Smokin': England - Jokin': Stormers
It's time for our wrap of who has their name in lights at the moment ... and who is making the headlines for the wrong reasons in rugby this week.
They're on fire!
England: Now that they're over the French hurdle, it's hard to see England missing out on the Six Nations crown. Surely Italy will not pose a problem at Twickenham, meaning Chris Robshaw and co. should head to Cardiff with a healthy points difference. Any Championship-winning campaign needs a splash of luck and Manu Tuilagi's fortuitous try on Saturday looks set to be a crucial moment in the title chase.
Scotland: Sunday's success over Ireland at Murrayfield meant that the hosts recorded back-to-back Six Nations wins for the first time since 2001. Victory over Wales next week would even keep them in the hunt for a maiden title.
Thierry Dusautoir and Wesley Fofana: Once again, 'Titi' has been a shining light in the gloomy atmosphere that is surrounding Les Bleus' Six Nations campaign. France's captain is the tournament's top tackler, having made 37 hits without missing a single one. Fofana was finally returned to midfield at Twickers and found his way to the tryline... 'nough said.
New Zealand's Super Rugby conference: This is the way rugby is meant to be played. With so much televised sport on offer these days, it's sometimes hard to choose what to prioritise. So often the 'big' games fail to deliver - on both sides of the equator - but it's a rare thing to witness a boring game involving the Kiwi franchises. If you need convincing, check out the highlights from the Highlanders v the Chiefs last Friday.
The Brumbies: Two from two, top of the overall table, looking solid. The Brumbies revival continues.
The Kings: No team has ever won on debut in Super Rugby - until now. Sure, playing the Force at home is the easiest fixture on the calendar, so things will only get harder. But credit were credit is due because the Kings have already exceeded most pundits' expectations.
Sergeal Petersen: The youngest South African in Super Rugby since 1997 sent the Kings faithful wild by scoring two tries, including what proved to be the match winner against the Force. Just three months ago he was in high school, now he is the toast of Port Elizabeth.
Blues youngsters: Francis Saili, Charles Piutau and Steven Luatua were all outstanding against the Hurricanes. They were also all born in 1991, so they should have plenty of years ahead of them. Add to the mix the likes of Frank Halai, who scored two tries on debut, and the future is looking bright in Auckland.
Saracens: Trailing 17-6 at half-time at Welford Road, Sarries looked down and out. Four second-half tries later, the visitors claimed a remarkable comeback victory - their fourth successive (regular season) win at Leicester - to retain second spot in the standings and close the gap on Harlequins to a singe point.
Treviso: A five-try win over Munster is something to be proud of. Before fans in Limerick start complaining about players on Six Nations duty, they should ask themselves which team provides of the bulk of Italy's squad.
Brrrrr....someone put the kettle on!
Philippe Saint-André: France's head coach was on the verge of tears at Saturday's post-match press conference and we're not surprised. The knives are truly out in the French press corps. The visitors were the better team for about an hour but some curious tactical changes from PSA saw the wheels come off and England seize the initiative. The Wooden Spoon is a real possibility and PSA's job must be under threat.
Ireland: How do you lose a game when you enjoy 71 percent possession and 77 percent territory? Ask Declan Kidney, because we don't know.
Dimitri Yachvili: Biarritz's loss at home to Racing Metro was further soured when the home scrum-half stamped on Racing centre Henry Chavancy's leg, sparking a dust-up. Yachvili saw yellow but deserves a lengthy ban for his disgraceful actions, which were worse than those that saw Cian Healy handed a three-week suspension. Have a look at 1:50:45 here. Unfortunately, France's farcical disciplinary process means he is unlikely to face a hearing before Friday's Basque derby with Bayonne.
Leicester's meltdown: As mentioned above, Tigers blew an 11-point half-time lead on home soil against fellow title contenders. We doubt the tone of Richard Cockerill's subdued comments to the press afterwards would have been repeated behind closed doors.
Elton Jantjies and the Stormers: Heard from a Bulls fan at the weekend: "You don't take second-hand Lions into a Bull fight." 0/4 from the kicking tee was not the kind of Stormers debut Jantjies was hoping for. Coach Allister Coetzee called his team's first-half performance "an embarrassment to the Stormers jersey." They will seek redemption at the 'Shark Tank' on Saturday.
