Kiwis kill travel curse
4 Apr 2006
New Zealand’s teams are outperforming South African and Australian franchises by more than 30 percent when playing away from home in this year’s Vodacom Super 14 — a sure sign of who will claim the first trophy in the expanded series.
After eight rounds of the tournament, the New Zealand teams are once again the most successful on the road. The South Africans and Australians, generally, are equally poor — and it is consistent with away form during the history of the Super 12.
The Reds, in early years, were good tourists but in the last few seasons their shares have dropped. The Brumbies and Waratahs have always struggled abroad, while none of the South African teams has even managed sustained success in Australia or New Zealand.
The Kiwis, led by the Crusaders and Blues, who both average an away win ratio in excess of 50 percent over a course of 10 years, have shown themselves capable of winning more than they lose when playing in South Africa and Australia.
To date the Kiwi teams have won three from five in Australia and four from eight in South Africa. That’s seven from 13.
Compare that to the SA teams who have won two from seven in Australia (thank goodness for the whipping boys in Perth) and one from seven in New Zealand, and Australia’s franchises who have yet to win in New Zealand this year in three starts and have managed only two wins in six appearances in South Africa.
Overseas success rate
New Zealand teams: 7/13 = 53.8 percent
Australian teams: 2/9 = 22.2 percent
South African teams: 3/14 = 21.4 percent
79 Comments
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4 Apr 2006, 11:49 am
ps I dont buy it
4 Apr 2006, 11:49 am
What ??
SA teams enjoy touring the Mud island more than Sunshine Aussie land ?.
I dont beleive it!
4 Apr 2006, 11:50 am
Dingman
4 million in NZ, about 1 million abroad, majority of them in Australia.
4 Apr 2006, 11:51 am
no dingman,,,,over the years many kiwis have left these dirty grey shores and not returned. the number climbs every day. with the labour government, the stats of kiwis leaving to go to aussie every week is 400 families. people come and go all the time, that is why the immigration count is so high for nz, they have to keep the population stable around 4million. only **** thing, is that a lot of skilled professionals leave, and a lot of taxi drivers come in.
4 Apr 2006, 11:53 am
Dingman I’ll answer that. Tomsta’s stats are more or less correct.
The total RESIDENT population of NZ is now 4.3 million. But in ADDITION to that there are approximately 1 million Kiwis living overseas. Many are on working holidays and will return, but many others end up settling down in UK, USA, AUS wherever.
4 Apr 2006, 11:53 am
anvil i swear on it. the atmosphere here is truely a dominant rugby one. the SA teams love it. the players love it. there is rugby everywhere. for test matches the pressure obviously is on, but for super rugby the guys love the low key vibe.
4 Apr 2006, 11:54 am
i must admit, in shame I might add; I have never travelled to NZ or Oz or the UK for that matter… planning to do so soon. So my take of travel as a Saffa would be one of excitement and new cultures to explore and all that. But do the rugby playing Saffa see it this way….Cause travelling with the stormers and travelling with your grandma to NZ I believe is not the same. (I would give my linker sinker to travel as a player for any s14 team).
I believe it is more a mindset than a physical travelling experience. like you said. the history of our team travelling badly exceeds the actual travel itself.
When they change this mindset, and believe in their rugby skills and effort as a team, will they only start winning….
4 Apr 2006, 11:55 am
CSI
Hence my point that we are not professional.
We dont do things like a business.
We have to much political involvement etc etc
Plus SARU is always in turmoil.
4 Apr 2006, 11:55 am
Delek,
sorry, but again your prejudices are showing, exactly what set of SA looseforwards are you referring to?
we have far more contrasting sets than you do in NZ. Problem is ours are’nt as balanced, or some might argue, as formulaic.
For example, every NZ team has a specialised fecther (at openside), ala McCaw, Masoe, Holah and a specialist carrier (at blindside) ala Collins and an 8th man that straddles the two. It is probably the most effective strategy in the modern game and austrlaia does the same.
The only SA team to have this sort of balance is probably the sharks.
Look at our lot, the bulls have three massive loosies, who are all predominantly ball carriers. The stormers are a total contradition to this and have incredible pace in Watson, Burger and Van Niekerk – all rely on pace and workrate rather than ball carrying and you’d be pressed to find a quicker backrow in the game. The cats have a specialise fetcher in Grobelaar and a high workrate in Wickus, but no real carrier.
I’d be very reluctant to generalise with any south african person or team, much contrast and diversity in this country, irrespective of what your media feeds you.
4 Apr 2006, 11:57 am
P.S Tomsta you may call these shores ‘dirty grey’ hahaha yes it rains a fair bit but most years NZ is voted the No. 1 travel destination in the world by Lonely Planet Guidebooks, the UK’s Daily Telegraph, and a host of US travel magazines. Give me these clean green Aotearoa shores any day.
4 Apr 2006, 11:57 am
Tomsta, Delek,
I am part of that statistic of kiwis living abroad, (USA). Lucky to eve get coverage of rugby in the states.
