RugbyBits

Libbok Impresses, Uncontested Scrums Rant and Fairly Rated Players

Jared, Shaun and Thala review Week 3 of the Autumn Nations Series.
The boys start in Genoa with the Springboks’ 63-21 win over Italy. They discuss Willie Le Roux’s attacking impact, what Manie Libbok could add to the backline and how best Nienaber can set up the backline.
We look back to the crazy Scotland and Argentina card featuring 6 cards and over 10 tries and the crazy England and New Zealand draw.
We finally touch on the Irish win against Australia and Shaun has another go on Ireland from not learning from their mistakes in July. Thala sets out why Ireland and France have the stats to back them up as the main contenders for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Our First Phase was a discussion of fairly rated players which featured mention of Juan Smith, JP Pietersen, Adi Jacobs and Tom Curry.

Sensational World Cup Final, Try or No Try & Manie Libbok Praise

Kooks and Shaun waxing lyrical about the World Cup Final and how the Black Ferns managed to keep the unbelievable forward dominance and driving from the Red Roses at bay long enough to win the title at Eden Park.
 
We dive into the Springbok loss in Marseilles. the justified red cards with split opinion on the final try. Kooks talks about the Springboks being able to 'rest kickers' after that phenomenal display by not one, or two but three Springboks this weekend.
 
We talk about watching rugby seated, standing or throwing things and Kooks misses his chance to mention Finn Russell (what is this world coming to?)
 
Finally we dissent the Springbok Match Day 23 to face Italy. We talk about the 13 position, Evan Roos and Manie Libbok with mention of a 'hold my beer' moment by Jacques Nienaber as he names what IS actually the biggest hitting 10,12 & 13 ever to play Test Rugby

Penaud brilliance, sleeping on Los Pumas & epic RWC Semi Final’s

Jared, Shaun and Thala do a match-by-match review Week 1 (or is it 2?) of the Autumn Nations Series and the Rugby World Cup semifinals.
We discuss about France’s last minute victory thanks to the Damian Penaud try, discuss whether the Australian performance could be a turning point, compare Charles Ollivon and Nic White’s moustache’s and tell you why Nick Mallet has Thomas Ramos wrong.
At the Millennium Stadium, New Zealand thrash Wales, but we don’t refuse the opportunity to slander Codie Taylor and Caleb Clarke as we discuss whether these All Black wins are a false dawn.
We celebrate the Pumas victory in Twickenham over England and discuss if they are getting the respect they deserve and have another conversation about what is this England team missing.
We talk about the shock of Italy’s thrashing of Samoa and Scotland scraping through against Fiji.
Finally, we celebrate two epic semifinals at the Rugby World Cup as the Red Roses and the Black Ferns ensure the dream final takes place - it will certainly be the match of the year. We salute the best amateur rugby team in the world, Canada and how they competed against England and commiserate with France on their narrow loss to New Zealand.

Josh van der Flier’s biltong bonus, Kriel defence & Willemse debate

Jared, Shaun and Thala have a deep review of the Springboks’ 19-16 loss to Ireland in Dublin.
We debate the Damian Willemse selection at 10, how he performed, who should play with him and whether we see Manie Libbok in the next test.
We look at Willie Le Roux’s impact on the Bok attack, the struggles for the rolling maul and marvel at Jesse Kriel’s masterful defensive performance.
We also look at what Ireland did well, Jimmy O’Brien’s excellent debut off the bench, the maul-stopping James Ryan and whether the Irish loose trio (led by Johannesburg’s Josh van der Flier) is the best trio in the world.
We also debut a new segment called Quick Taps and discuss what changes we will see for the French game and what will the two teams take from this clash into their Rugby World Cup pool game.
Our First Phase discussed the worst kicks we’ve seen, which included a hilarious drop goal attempt at Hamilton Rugby Club.

The Autumn Nations Series Is Here!

Jared, Kooks and Thala preview. The Autumn Nations Series and what to expect from a jam-packed window of test rugby. 
We start off by asking which international window is the best and what makes the Autumn Internationals so special. 
We preview the Ireland vs Springbok, we ask who are the favorites for this weekend and we find out why Thala is trying to end Willie Le Roux’s test career…
We also preview the other tests happening this weekend and most importantly find out what agendas are driving this window. All this and more on the RugbyBits pod.

