Sharks snub Tri-Series
8 Jan 2012
The Sharks have declined an invitation to play the Stormers and the Lions in a pre-season Tri-Series at Newlands at the end of January.
The Durban-based franchise has competed in the tournament in recent years, but said a long upcoming Super Rugby campaign meant it wasn’t ideal to play tough warm-up matches beforehand.
‘We will play Boland and the EP Kings over two weekends early in February,’ Sharks assistant coach Hugh Reece-Edwards told The Witness newspaper. ‘Playing in the Newlands triangular involved playing two games [against the Lions and the Stormers] in four days at the end of this month.
‘We think it will be more beneficial to our planning and preparation to spread the games over two weekends, particularly this early in the season and with a long year ahead of us.
‘I believe the Cheetahs are taking our place in Cape Town,’ he added.
The Sharks kick off their 2012 Super Rugby season with a match against the Bulls at Loftus on 24 February.
348 Comments
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9 Jan 2012, 19:16 pm
@Michael-300: on-field team selection
9 Jan 2012, 19:17 pm
And before everyone says I am a one-eyed Bulls supporter. I respect Province enormously. They have the most loyal supporters base. They have a brilliant history going back decades. They have always played an entertaining brand in which they believe in, except under AC. Every time the Bulls are in a dip, they should control southern hemisphere rugby, but since the 80s they have gone backwards as a union. I just think their player recruitment strategy and top level management is at the core of their problems.
9 Jan 2012, 19:18 pm
299Pissant
Oh okay… wasn’t sure of the who how and why
9 Jan 2012, 19:19 pm
Flo should have been kept and groomed for captaincy.. a thousand times better captaincy prospect than Burger in a thousand light years…
A mix n match combo of Carr, Flo, Kolisi, Vermeulen, and Koster is actually far more promising and inventive than the negating stuff up of Burger ******** every momentum to hell…
With Elstadt and Etsebeth, Steenkamp and Bekker covering 2nd row, Elstadt could fill in at 7 if need be.
Burger is actually the odd man out… go back to WP/Stormers run of games under Burger in 2009 before Watson took over the captaincy with a young Flo and Pieter Louw and Vermeulen in tandem,.. Under Burger WP / Stormers SUCKED and were losing games hand over fist till Watson took the young Stormers / WP over by default and suddenly they rocked and got within a whisker of upsetting the almighty 2007 S14 champ Bulls in CC semi till Nakalakuki fckd it all up on full time… otherwise that was a far better setup than the one under the current Burger and Rassie/AC confederacy of confusion.
Scrum half / Fly half is also fine, glad we got rid of the Gaffie reincarnation L. Cronje, Duvenhage / Van Aswegen have got the goods alright, and so does Schreuder and Elgar Watts albeit without a kicking game…little like Grant in that respect.
Stormers can come good… but I gotta say Burger is the problem in the middle of the cookie jar.. get him out the middle of every goddam facet and strategy and see the immediate difference.
Pieter Louw had to sacrifice his place because of this, likewise Flo… and Rassie still intent on creating this bullshit strategy of a marauding upright floundering link man from first receiver who cannot pass or create squat as was so painfully obvious in that dismal 1/4 WC exit where Burger was the chief cook and bottle washer go to man…. going going GONE.. OUT the WC due primarily to THAT.
9 Jan 2012, 19:23 pm
Maverick Rassie got sweet fanny fokol clue… Coetsee little more pragmatic and collectively reserved,.. but between the two of them its a veritable recipe for disaster… two diametrically opposed nincompoops pulling in directly opposite directions.. and neither calling anything remotely close to any expedient accuracy..
9 Jan 2012, 19:24 pm
@Horings-302: Yeah the Stormers went backwards in playing style in 2011. They were entertaining in 2010. I hope they regain. Time will tell.
Till tomorrow guys. See ye.
9 Jan 2012, 19:29 pm
WP produces more rugby talent than the rest of the country barring Free State at Grey Bloem
otherwise 50% of Bulls star players are WP born and bred and another 20-30% at Sharks..
