We've forgotten how good the Kiwi players are

 

My sports highlight of the week? …. No schools rugby to go to on Saturday, so I spent the day in front of the TV. It started with the Super Rugby final from New Zealand. I haven’t watched much of that this year, and I’d forgotten how good their players are. Those Northern hemisphere pundits that are saying Ireland or France are a shoo-in for the Word Cup clearly haven’t been watching either – and then there are still the players at the other NZ franchises too.

Next up was the Golden Lions U18s vs the Valke at the Northern Union Bondedag, courtesy of SuperSport Schools streaming. It’s the final Craven Week warmup game and the Lions weren’t great (not until the last 10 minutes). The Valke, full of EG Jansen boys, led for most of the game against a Monument-dominated Lions side, which wasn’t surprising since EG Jansen beat Monument 41-17 a few weeks ago. You have to question how this year’s Monument side can have eight players in the team, and how on Earth Jeppe’s Euxace Kevani wasn’t considered good enough to make it – I know he isn’t an SA citizen and therefore doesn’t count as a ‘quota’ player - but he is the best centre in town, by far, this year and should have been a 1^st choice, on merit. Still, there are some great players in the team, and I’m hoping they do well at the Craven Week.

The commentators during the Currie Cup final described Free State as “everyone’s second favourite team” and that certainly applies to me. I’ve said before that I’ll always watch a Free State team play if I could, starting with Grey College, through the ranks, to this year’s team that won the Currie Cup. Free State has become a farm team for all the other union, that’s a tragedy and it makes their win on Saturday even better.

The Junior Boks battled to beat Georgia in their opening game of the World Rugby U20 Championship and they are disappointed, according to coach Bafana Nhleko, that a good sign, because the Georgians are good, and they are going to shock some teams in this tournament. Still, a win’s a win, and there will be some good games to watch over the next two weeks, taking us to the Grant Khomo Week, and then the Craven Week.

Happy days.