Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett has said that South Africa’s Super Rugby conference is significantly weaker than their Australasian rivals.
In his role of guest speaker on SuperSport, Mallett said he had been disappointed by South Africa’s poor performance in the tournament thus far, particularly their lack of ability to create opportunities on attack and score tries.
“Our conference is definitely the weakest and our teams aren’t performing,” Mallett said.
Sport24
With the exception of the log-leading Sharks, it has been a terrible season for South African teams with the Lions, Stormers and Cheetahs occupying the three last places on the log, and the second-best SA team, the Bulls, in 9th place overall.
Mallett used the following Super Rugby stats to illustrate his point:
South African teams:
Played: 43
Won: 17
Bonus points: 13
Tries: 72
Points: 85
Australian teams:
Played: 40
Won: 22
Bonus points: 16
Tries: 91
Points: 104
New Zealand teams:
Played: 39
Won: 20
Bonus points: 19
Tries: 98
Points: 103
Leaders:
Wins: AUS
Bonus Points: NZ
Tries: NZ
Points: AUS
Indeed a weak conference! The Sharks are carrying our flag but still needs to travel. They will win the conference so we will at least have a team in the playoffs… the rest are also rans… 😆
Poor VD Merwe suspended… 🙁
yes, everybody can see SA teams are weak this year. The question is why. I see Brendon Venter in his blog at Supersport argue that it’s because of a lack of basic rugby skills. Maybe. Or maybe it’s because of a lack of vision by the coaches. The Bulls, Cheetahs and Stormers need some fresh ideas to move forward.
@Leon 2
To be fair, the Sharks have made a very positive shake up in their structures from the CEO to the coaches, but their game plan is every bit as dour as the rest of the SA franchises.
They just have better structures, better depth in players and a kicker who can nail penalties from 50 plus meters out.
@ nortierd@3:
Yes, I can’t argue with that. SA teams need fresh ideas to move forward.
Our handling skills are shocking… School boy errors in every game played…
Gumboots wrote:
Not just school boy errors Gummi, school boy rugby as well.
You know the type, the biggest kid gets the ball and must steamroller over the opposition.
That’s where NZ is ahead of us as well, they don’t play per age, they play per weight, so they have to learn the necessary skill, either offloading or footwork or taking gaps to beat the opposition. If all players are more or less equal in weight and stature, brain beats brawn, because brawn is taken out of the equation.
@Gummi
Maxwell was on fire again last night
Lucky to be dropped and caught off a no ball, but boy did he make it count.
Shame, the poor guy keeps missing out on his ton.
I wonder if the man of the match for them gets to spend a night with Preitty, lol, will make sense why they are in such hot form
The edge is in the performance against the other conferences’ teams, the Derby victories are equal for all the conferences (assuming no draws) and thus bear no effect on Mallett’s figure
If you RECALCULATE the score of victories against other conferences ONLY with neutral referees in charge, the picture will be rather bleak
@Hondo
On which teams are you placing your money this weekend?
@ nortierd:
The Sormers by 8-12
The Sharks by 12
The Force by 3-6
@Hondo
Do you only bet on the SA sides?
I also went Stormers and Sharks, by a little less.
I also backed the Bulls, but did it 4 weeks ago, before the Hurricanes game where Pottie and Stegmann got injured. Still think they might sneak it past the Force
@6 and 7
It is quite alarming – our rugby in need of a rev upwards not back to quotas…
Maxwell is on fire…It looks like you could be right… dancing, clapping, hopping…etc.etc
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