WP should be creaming it every year and flying high… and yet in spite of all the home grown talent they suck to high heaven because they cannot spot emerging talent and sell it off to highest bidder due to hanging on for dear life to fading burnt out stars… and then buying the young talent back again when its on the wrong side of the parabola curve…
9 Jan 2012, 19:31 pm
@Michael-300:
I must disagree Michael.
Over the last couple of years their management of players like Brits, Joe, Grant, Lionel, Sadie, Fourie, Hoffmann, Timmy, and some guys now in Europe most will probably not even know leaves a lot to be desired.
In most cases it’s simple communication which is the most disheartening.
9 Jan 2012, 19:32 pm
@skopskiet. You can get uncle Fester back. What is his name again? Kobus iets? Reading Matfield’s book, It will come as no surprise if Rassie and Matfield team up in future.
9 Jan 2012, 19:35 pm
@PissAnt-308:
In short, WP lost it’s identity over the last decade. One just has to read Jan Pickard’s book on how this culture was created in the 80′s (similar to what Heyneke did at the Bulls in recent years).
9 Jan 2012, 19:36 pm
Pity Frik Du Preez and co didn’t succeed in forcing White out.. he was so far full of himself and getting it so fundamentally wrong during his blind man bluff stint of 49-0 and the rest that he had to hire an Australian to fix his blindness and even then needed a gimme one way ticket WC to fluke his star struck spangled resurrection in spite of himself.. any decent coach with half a clue could have caked walk that pantomime in the Parc de Princes
9 Jan 2012, 19:40 pm
So is Vic coming to join Rassie in Slaapstad… two foreign aliens..? .. because I still dunno wtf Bulls are doing using the services of Pieter Roussow, Heyneke Meyer, Francois Hougaard, Johann Sadie, Gurthro Steenkamp, Juandre Kruger, Liefling, and a few more when they are all WP born, educated and bred rugby pedigree..
9 Jan 2012, 19:43 pm
Fester (Kobus) Vd Merwe was Nick Mallets brain explosion.. that was the lowest point in WP history.. lets hope we don’t succumb to those forlorn depths of despair again any time soon…
9 Jan 2012, 19:50 pm
@Skopskiet. Ja, when reading Matfield’s book it differs to other books in one way. Every other former player’s book I have read the coach who succeeds gets only praise and no critism and the one that failed got only critism from the player. Matfield praised Meyer, Joubert, Pdiv but he critisized Jake the most. Even though Jake got the success.
It always bothers me how guys will follow a success recipe to the finest detail and the opposite when failure, but sometimes the bounce of the ball or the ref on the day or the fixture list can also play a part. Jake always irritated me with his only way to win a world cup and he followed the ’95 recipe exactly. Surely there are more ways than one to achieve success?
9 Jan 2012, 19:57 pm
@Horings-314: Busy reading Vic’s book at the moment. It’s taking longer than I expected to be honest, struggling to really get into it.
I have the Bear Gryls book as well. Tempted to drop Vic and get stuck into the bear.
Last Christmas I read the Stig’s book and Andre Agassi’s. Agassi’s was much much better.
Which was disappointing in a way because I hadn’t been a fan of his *until I read the book) but was a big Top Gear fan.
I have a huge amount of respect for Big Vic and was hoping to enjoy his book more.
9 Jan 2012, 19:57 pm
Jake also pissed me off with his numbers theories. I can’t remember if it was his lucky number 42 or something. We won the 2007, because we had the form team and the luck of the draw. Our best rugby year since 1998 was in 2009 where we won against the All Blacks 3 times in a row. That should be the aim of any coach.
9 Jan 2012, 20:00 pm
@Horings-316:
Jake is a statistician, worst type of individual to debate rugby with.
9 Jan 2012, 20:01 pm
This from news 24:
Cape Town – The Stormers returned to official training on Monday at the HPC (High Performance Centre) in Bellville and immediately underwent post festive-season fitness tests.
And the results impressed fitness and conditioning coach Stephan Du Toit.
“The bulk of the players tested exceptionally well against the fitness and conditioning targets set for own training over the festive season, with a number exceeding the targets set,” Du Toit told the Stormers’ website.
