Analysis of Strength of Conference Tables.

[Ulrich]

That's like saying because the Rebels beat the Cru this year that they are the better team.
Also it was an upset - go look at the betting odds before the game. The Sharks played their best game of the year and the Reds had some bad luck with a key injury, a poor substitution and not playing their best game. It happens

The Rebels are a great example of a team making progress they only really got spanked by the Cane's this year but were competitive against the Stormers in Cape Town in their last game of the year despite being without their two marquee players. What this goes to show is that any team can turn up on their day and win.

BTW The team that wins the competition will deserve to win it. If your team has been eliminated they weren't good enough.

Actually, considering the Stormers didn't comprehensively beat anyone one can argue that everyone played well against them this year or simply that the Stormers just always did enough to win. On another note, one would think only the Reds had injuries this season. "Despite being without their two marquee players", yet the Stormers have managed to win without Schalk Burger, Duane Vermeulen and Andries Bekker among others for the majority of the season and then there were injuries to others such as Nick Koster and Nizaam Carr and they STILL managed to win 14/16. Oh they also never put any loss as due to them having many injuries.

 

[Mica]

Actually, considering the Stormers didn't comprehensively beat anyone one can argue that everyone played well against them this year or simply that the Stormers just always did enough to win. On another note, one would think only the Reds had injuries this season. "Despite being without their two marquee players", yet the Stormers have managed to win without Schalk Burger, Duane Vermeulen and Andries Bekker among others for the majority of the season and then there were injuries to others such as Nick Koster and Nizaam Carr and they STILL managed to win 14/16. Oh they also never put any loss as due to them having many injuries.

Without a doubt both NZ and SA have greater player depth than Australia and this means that the impact of losing starting players is somewhat lessened. NZ could pretty much lose the entire starting All Blacks side and still be a top side. Australia with the same loss of personnel would be a second tier side. I think that SA are not quite as well insulated as NZ but would still be probably around 70-80%.

Out of the players listed I would think that only Andries Bekker would be a guaranteed starter for the Bokke (would Burger still be a guaranteed pick if he were fit? Lots of good loosies in SA).
Anyway I think the loss of Beale and O'Connor to the Rebels is much greater than the loss of Bekker and Burger to the Stormers.

The point being is that the Rebels shouldn't have been close to the Stormers at home, especially without Beale and O'Connor. In spite of this they were competitive and this is a good thing for Rugby in general. Thankfully easy wins are the exception in the competition and I don't think that there is any such thing as a guaranteed win.

 

[PaarlBok]

Without a doubt both NZ and SA have greater player depth than Australia and this means that the impact of losing starting players is somewhat lessened. NZ could pretty much lose the entire starting All Blacks side and still be a top side. Australia with the same loss of personnel would be a second tier side. I think that SA are not quite as well insulated as NZ but would still be probably around 70-80%.

Out of the players listed I would think that only Andries Bekker would be a guaranteed starter for the Bokke (would Burger still be a guaranteed pick if he were fit? Lots of good loosies in SA).
Anyway I think the loss of Beale and O'Connor to the Rebels is much greater than the loss of Bekker and Burger to the Stormers.

The point being is that the Rebels shouldn't have been close to the Stormers at home, especially without Beale and O'Connor. In spite of this they were competitive and this is a good thing for Rugby in general. Thankfully easy wins are the exception in the competition and I don't think that there is any such thing as a guaranteed win.

If Burger wasnt injured he would have been the Bok captain. I do agree on the depth tho, the Stormers use to drop when we lost Burger and/or Bekker but not this year. Pretty sure everyone realised last year already that depth in this format is important. For some strange reason the Aus lot think its wise to cut their squads and probaly a reason why you lot struggled.

 

[Ulrich]

Without a doubt both NZ and SA have greater player depth than Australia and this means that the impact of losing starting players is somewhat lessened. NZ could pretty much lose the entire starting All Blacks side and still be a top side. Australia with the same loss of personnel would be a second tier side. I think that SA are not quite as well insulated as NZ but would still be probably around 70-80%.

Out of the players listed I would think that only Andries Bekker would be a guaranteed starter for the Bokke (would Burger still be a guaranteed pick if he were fit? Lots of good loosies in SA).
Anyway I think the loss of Beale and O'Connor to the Rebels is much greater than the loss of Bekker and Burger to the Stormers.

The point being is that the Rebels shouldn't have been close to the Stormers at home, especially without Beale and O'Connor. In spite of this they were competitive and this is a good thing for Rugby in general. Thankfully easy wins are the exception in the competition and I don't think that there is any such thing as a guaranteed win.

I agree that the losses of Beale and O'Connor is probably more significant than losses of Burger & Duane to the Stormers, but it is panning out to be a problem for the Stormers where we have had Kolisi, a Hooker & a Canadian playing at 8 in probably as many as 3 games. Also remember that having lost 4 loosies a lot of the guys that stepped up are only just out of school so "depth" here can be attributed to a good coaching platform so that no matter who steps in they know what to do.

I'm just pointing it out as the way it has been stated one would think only the Reds have been hit hard by injuries. Yes, they have, particularly in the 10 channel but so have other teams, they have just coped with it better.

 

[Mica]

If Burger wasnt injured he would have been the Bok captain. I do agree on the depth tho, the Stormers use to drop when we lost Burger and/or Bekker but not this year. Pretty sure everyone realised last year already that depth in this format is important. For some strange reason the Aus lot think its wise to cut their squads and probaly a reason why you lot struggled.

I guess the thinking is that we need to expand so that we can compete more effectively.
Unfortunately Rugby is not the dominant winter sport in Aus that it is in SA.
To expand we need to stretch our talent more thinly than is ideal with the Force and Rebels starting from scratch as rugby clubs, in provinces that are not Rugby states. (i.e. Rugby is not played in schools in Victoria (Rebels) and I am guessing the same is the case in WA (Force)).
The administration is hoping that this expansion will build the profile of Rugby and increase the participation rate whether that be watching and/or playing. It's a long term view in its infancy.
Also this approach has been taken before with Rugby League (the simple mans rugby) and failed with two of the three expansion state clubs no longer in existence.
I am optimistic that continued exposure to top tier rugby will improve the depth in playing stocks, but it will probably take a generation of players or so.
Who knows though given a few years to establish a good base and with the continued influx of Saffas and Kiwis to Australia we may end up being the strongest conference in short time.

 

[FiveStarStu]

Yeah fair call. If only the Crusaders had the option to chalk up an extra win by playing the Rebels twice.

Like the easy win they had against the Rebels this year oh wait.

 

[PDivvy]

Like the easy win they had against the Rebels this year oh wait.

So he wants the NZ teams play against every other team twice?