Craig Joubert (if you're French): South Africa's top ref is to France what Bryce Lawrence is to South Africa or Wayne Barnes is to New Zealand as many French fans still hold a grudge in the wake of the infamous final 20 minutes of the 2011 World Cup final. He's no more popular after this weekend's loss to England. "I won't comment on the rucks nor the decision to award (Tuilagi's) try. We know Joubert," said Saint-André. Ouch.
By Ross Hastie
@RossisHastie
Comments
new_j4a says...
@Iyhel, no clear daylight.....told to release....doesn't....correct pk
Posted 08:20 27th February 2013
KiwiRooster says...
If the England disciplinary process was as "farcical" as France's, none of the 2003 squad (those loaded mules) would have made it to Sydney.
Tell Yohann Huget it is farcical when missing out on RWC 2011 for failing to answer that antidopping call while he was... playing for France precisely.
Although I clearly understand the farce (joke) is on France for sticking to the rules in place. Maybe they should bend the rules like we have seen across the Channel.
England disciplinary process was more than farcical during the whole London Olympic Games but let's not go there, shall we...
Posted 06:23 27th February 2013
KiwiRooster says...
"France's farcical disciplinary process" eur really?
When a player (take Dupuy or Attoub who served the longest bans from all 6 nations) get banned from the Heineken or Amlin Cup, France has been THE only nation to apply the ban to both their domestic cup AND their national team. It is stupid and overzealous, don't ask me why.
Hence the reason why Lievremont never got to call back Dupuy who would have been a lot more helpful in the RWC final than Parra in my view.
But for now, let's see how the 6 Nations deals with disciplining Farrell for instance...
Posted 06:08 27th February 2013
MaxPower says...
JayStarr is right, forget the highlight reel of the chiefs game, it paints a distorted picture of what was an incredibly fast, brutal and exciting game...there was great defense, there were times when forwards made massive tackles, got up and made another and another...it was played at an incredible pace and yes there were some weak moments in a couple of tries but the lead ups to all of these moments were enthralling...
Posted 05:26 27th February 2013
Melkiwi says...
Defence wasn't that great against the chiefs and highlanders game but hey it was the first game of the season, besides not many people go to games to see defence they go to see tries being scored.
Posted 04:22 27th February 2013
kennyisgay says...
@ carpeloser, you and bokavegetable are also members of the 'embarrassment to the whole of south Africa' club. Are you two an item? That explains it.
Posted 02:23 27th February 2013
kiwilad says...
Carpelone, Are you actually awake???
Posted 02:22 27th February 2013
davodiablo says...
Carpelone . How deserving were France after loosing to Tonga and getting spanked by NZ in the pools .
As the kids say ...FAIL
Posted 00:34 27th February 2013
Iyhel says...
@newj4a: we could discuss the penalty against Fritz in the last 10 minutes. He tackles, releases, takes a look at the ref, get back then, on his feet, contests the ball, the English player keeps the ball and... Joubert blows against Fritz. Total nonsense.
We could probably found exactly the same reversed, a French player holding on the ball and an English one getting penalised. Basically, it looks like an attacking player cannot be penalised by Joubert.
And I don't agree with caperlone, I found him awful all match long. To be fair, he wasn't helped much by his assistants, one of them being Lacey, who will probably not be welcome in Samoa after the way he helped the French in November...
Posted 21:32 26th February 2013
rolf says...
second hand lion in a bullfight - while chatraklis made a difference in PE.
sigh
Posted 19:26 26th February 2013
Lucasrg says...
Italy's scrum should be definitely on the frozen list. I mean, one of top scrums in the world till November, has downfall to something new for the Italians themselves.
Besides the good line out display, the scrum was horrible and unwatchable.
If the ball in hand game raised up a little bit, the scrum went back to the unknown.
May the gods bring strength to one of the finest scrums on the planet.
Posted 17:50 26th February 2013
melkdave says...
Have to agree with alot of posters here.The Highlanders-Chiefs game is wonderfull to watch,but the tackling is so bad its almost schoolboy,any team would be scoring alot of tries against tackling that bad..Also the Yasville stamp,OUCH he should be given a ban for the rest of the season imo,no place for a frenzied attack such as that was in the game,and against a player unable to defend himself aswell COWARD and CHEAT are words that spring easily to mind for Yasville .@Dan77 very true just because Scotland won doesnt make them HOT they didnt actually play well imo,,but i think Ireland deserve the NOT,for being CRAP in that game .As for the rest of the HOT/Cold list ,its about right .