“Overall we were very pleased with the progress made by the group. Competition for places is tough and the boys are pushing each other hard. You can see that despite the time off the players trained hard.”
The players now embark on a pre-season rugby specific training camp to Hermanus.
They will host an open session at 10:00 on Wednesday at Hermanus Primary School. The team will train and then host a signing session.
9 Jan 2012, 20:02 pm
PS saw Brian Habanna at the gym last week. He was looking lean and fit.
9 Jan 2012, 20:04 pm
@stormersboy. Agree, his book is as entertaining as his post match interviews, but you do get insight into how he thinks about the game. He is not going over the top and has a realistic view. That is not very entetaining, unlike Jake who mesmerized us with the stars that fell into a Springbok formation that night in Paris and how 6 times 7 is amazingly also 21 times 2 and more amazingly the same number of days it took for him since birth to realise that he is a d… And that is the true reason the Boks won the World Cup.
9 Jan 2012, 20:07 pm
@Horings-320: Never read JW’s book, doesn’t really appeal to me.
John’s was ok, but also didn’t really blow me away either.
9 Jan 2012, 20:07 pm
@Horings-314:
100% – success is not always the lucky packet charm that the lucky packet coach managed to pluck out the bottom of the lucky packet even though he may have had little to do with the actual success which was bestowed on him through some benevolent forces outside his immediate control.. success can also sometimes be couched from within failure.. Matfield knows this.. that success is not won at the cost of integrity and honor.. and where that comes from those like PdV and Meyer and some others got about 2000% more of those commodities than Snakey White could ever hope to fathom from the depths of his self centered soul…
I can see Victor respects PdV because he put his players ahead of his own ambitions and even though he dearly would have loved to have won the WC he valued loyalty and honor even above his own driving desire for ambition.. almost to a fault where he allowed his seniors to influence strategy and selection perhaps beyond what was practically required..
eg. Smit should have stepped aside for Bismark.. that was one unforgiving mistake that had a bigger psychological dysfunction than anyone can vaguely realize the extent.. that one decision alone cost at least 20% Bok potential at the final hurdle…
The other flaws and faults are more strategic based like Burger playing wrong ball carry role.. and FdP starting ahead of Hougaard etc.. also not starting Alberts ahead of Spies.. but the big criteria of the psychological misalignment of focus was leaving Bismark on the bench for Smit.. which ALMOST resulted in a loss against Wales in first pool game… and then DID result in the 1/4 final loss vs Australia.
9 Jan 2012, 20:07 pm
@Horings-320:
If you are a Bulls supporter you will love Vic’s book. I will suggest Dan Retief’s one though as a good read.
9 Jan 2012, 20:11 pm
http://www.thestormers.co.za/article.asp?id=1193971 Stormers website, good pic of the youngster Stephen Kitshoff doing some squats. Looks to be about 280kg’s there.
9 Jan 2012, 20:11 pm
@stormersboy-315: self torture that … hell man Vic is very boring and yoy choose to read his book … LOL @ you.
Rather get a hold of Gibbs’ book … now that is not boring.
9 Jan 2012, 20:13 pm
@ashampoopaloo-304:
Constructing high rise buildings?
Tailoring suits?
Or perhaps it’s just a schluck or two too many from the the dream pipe?
Under AC the Stormers will be their usual disappointmet minus few exceptional skilled players they have lost and the aging SB as a captain courage, under PdV -if AC’s appointed a Boks coach as expected – it will be a mayhem, granted
Only Marius Jonker will save them
9 Jan 2012, 20:13 pm
@RL-325:
9 Jan 2012, 20:15 pm
@RL-325: Ja man it was a gift. From my mom.
Beats the soap on a rope that she used to get me.
Hersh’s book is like the You magazine. I’d read it if it was lying around and I had nothing better to do but I wouldn’t go and buy it.
9 Jan 2012, 20:16 pm
will be interesting to see how long Brumbies and White manage to keep their tempestuous love affair afloat.. it took Keohane about 15 months if I can recall before screaming headlong for the divorce courts…
9 Jan 2012, 20:20 pm
Anyway, gym becons. Cheers all.
