Who’s hot and who’s not!

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It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past week.

THEY’RE ON FIRE!

Herschel Jantjies: It was a perfect debut for the Springbok scrum-half as he crossed twice in a 35-17 victory over the Wallabies in Johannesburg. The 23-year-old’s career has rocketed over the past 12 months and, after this strong performance, he could well have secured a spot on the plane to Japan later this year. Pieter-Steph du Toit also stood out for South Africa on Saturday as they made a statement at Ellis Park that they’re genuine World Cup contenders.

New Zealand’s defence: By no means at their best with ball in hand in Buenos Aires but, against a strong Pumas side and naming a team that was without several Crusaders, the All Blacks impressed defensively to hang on for an opening away victory. They limited Argentina to just one try on Saturday in what was a physical battle that needed players to dig in and do the unseen work, ultimately keeping the hosts waiting for a first ever win over New Zealand. The hard-fought 20-16 success sets up a mouth-watering top-of-the-table showdown with South Africa this weekend.

Griquas: Sitting pretty atop the Currie Cup table after they picked up a second win in as many weeks, defeating the Pumas 37-29 over the weekend. That followed their impressive 37-13 victory away to the Sharks as they’ve made a promising start to 2019. Next for Brent Janse van Rensburg’s men is a trip to face another unbeaten side, Free State Cheetahs, which will be a good indicator as to their hopes as the latter enter the game after beating the Blue Bulls.

Japan U20s: Congratulations to the Japanese who will take part in next year’s World Rugby U20 Championship after winning the Trophy final. It was a thrilling contest with a skilful and resilient Portuguese outfit contributing to a magnificent contest, but a converted try five minutes from the end eventually secured a narrow 35-34 triumph for Japan. It also marks an immediate return to the top level of age-grade rugby for the Asian side having finished bottom of the 2018 version.

Maori All Blacks: With the first Test defeat in Suva still fresh in their minds, the Maori All Black players put in a much-improved performance against Fiji in Rotorua. Alex Nankivell and Rob Thompson were superb in midfield – they could easily slot into the All Blacks – while their forward pack also fronted up well in the 26-17 victory as they levelled the two-match series up. Yes, Fiji’s XV was weaker than the first game but take nothing away from the hosts.

COLD AS ICE!

Wallabies: Defeat to South Africa was their fifth loss in their last seven Rugby Championship matches, which will make for difficult reading for Australians. While they will rue the forward pass that denied flanker Lukhan Salakaia-Loto a try and wing Dane Haylett-Petty’s knock-on less than a metre out, these costly errors cannot paper over what was a disappointing performance from Michael Cheika’s men. This weekend’s fixture at home against Argentina is therefore vital to Australia and Cheika as he looks to avoid similar pressure he received during 2018’s tournament.

Fraudulent tickets: Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence in many sports and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) were forced to act as they cancelled over 700 tickets for their clash with South Africa after they were bought on the secondary market. This weekend’s game at Wellington Regional Stadium has a capacity of 34,500 spectators but some of the tickets were sold on reselling websites, prompting NZR to announce their decision. “Our message to fans is that if you choose to buy All Blacks tickets on the secondary market through online resellers like Viagogo, you run a huge risk of not entering the venue or having to pay inflated prices for tickets,” read a statement from NZR.

Lack of respect: The meeting in Rotorua saw Fiji’s Cibi followed by the Maori All Blacks’ Timatanga. The video below, while being full of passion and a great watch, did cause a lively debate as some viewers questioned whether the Maoris showed Fiji’s Cibi a lack of respect by not facing it. As many pointed out, how would the reaction have been if a nation had done likewise to the haka? The Maori All Blacks have since said there was no malice intended.

England Sevens: While a young side was sent to compete at the Rugby Europe Lodz 7s Grand Prix event over the weekend, England will be disappointed in how they performed on Saturday and Sunday. Losing two of their three pool matches, against Georgia and Germany, pride was on the line on Day Two. However, their struggles would continue as a defeat to Russia saw them end the tournament in 10th position. Not a good weekend for the side.

Sharks: It has been all change at the Sharks this past week as the departure of head coach Robert du Preez was confirmed, with chief executive Gary Teichmann stepping down in September as Eduard Coetzee takes his place. Coach Du Preez’s departure was followed by news that twins Dan and Jean-Luc du Preez would be leaving for Sale Sharks with immediate effect on permanent deals in what is a major blow to their forward pack in Super Rugby 2020.

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