Mils Muliaina

I have to tip my hat to Mils Muliaina - the captain of the Chiefs side which got thumped in Pretoria last night.

Everyone who was watching the final and listening to the speeches was very impressed by the way he spoke and to be able to cap it off with a "baie dankie" (thank you) to the Loftus crowd and the TV viewers was the mark of a world class sportsman and statesman.

The Bulls may have thumped the Chiefs on the field but Muliaina won more than a few supporters over yesterday.

Well done to the Chiefs and the Bulls for a hugely entertaining final.

Grrrr .... it was good while it lasted....

Hhhhmmmm and so the Stormers are back on the losing side of the scoreboard and on top of that they've picked up injuries to Schalk Burger, Conrad Jantjes and JD Moller to go with the host of other walking wounded.

The season has been a disaster in general and injuries have robbed the side of experienced and promising young players.

We've now got three games left and personally if I was Rassie Erasmus I would rather give the younger players a bit more of a run just to see who steps up to the plate and who doesn't.

In my last post I touched on the age of players like AJ Venter, Willem De Waal etc. Where are the new players coming through for the 2010 season? By persisting with the older players you don't create a healthy feeder channel for the following year and then you have this inevitable dip in form when the new guys come into the system 'en masse...

Tiger Bax didn't exactly cover himself in glory when he came on for Jantjes yesterday against the Chiefs but you can't judge the guy on a single performance.

Give guys like Morgan Newman (pictured), Des Fontain and Bax a chance to play the rest of the season with little pressure on them and if they step up to the plate then you have a base
from which to build on next year.

Unbelievable

Can't believe the Lions have managed to blow a 29-10 lead to go down 36-29 to the Chiefs!

The Lions actually looked really good in the first half and they took the fight to the Chiefs in almost every aspect of the game. They just can't keep it going for 80 minutes and they took a real bruising in this game.

Chiefs must be in the running for a Super 14 final now considering who they were missing for this game.

Its hard to work out whether its a management / coaching issue or a player issue... The problem is that they buy into guys like Pretorius (who had a much better game this time around) and Mentz but are battling to bring fresh eyes and fresh legs into the setup.

Also gotta wonder whether Loffie Eloff can keep his job for another season and whether Heynecke Meyer is the man to turn this Lions side back into a potent force.

Defence...

Another action packed weekend of Super 14 rugby has come and gone with a bit of predictability from a South African sides perspective.

The Stormers have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
The Bulls stomped all over a really poor Lions side
The Sharks managed to hold off the Chiefs

I know quite a lot has been made of the South African affinity for the "Rush Defence"... but I'm not totally convinced it works particularly well under the new ELV's where there is more kicking. I think the Cheetahs, the Lions and the Stormers have both been undone with their rush defence strategy whereas sides like The Crusaders and the Waratahs have appear to have adopted the strategy of stepping back that extra pace, reading the play and then shifting their defence as it is needed.

Whereas a side like the Crusaders appear to be dictating the pace of the game, these sides are trying to force broken play and then hoping for the best when the pace gets to their liking - in other words they never actually dominate the play - they're relying on the other side playing to their game....

Is this something endemic to the South African sides? Am I just imagining it?