Who was hot and who was not

ALTHOUGH they were in the Super Rugby wilderness three years ago, the Lions are on an upward curve.

They finished 12th in 2014, eighth last year and had won 11 of their 14 games before this weekend.

Their energetic, high risk-andreward playing style has attracted many admirers. Sharks coach Gary Gold is one of them.

“They’ve got great confidence and they play a great brand of rugby. They are a good team and I think they can go all the way,” said Gold.

Coach Johan Ackermann, however, is mindful his team can’t squander opportunities in the playoffs. “You get fewer line breaks so we need to be sharp. We’re not there yet. We haven’t achieved anything yet.” STORMERS coach Robbie Fleck can look back on a satisfactory pool stage, even though bookmarked by unnecessary home defeats to the Sharks and Waratahs and the Singapore draw with the Sunwolves.

If the Stormers were not notorious for profligacy in home playoffs, they would be marked off as aberrations.

The Stormers have won only one of five home playoffs since the 33-18 loss to the Highlanders in 1999.

Two of those defeats have come against New Zealand sides, which makes things interesting as the Stormers have to face a New Zealand outfit this weekend.

“Not playing the New Zealand sides during the campaign was a bit of a negative because you want to be playing against the best sides in the tournament and you want to be analysing them on a weekly basis,” Fleck said. THE Sharks may feel they have been harshly judged, but results don’t lie.

They have, however, been beset by injury, losing Pat Lambie and Marcell Coetzee for long periods.

Despite a topsy-turvy season they have made the playoffs and may yet inflict damage. They will, however, have to do so away from home for next week’s quarterfinals — a tall order. They do, however, possess a few game breakers in Willie le Roux, Lwazi Mvovo and JP Pietersen and with sturdy defence may yet go a few places before the competition runs its course. THE Bulls campaign showed signs of life before their inability to play in Australia kicked in.

There also were the four defeats in five matches in the second half of the season that derailed their season.

Then there was the 29-11 defeat to the Jaguares in Buenos Aires this month that stalled their campaign alongside the 56-20 home hammering to the Lions before the break.

Coach Nollis Marais felt his team could have handled their defeats better but Handre Pollard’s absence was keenly felt.

“If you look at most of the games we played, we were put under pressure in the last 20 minutes and those games really got close.

“The guys weren’t used to being put under that much pressure and mistakes crept in and game management became a problem. We had many youngsters coming through this season,” Marais said.

“Handre’s loss was huge.” CHEETAHS coach Franco Smith is satisfied with progress, but acknowledged disappointment.

“We lost four or five games within seven points,” he sighed.

He blames his players’ poor game management but is encouraged by the fact that his team remained competitive in every game.

“Our scrum is better. It was a problem last year but it has emerged as one of our strengths. Our attack is also a lot better in that we create more chances,” said Smith.

Only the Lions have scored more tries in the African conferences.

“South African teams need to change the way they play. We have done that and the Lions have done that.” A SPECIAL set of off-field circumstances meant the Southern Kings’ Super Rugby campaign was doomed to fail before it even started.

A patchwork unit of players contracted by a commercial arm of the SA Rugby were never going to make an impact.

Southern Kings coach Deon Davids and his motley crew had to carry this burden as they were on the receiving end of lopsided beatings in most encounters.

“One of the lessons we learnt was making sure of getting a good squad with experience and youth. Conditioning and players’ inability to last 80 minutes was one thing that also hindered us and I hope there’s a change in this regard next season. We had young players coming through, but hopefully we’ll have a better pre-season,” Davids said.