4 Apr 2006, 11:58 am
Tomsta
So the Tackler is a taxi driver????
BWHAAHHAAHAHAHAH
Makes sense
4 Apr 2006, 11:58 am
Well Tomasta, that said our Super Rugby results over there have been pathetic.
Maybe we’re enjoying it too much eh ?
4 Apr 2006, 12:01 pm
hey delek
im on the shore, and most of the beaches are quite dark sand from the volcanic content. dirty was not intended to mean disgusting. i am down at the beach almost every day for a swim. a lot of saffas are very used to crystal white sand on their beaches. nz only has a few white sand beaches, just different thats all.
4 Apr 2006, 12:02 pm
Tackler could very well be the oke who provided sober driving duties last friday evening. these taxi drivers are taking lessons from the guys in africa.
4 Apr 2006, 12:02 pm
Tomsta
At least you have a beach, I am landlocked, and wish I could hear the ocean.
4 Apr 2006, 12:03 pm
Cab fair enough, but it can be difficult to work out what SA loose forwards ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE. Jacks of all trades sorts of players. Not focussed.
Sorry about my prejudices RAINING THROUGH today. I’m usually quite unprejudiced but at times that’s a boring approach
4 Apr 2006, 12:04 pm
CSI, how long u been abroad?
intending to return one day?
4 Apr 2006, 12:05 pm
Cab,
If all the Brokeback Stromers claims are true, I’m sure they’d like “an 8th man that straddle the two”
4 Apr 2006, 12:05 pm
no no, some of the foreign lot are all to quick too pronounce judgement on a culture they know nothing about.
far too parochial for my liking, smacks of 1-upmanship.
4 Apr 2006, 12:06 pm
Delek,
sorry about that last post, thought you were stirring ****, ignore it.
Pote,
they do, in JvN, look at that hair.
4 Apr 2006, 12:06 pm
CSI I was in Atlanta Georgia during the ’95 world cup. Managed to pick up the final at a friend’s house on pay-per-view DELAYED by two hours.
Anyhow isn’t it true rugby is now reasonably popular over there?
4 Apr 2006, 12:11 pm
Delek
Yes, the game is picking up in popularity here, alot of expat kiwis, oz’s, saffa’s, and brits. The expats are the ones that make the game flow here. They love the comradarie of the game and its quite good to watch, the differences would be obvious to those in here, but the little things like a much smaller rugby field and a lighter rugby ball.
Tomsta,
I’m married to a SA girl, and it depends on where she would like to live, easier for a guy to live away from home but she is a real SA girl at heart who misses her home country, so maybe we will settle in NZ or SA, but as long as I get to swim in the ocean, I’ll be happy.
4 Apr 2006, 12:13 pm
ps, tomsta been away from home for about 12 years now.
4 Apr 2006, 17:44 pm
Keo
This is not a stat that any SA fan wants to read
but the truth is that if we won all our games at home, then opposition sides would not believe that they could win games in the final minutes (eg: Brumbies, Hurricanes, Highlanders, etc!)
Also, to start winning the away games you have to convince the ref’s that you are unbeatable at home so that they 50-50 decisions go your way when you are playing away from home …
4 Apr 2006, 23:17 pm
There’s one thing that’s worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about! (Oscar Wilde)
5 Apr 2006, 03:39 am
Nice post up there Cab.
A balance in the Loose fowards is a fundermental part of a good team. Crusaders use the scavenger, carrier, 3rd lock option with McCaw,Tuiali’i and Thorne. All Blacks use 2 carriers and a scanerger but So’oalo and Collins are now versitile carriers, they can pass and put men in gaps as well.
The loose fowards are responsible for turnovers, securing posession and getting the team the initial go foward that so many tries are scored from.
In England the man position to aspire to is 10.
In NZ we have an affecting with 7. At my level when you turn up to play there are always at least 3,4 or 5 guys going for openside.
Our depth in that area is one reason why im CERTAIN we will win in France next year and then claim the Web Ellis as our own in 2011 on the same ground we 1st laid hands on it.
5 Apr 2006, 03:49 am
And on the subject at hand…
the super 14 is now balanced. 5 teams from SA and NZ and 4 okkers. Time the draw relfected this balance.
Your union needs to stand up and do something about the draw or else you will never ever win a super rugby title for the republic.
Having said this when the playing field is level i still think the winning away stats will be the same. We travel well because funily enough playing away from home takes the pressure off and brings out our best rugby. Look how good the highlanders looked against the stormers. That was champagne rugby – a far cry from there ugly performances since.
We thrive on your hard grounds, day games and competitive teams. Pity we cant put on the same rugby hospitality for your teams with our muddy grounds, ****** crowds and late starting times.
Our country is the hardest to play rugby in because of this. And we play better in excellent SA and OZ conditions meanwhile you play worse in our bad conditions, because unlike us your not use to it.
5 Apr 2006, 06:09 am
Very interesting NZ Maori. Thank you.
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