Message to SA teams: 'Hold your horses'
South African teams may have dominated the opening rounds of the United Rugby Championship, but they should curb their celebrations.
World Cup-winning Springbok captain John Smit and Scottish legend John Barclay front up to the media in a URC round table, giving some insight into the dramatic change in fortunes of SA teams from season one to the second edition of the Trans-Hemisphere competition.
Smit has considerable experience of European rugby – with stints at Clermont and Saracens.
He also has the experience of 111 Tests, placing him fourth on the all-time South African list of most capped players, with the 44-year-old holding the record for most Bok games as captain (83) and hooker (81).
It places the 44-year-old in a good position to assess the state of affairs.
Smith highlighted a couple of factors that resulted in the vast difference in the form of South African teams from season one to season two – with SA teams winning just one from eight in the first two rounds last year, with the stark contrast of just one loss from eight this season, with the only loss the Bulls beating the Lions.
The retired Bok skipper said it was the first time in many years that South African franchises had a ‘rest period’ and a ‘pre-season’.
“It has been a massive help to the coaches,” Smit said of the chance to recharge and plan properly, as opposed to going straight from one competition into another with no distinguishable break.
“For the first time they were able to reassess strategy and reassess strength-and-conditioning,” Smit said.
He said the Lions would have been the most disappointed team from last season and wanted to improve on that.
The challenge for the two finalists, the inaugural champion Stormers and Bulls, is that they will now have massive targets on their proverbial backs.
“There is always that level of pressure of finishing at the top and having to stay there,” Smit said, adding that is still “early days” and a lot can happen before the Final in May.
“What I love about the URC is that we are playing in a pretty good climate all around.
“It is steamy here [in South Africa] at the moment. The teams that come here will get warm and hot.
“Our guys are still getting the back-end of [the European] autumn, so it is still okay. In November, December and January our teams will have a whole different challenge.
“Great to see the table, but I don’t think it has a whole lot of relevance after just three rounds,” he said of a table that features all four SA franchises in the top seven.
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Barclay, 36, has his 76 Scotland Tests to fall back on, with 260-plus first-class games for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Scarlets.
He said there would be a level of concern for the other teams, adding that he agrees with Smit’s statement that a proper pre-season played a role.
“It is so different playing at altitude [in South Africa one week] and then next week at Rodney Parade [in Newport, Wales] in snow,” Barclay said.
He said the South African teams are a year wiser and have adapted to the challenging conditions.
“The quality of the teams and they play a different style of rugby,” Barclay said, adding: “The other teams are starting to adapt and learn how to play against them a bit better.
“The teams are learning to face opposition that has so much power.
“I have been hugely impressed [with the SA teams] and they still have all their superstars to come back.
“It is super competitive.”
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