The band is back together, the Henco van Wyk hype train and Portia Woodman, the record breaker

Jared, Kooks, Shaun and Thala are (finally!) all back together to review the weekend’s rugby.
We start with the URC and the Stormers comeback victory over the Lions in Johannesburg, lead by Manie Libbok in scintillating form. We also discuss the performance of the Lions loose trio and we recruit more members to the Henco van Wyk hype train. 
We review the Bulls dominating win over the Sharks at Loftus. While the Bulls saw strong performances from Johan Goosen and David Kriel, it’s same old same old for the Sharks.
We turn to international rugby and a lackluster win for the All Blacks in Japan and Australia’s last gasp winner Scotland with a smart play from Nic White, leading to a Kinghorn v Hastings v Russell debate about the Scottish flyhalf position.
We finish off by looking at the women’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinals ,Portia Woodman claiming the most tries in Rugby World Cup history and gauge the chances France and Canada could spring upsets against the Black Ferns and the Red Roses.

Women Boks and RWC 2021 with Layla Arrison

Kooks, Shaun and Thala are joined by Bulls player and SuperSport broadcaster Layla Arrison to review the group stages of the Rugby World Cup 2021.
We talk about the performance of the Women Boks, the players that impressed us like Aseza Hele, Simamkele Namba, Latsha Babalwa, Nomawethu Mabenge, Nadine Roos and Zintle Mpupha.
We talk about the challenges of playing as an amateur rugby player, the lack of opportunities for women rugby players in South Africa and how far (or close) are we from professionalism in women’s rugby. We also spend time in bidding farewell to a legend in the South African game, Zenay Jordaan.
We look at the rest of the exciting tournament and make our picks for who will win it all in a few weeks.

SA Derby Preview and a look into the SA ’A’ Squad

Kooks, Jared and Shaun fight all the gremlins as they get through the podcast dealing not only with loadshedding but a whole bunch of other bugs.
 
We dive into FirstPhase and after that a look into the SA Derbies coming this weekend. Due to technical difficulties we can not dive into the Sh1t Storm from Durban but we do end off having a great chat about the SA 'A' side, who we want and we each select our squad bolters.
 
Enjoy!

Beers with the Boys, Libbok in the rain and the Bulls battles abroad

Jared and Thala review Week 5’s URC action for the South African sides.
They both laud Manie Libbok’s quality performance in the rain and discuss the decision to go for the drop goal in the last minute, as the Stormers played in the rain on Friday night.
Looking at the Lions loss to Ulster, they look at what is different about the Lions this season, the turning points in the game and massive games from the Lions loosies and Duane Vermeulen.
The Sharks review looks at their tight five being bolstered by Eben Etzebeth and how they can build cohesion in the team, while the discussion of the Bulls loss in Munster examines the battles the Bulls tight five had against Munster’s big boys.
The #FirstPhase question looked at which rugby player would you have a beer with, past or present, and shoutouts were made to Butch James, Schalk Burger, Siya Kolisi and even Rassie Erasmus.

Let the Hoopers Hoop and the Rugby World Cup opening weekend

Shaun and Thala let Kooks join the pod after serving his podcast suspension to review the weekend’s rugby.
This week’s First Phase question was about combining different aspects of our favourite rugby players to create a Rugby Frankenstein and the results were terrifying!
We reviewed the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup, which included a brave performance from the Springboks against France, Ruby Tui and Portia Woodman being unfair against Australia and a last gasp win for Wales.
We then turned our attention to Week 4 of the URC and South African teams’ first losses against overseas opponents. We talk about what the Sharks can learn from the Stormers, the Bulls best backline combination, the Sacha Mngomezulu hype train picking up speed and what Hamish Watson did to make Ruan Venter so mad.
We do a roundup of the weekend’s Premiership, Top 14 and NPC results and we end with some rants from Kooks about Ben Smith bait tweets and Thala about the competitiveness of the URC.