9 Jan 2012, 20:20 pm
Anycase gents I am out – Tuna steaks tonight, need to get a cooking.
Ciao.
9 Jan 2012, 20:26 pm
@Hondo-326: you talking Bobba Meises again.. as usual..
Burger was and is the culminating point of the fallout… not many realize this but its the truth.. Nothing wrong with Burger the rugby player.. for daredevil guts and courage and blitzkrieg mayhem Burger (used) to have that stuff in spades.. now there are many more young bucks with far more power zest and krag ready willing and able to put their bodies on the line..
the last remaining problem.. is Burger is NOT a decent enough linking game reading midfield creative rugby brain who can ‘create’ some little bit of magic through his forays towards or into the advantage line.. all he knows is fokmavoort and bust it up and go to ground… and the momentum of the impetus was long ago lost the first moment whoever the brainchild was who designed this foolproof idiotic strategy in the first place orchestrated that he should be the one to get the first bite at the second phase ball..
9 Jan 2012, 22:13 pm
NOW THIS IS INTERESTING.
FROM NEWS 24
Cape Town – Rassie Erasmus has shocked the Western Province Rugby Union (WPRU) by resigning from his position as director of coaching.
Erasmus’s lawyer, Frikkie Erasmus, confirmed the news to Die Burger newspaper on Monday.
“Rassie is looking at other options. There are other choices, especially overseas,” said Frikkie Erasmus.
Rassie Erasmus has already informed the Stormers’ management team of his decision to quit.
He was last year mentioned as a possible candidate to become the next Springbok coach after he assisted them as a technical adviser at the World Cup in New Zealand. However, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) will only comment on the new Bok coaching team on January 27.
Heyneke Meyer and Gert Smal are apparently the two strongest candidates for the Springbok head coaching position.
Die Burger further understands that clubs in England and France are after Erasmus’s services.
He started his tenure at the WPRU in late 2007. He then coached the Stormers to fifth position in the 2008 Super 14, just missing out on a semi-final spot. But he struggled to handle the constant media pressure and was appointed in his current role as director of coaching with Allister Coetzee taking over the coaching reigns.
9 Jan 2012, 22:15 pm
As usual the Keo okes asleep….
Bueller….?
Bueller….?
Bueller….?
9 Jan 2012, 22:24 pm
@ashampoopaloo-332: harsh, no one else is doing the hard yards up the guts. its burgers job and he doesnt shy away from it. he’s not supposed to score tries every time he carts it up he just has to make the advantage line and give his team front foot ball. the rest if up the rest of the loosies to build on what burger started.
i dont see spies making any descernable yards against a top 6 side, in fact u kinda wonder if he’s on the field at all some times.
i agree that burger is not a 7 but the way the boks play it doersnt matter. boks play a left right flanker as oppsed to open and blind.
also burgers picking up an off loading game. when jerryCollins did this it added a huge dimension to his game. burger started experimenting with it last season and though its a huge learning curve he’s getting better and better at it.
cannot believe your picking on burger. there were loads of other players (including smit) who should be under the microscope before burger (habana, FDP). burger has heart and works tirelessly all day. what burger has you cant coach and the boks are a better side with a work horse like burger doing his thing with no flashy bs.
9 Jan 2012, 23:09 pm
@man1a-335: yeah I’m harsh on Burger because he kills off most promising movements with his solo runs to never never land
But I’m way worse harsh on nonentity of a has been loser captain John Smit or mama’s baby bunting FdP… try me..
9 Jan 2012, 23:18 pm
@ashampoopaloo-336: yes i’ve heard how u feel about smit, didnt realise u had it out for FdP as well. totally agree there on smit and FdP. though i’m not so sure that the WC losses was entirely smits fault.
from reading between the lines of one of matfields interviews and it was the seniors players who decided to go back to the kicking game. only FdP and steyn would’ve pushed that game plan and of those two i’d have to say that it was most probably FdP who spear headed it. good game plan if FdP had his kicking game right. but he was putting up meaningless bombs and didnt have another game plan to fall back on.
burger was coached to be a battering ram. i like burgher as he’s always willing to put his body on the line for his team and does it every game. I wathced the boks aus game again in the weekend. sure burger was stopped but at least he tried and was never avoiding work. he carried the ball up more than any other forward, and i point out that as he was first reciever so that the defence was always waiting for him. burgers defence in that game was a lso immense, putting in a try saving tackle.
once burger gets his off loading game going he’ll be even more of a handful for world rugby.