Posted 17:46 26th February 2013
JayStarr says...
Oh you nagging nellies - the Chiefs v. Highlanders game was BY FAR the most entertaining game of the weekend... and quite possibly the year so far! Get over yourselves. Especially with your "bad defense" argument... The Stormers had the best defense in the world for the last two years, but I have not heard one of you praising them for their brilliant, 'entertaining' defense... So don't try and say now "forget the tries, look at the 'bad' defense". PUH-LEASE...
Besides, what the highlights don't show is why the field was so broken at the time of the try - THEY broke it by stretching their oppononents' defense with brilliant attacking play!
Just admit it - you will come up with any nonsense excuse to avoid admitting that your country's rugby is inferior to NZ rugby... But the fact of the matter is, IT IS!
I am South African - and I know the Kiwis are generally better than us. That is why I enjoy watching them so much... and why I enjoy it so much when we beat them. So just lighten up folks - that Chiefs v. Highlanders game was an incredible display of top quality rugby. Including defense. The brilliant defense just didn't make the highlights reel... because it's not entertaining !
Posted 17:13 26th February 2013
JayStarr says...
It's interesting - all top referees' careers seem to follow the same trajectory:
...They spend years trying to become one of the top referees, honing their skills, working hard on all areas of their 'game'... and then when they finally crack the big time, and start being called "the top referee in the world/the country", they suddenly start becoming so full of themselves that they think they are all-seeing and all-knowing and can't make mistakes... and it's exactly then that they start becoming a pompous ass, screw up big time and plummet back down to bottom-feeder level. Just look at what happened to Steve Walsh, Stuart Dickenson, Wayne Barnes, Paddy O'Brien, Jonathan Kaplan, Bryce Lawrence and now seemingly Craig Joubert... When will they ever learn!?
As for the Stormers and Jantjies: I made it very clear that it is a mistake to pick Jantjies for this game - and unfortunately he did exactly what I said he was going to do. And frankly I blame Alistair Coetzee, because if he watched Jantjies' last game for the Lions (which he should've, because WP beat them in that game), then he should've known he is not on form and should not be picked in the starting line-up in a brand new team after not having played ONE warm-up game with them...
But Coetzee made his second big mistake (his first being to only play 2 warm-up games which clearly resulted in a under-done team)... and as a result Jantjies missed more kicks in one game than Peter Grant missed in the entire season last year. Luckily Grant is back this week and Pietersen is on the bench, so we should be kicking our goals on Saturday. As for the rest of their game, the Stormers can't get much worse - they were poor in every area - so I at the very least expect to see an improvement this Saturday...
They can start by taking their heads out of their a*$%$.
Posted 16:56 26th February 2013
JC_Jnr says...
Surely the World Cup Ranking system should be freezing.
Just two months later and the earliness of the draw is already looking wildly inaccurate.
Posted 16:39 26th February 2013
Sasquatch says...
@Carpelone:
"Imagine how good would be this world with France deserving world champions 2011 and Kiwis inventing one excuse after the other?
Craig Joubert, you are an embarrassment for the whole South Africa."
Wow, I haven't heard winging like this since the Bryce Lawrence saga. Is Joubert also an embarrassment to France or is that just PSA and the French rugby team?
Posted 15:43 26th February 2013
new_j4a says...
@carpelone, you are usually a reasonable bloke. Why don't you give us the minute and your interpretation of some calls (ignore the only England try...let's not get side tracked on that probable error). Give us the stats for the last 20-30 minutes and the exact time and error....reference the law and discuss materiality please.
Posted 15:30 26th February 2013
chubbylugs says...
re cheifs highlanders
players jogging in to score tries, extravagant dives to score, dazzling boots, crap hair styles. why arent they all the things that england players get lambasted for doing? different when its someone else
not really impressed with the highlights tbh, its 6 tackles away from being rugby league, even the shirts look like league shirts, except league players can usually tackle better than that!
Posted 14:28 26th February 2013
bluechief says...
just watchethe clip of highlanders chiefs. great defending going on.
Posted 14:26 26th February 2013
Dan77 says...
Ireland may be not so hot losing a game in the manner they did, but that doesn't automatically make Scotland hot...they were rubbish! Ireland won the game for them!!!
Posted 14:06 26th February 2013