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Super Rugby Form Gauge - Round 13: South African teams stutter in horror weekend
By RugbyPass
It was an awful weekend for teams from the South African conference with only the Lions coming out victorious in their match against the lowly Waratahs.
The Jaguares and Sharks came close to securing to wins in in New Zealand against the Highlanders and the Chiefs, respectively, but ultimately the home sides prevailed. The Bulls didn't fare any better against their Kiwi opposition. The Crusaders are now the second New Zealand side to travel to Pretoria and comfortably account for the home side so the Bulls won't be looking forward to their upcoming trip to Australasia.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Rebels won their tussle with the Reds and the Brumbies belted the Sunwolves.
Taking into account the above, as well as previous results, RugbyPass have put together a comprehensive ranking calculator based purely on objective metrics.
How good is a team at winning away from home? How well do they travel between South Africa and Australasia (and vice-versa)? Do they escape with wins by the slimmest of margins or do they often put their opposition to the sword? All this and more has been factored into the calculations to determine an accurate measure of how Super Rugby's teams are performing at this point in the season.
Check back each week to see which teams are trending upwards and which teams are treading water.
Without further ado, here is the Super Rugby Form Gauge for round 13 of the season.
Trivia:
- 14th is the Waratahs' lowest ranking of the season.
- 15th is the Sunwolves' lowest rank of the season.
- This is the first time since Round 5 that a team on a bye week has fallen in the rankings - in this case, it's the unlucky Stormers.
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Latest Comments
The New Zealand performance in the return fixture in 2016 was filthy. A lot of Irish supporters were pretty shocked by it, viewed it as de facto cheating just to avoid another defeat.
Also shocked by the abuse to Ireland, captain, vice-captain and spectators after the full time whistle in Paris defeat, last match.
Sledging is sledging, but that happens during the game and targetting spectators should be completely out of bounds.
The Irish public used to enjoy these matches, even in defeat. Now they are necessary but unpleasant, because NZ apparently cannot accept or respect successful challengers.
Go to commentsThanks for the analysis Nick, thought provoking as usual. Couple of queries though, in the pic where you've circled Williams bind , I'm pretty sure it shows Stuart's knee on the ground, surely that's a NZ penalty? Also having had the chance to watch it again the All Black scrum seeems to improve after halftime, but before either England or the All Blacks replace their props. Not sure if that was the result of Tuipolutu coming on or some halftime tips. Either way this is only Williams second international season, so he'll be better for the experience.
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