The Rugby Fobcast

Are we ready for this years Super 14?

January 27, 2007 on 11:39 am | In Rugby Fobcast News |

With the Rugby World Cup coming into the equasion this year, Are we either blessed or spoilt?

Will this never ending amount of rugby, interfer with the possibility that the quality of most games will be well below par?

From a die hard rugby fanatic, I would normally say that any rugby is better than no rugby!!!

Yet, I remember some games during last year, I was either not interested in the overall result, or the game was really a opportunity for some teams to see who could play Forcings Back the best! (Wallabies Vs Springboks, Sydney 2006)

So looking at the short term, The S14 gives us a delimea, 22 of the Worlds Best Players (All Blacks) have been rested, sorry Re-conditioned, & also during the S14 other players will be forced by their national unions to stand down.

Now we can look at this 2 ways, the competition will lack substance because the higher quality of players not particapating, or we can except that the next crop of superstars will hopefully rise to the levels of their squads marque players.

I for one am on the latter, I believe from what I have seen from the ANZ Cup (Air New Zealand Cup NZ Domestic Comp) that thier is more than enough talent to cover the lose of the 22 protected players, although you can’t replace the likes of Jerry Collins, Dan Carter & Richie Mc Caw, but yet there are other players thoughout the country that have been given the opportunity, that have been drafted from outside their respected zones to now play at that level.

As for the South Africans, last years Currie Cup Final was one of the best games I had seen in years, it amazes me the intensity & commitment, that these tribal provinces got to in their own national comp, but when playing the S14 they at times look dis-interested.

I don’t believe that the South African will make much of a differance this year in the S14, but its a different story come Springbok time.

Australia! there has never been a problem with talent in this country, its just that Rugby League has a majority of the players that have all the qualities that the National selectors are looking for.

As a country, there are no sortage of world champions, or Sporting super stars, alot of the eithos in Australia revolve around sport, yet the Wallabies say they are struggling for players in key positions.

Australian rugby, may lack the amount of super 14 teams the other 2 countries have, but not the playing talent, maybe the drop from S14 to club competition is steep, but not the commitment or talent.

But I am very confident that during this years S14, you will witness the rise of a couple of Aussie rookies that will change the face of Australian rugby for the future in a good way, and possible return them to the glory days.

So what can we expect from this years Super 14 Comp.

Heres some

• Crusaders to lose 3 of thier first 5 games
• Waratahs to complete South Africa tour undeated
• Chief to start slow & fire late in the season to miss out on semis
• South Africans to travel like shit again
• Reds to be the biggest improvers to stake semi spot
• Blues to fall on thier arses again
• Wellington, to fall on their arses like they used too.
• Western Force, fights for semi spot only to miss out by 1 bonus point
• Highlanders, trys hard but not classy enough (No superstars)
• Brumbies to win the comp!!!

These are just some suggestion that might make things spicy in this years Super 14