9 Jan 2012, 23:20 pm
@ashampoopaloo-336: how do u feel about spies?
in my book he’s over rated. does well vs minnow teams but disapears in the top tier games.
like SBW a great athelete but only an average rugby player
10 Jan 2012, 00:39 am
@man1a-337:
Burger is no play maker, non creative with the ball in hand and predictable.
10 Jan 2012, 00:58 am
@Te Rangatira-339: but u need those kind of players that do all the dirty work.
its not burgers job to be flashy. sure he may be predicatable but thats a 6 and 8′s job to cart it up and punish the defensive line.
what about burgers defence? phenomenal tackler and pulls off a try saving tackle almost every game.
10 Jan 2012, 01:18 am
Yes correct, Burger has a big motor and is excellent on defense, but he becomes too predictable as a first receiver, as he lacks the off loading skills nor does he possess a smart short kicking game. I think he should try to position himself as a runner not a ball distributor.
10 Jan 2012, 01:35 am
@Te Rangatira-341: chur teRanatira
he’s learning to off load. started last season and at first he passed too much but as the WC apporached he got a bit more selective and better. still a couple of passes he should’ve held onto but the guys at least learning and improving his craft.
forwards dont kick and shouldnt unless they’ve logged at least 100 hours practising them.
in the aus game burger was predominantly the ball carrier/basher up the guts. didnt see a helluva lot of other boks forwards putting their hands up or contributing as much. thats what i like bout burger. he does his job without any whinging and does it well. sure its predictable but theres one thing knowing what is going to happen and another thing being able to stop it.
and defensively burgers the man. offence wins games but defense wins championships
who else would u have ahead of schalk?
10 Jan 2012, 02:21 am
I wouldn’t have anyone ahead of Schalk, he is a great player. I think his role as monotonous first receiver is more an indictment on the players around him. They did not have a first five who could take it to the defensive line, actually they had no one who could perform this role. As for forwards not kicking, well Zinny is my favourite player, say no more.
10 Jan 2012, 02:44 am
@Te Rangatira-343: zinny was a freak and he could kick but he always kicked intelligently and he was never the first choice kicker. a kicking forward is a nice to have but not the main attribute i’d want in my loosies.
yeah i feel the same that burger has been more guilty by association than an actual breakdown of his own skill and contribution.
i agree he was coached to be first reciever but he was told what to do and he did it. didnt ask if was such a good idea but got inot his job and did it with passion.
ps wayneShelford was my pick of 8′s, zinny had more skill but buck had mana. Zinny i’d pick if i had to bet all my money, buck i’d pick if i had to bet my life.
10 Jan 2012, 03:07 am
@man1a-344:
Yeah Great Respect for Wayne too. Zinny for me evolved into a complete package. When he was dropped by Laurie Mains for Aaron Pene, he worked hard on his defense and tight play and came back a stronger player with all the skills.Being able to kick a ball skillfully is not a prerequisite for a forward, but it is a skill a top player should practice and be able to pull out when required
10 Jan 2012, 03:14 am
@Te Rangatira-345:
aaron pene was a default choice. zinny was injured. snapped his achilles and no one, even zinny, thought he’d make it back in time for the wc. but zinny being zinny rehab’d and trained real hard and defied the odds and made it back to drop kick that 3 points from the half way line vs england. audacious.
zinny was a great player and a massive loss to the AB’s and auckland when he retired
10 Jan 2012, 03:26 am
YES Zinny was unique. Have to go make some money now,all the best.
10 Jan 2012, 03:45 am
@Te Rangatira-347: chur chur kia kaha
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