5.

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All that separates the top from the bottom in the South African conference is bonus points – which begs the question why on earth did Stormers fullback Damian Willemse try to run a missed penalty kick back from in front of his own goal posts with time on the clock expired instead of ending the match.

The turnover of possession shortly after that ill-advised decision gave the Bulls another chance to score and take away a losing bonus point – which they did. Perhaps the Stormers, written-off by many after a 40-3 loss in Pretoria at the hands of the Bulls in the first round, were just happy to get the win. Never mind that the Bulls now sit one point ahead of them in the conference.

This is the state of Super Rugby in South Africa – a team considered the worst in the country, mired with off-field administration issues – is still in the thick of the conference race sitting 3rd despite themselves, and could perhaps win it, while no team is consistent enough to be considered better than average at this stage.

While Rassie Erasmus praised the early season form as being test-match like due to the prevalence of high percentage of territorial kicking, time has proven this approach of yesterday doesn’t win championships in Super Rugby today.

Three of the top five teams that kick the ball out-of-hand the most are South African, while a fourth, the Jaguares, play in the same conference. Only the Lions opt to play a possession-based game and subsequently kick the third least in the competition. While they are languishing this year, this is the approach that led to making the final for three straight seasons.

While kicking in exit zones inside your own 22 is generally a good idea, too many aimless kicks are made to play territory by South African sides in midfield zones, often for no other good reason than that they can’t hold shape for long. These kicks often go uncontested and are just hoofs downfield for as much distance as possible.

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The Bulls’ territorial kicking game, led by Springbok flyhalf Handre Pollard, has failed to consistently control games recently and the lack of strike power in the Bulls’ game against the Stormers was apparent without someone like flyer Rosko Specman.

The Stormers, without their own territorial kicker SP Marais and with livewire Damian Willemse in the line-up, came alive. Their counter game produced two critical tries to do enough to keep the Bulls at reach. After taking over 160-minutes to score their first try of the season, have found some ability in attack in the absence of clinical structure. They produce the third most offloads in the competition and have found ways to create opportunities through creative types like Dillyn Lleyds in broken play.

The Bulls are renowned for taking the points at every opportunity, and while Pollard is the leading scorer in the competition, this three-first approach is flawed. It can win derby games, but it will generally comes up short against the New Zealand sides. The Bulls defence was torn apart 56-20 by the struggling Chiefs, denting the case for playing this way in Super Rugby.

With just 20 tries so far, the Bulls have the least amount of any team. Their game strategy is papering over cracks, giving hope for titles which cannot be delivered.

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Four of the top five sides with the most points per game are filled by Kiwi teams – Crusaders (1st), Highlanders (2nd), Hurricanes (3rd) and Chiefs (5th). Building a high-scoring attack is a pre-requisite to winning Super Rugby, or at least, matching it with the New Zealand sides. The Chiefs and Highlanders aren’t likely to feature at the business end this year, but the Hurricanes and Crusaders most definitely will.

Seven is greater than three, and with the Crusaders scoring upwards of 25 points in 20-minute windows, you have to be able to play with the ball to starve them of the opportunity. While it seems like no one will match it with the Crusaders this year, only one of the four South African teams is taking the right approach to get there.

The Lions title window may be closing, but they have shown the blueprint.

In their three finals appearances since the last World Cup, they beat the Crusaders, Highlanders, and Hurricanes in the playoffs to get there. They were a high-flying side with aggressive attacking intent and knocked over quality New Zealand teams consistently.

Had they been able to keep Johan Ackermann along with key pieces like Jaco Kriel, Faf de Klerk, and Franco Mostert, they would likely still be the premier side in South Africa today by some distance. They have still scored the most tries this season of any South African side and it wouldn’t surprise if they end up on top of the conference again, despite not having the same level of team as the last few seasons.

However, kicking less and trying to play with ball-in-hand immediately won’t pay off for all the rest of the South African teams. It would in all likelihood see the number of wins drop in the short-term. To implement the type of system required to open up teams with possession and ball movement requires a full-scale roster review and far more complex thinking from coaches and players alike. Skills over extra brawn, speed and mobility over extra size.

The Faf de Klerk’s, Curwin Bosch’s and Cheslin Kolbe’s are proof that the South African system that could deliver the type of rugby seen in New Zealand. As the Crusaders push towards a third consecutive title, in a decade where New Zealand has seven of the last nine titles, the mediocrity of the South African conference is as telling as ever as is the play of the majority of the sides.

Just who wins the conference will be an intriguing battle but it won’t matter in the bigger Super Rugby picture.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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