RugbyBits

Correction: The All Blacks actually are sh*t

Jared, Shaun and Thala look back on the first game week of the Rugby Championship and South Africa’s 26-10 victory over New Zealand and Australia’s bonus point 41-26 victory in Argentina.
The team discusses whether this is the most impressive Springbok victory over New Zealand in the professional era, rave about Lukhanyo Am and marvel at how some second choice players like Jasper Wiese, Jaden Hendrikse and Damian Willemse have stepped up in their positions. We then look at what’s wrong with the All Blac… sorry, we mean New Zealand (they will have to earn the All Blacks nickname again). And where do they go from here regardless of result at Ellis Park.
We then look at the the big Brumbies influence for the Wallabies, the ill-discipline of Cheika’s Argentina and discuss Marcelo Bosch’s commentary, referee Mike Adamson’s Spanish and Jared’s Afrikaans.
Our First Phase segment discussed what our favourite second international teams are.

Springboks v All Blacks Test 1 Preview

Thala is alone with a short preview pod for the Springboks against the All Blacks in Mbombela in the opening round of the Rugby Championship.
 
He goes through the two teams, the major changes and talking points from the two selections. He sets out some of the areas of the game which will be decisive, tries to predict how the All Blacks will play on Saturday and finally makes a prediction.
 
Enjoy in the build up to the test match.

The All Blacks are not sh*t and other expert analysis

Kooks, Shaun and Thala kick off season 2 of the podcast with a big Rugby Championship preview.
We start in the First Phase segment discussing what their go-to imaginary rugby move is, which starts a discussion on the merits of a good sidestep around a shopper against offloading a water bottle out of contact.
Then we get into the meat of the Rugby Championship preview and each of us discusses what our biggest question for each of the teams are.
From questions about who the fullback of the Springboks will be, to whether Roger Tuivasa-Sheck sorts out the All Black midfield, to looking at who will replace Samu Kerevi and asking whether Michael Cheika will make the Pumas more consistent. The squad then predicts who they will win the Rugby Championship.
See why Shaun thinks South Africans are too nice as hosts of the All Blacks and Kooks’ epic rant about the kick off time of the Wallabies v Springbok game in Adelaide and why this should be grounds to kick Australia out of the Rugby Championship.
Apologies in advance to our Australian fans!

July Tests top performers and what did the countries learn from the test series

Kooks and Thala paired up to review all the deciders during week 3 of the July test period.
In our First Phase segment, we looked at the best players from the July tests all over the word. 
We then took a deep dive into the Springboks win in the 3rd test against Wales. We discuss what both sets of coaches learned from the test series, the growth in the Springboks’ attacking game plan, the emergence of Damian Willemse and Jaden Hendrikse, the importance of Willie le Roux and the standard Wales must play at in future.
We then move our focus to Ireland’s historic series victory against New Zealand. We rave about the Irish attack and look at what the All Blacks will do with their coaching staff and their team going forward.
We then look at England’s series win over Australia, Argentina’s last gasp test and series win over Scotland and Chile beating the United States to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
We then rank the Tier 1 nations into ‘Contenders’, ‘Dark Horses’ and ‘Pretenders’ in preparation for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

O’Mahony sledging, coaching gaffes, cards and Rugby World Cup qualifiers bonus pod

In a bonus pod discussing the 2nd week of July tests, Shaun, Thala and Jared (until load shedding intervened) discussed an exciting weekend of international rugby.
We started with Ireland’s first victory against the All Blacks in New Zealand. We talk about Ireland’s impressive attack, Thala and Jared provide advice for Peter O’Mahony’s sledging of Sam Cane. Shaun breaks down all the different cards the All Blacks had, the officials confusion about how many All Blacks should be on the field and why Ireland need to be blamed.
Moving to Suncorp Stadium for England leveling their series against Australia, card talk dominates as we discuss what a deliberate knock on is and we look at what did England change from the first test.
We look at the other storylines from all over the world, including France climbing to 1st in the World Rugby rankings, Scotland completing a home nations clean sweep against the Rugby Championship nations, Georgia’s epic victory in the unofficial Six Nations relegation match and Romania’s victory with 14 men over Uruguay. We finish by looking at Rugby World Cup qualifiers as we congratulate Namibia for winning the Rugby Africa tournament and we look back to the USA’s first leg victory in Chile and the brilliant individual try from Rodorigo Fernandez

Springbok Test Loss Analyzed As Anscombe Breaks Hearts

Jared, Shaun (with Thala making a post Load shedding appearance)  breakdown the Springbok loss to Wales in Bloemfontein.
 
Players that built up their Springbok stocks and some that lost. 
 
We dive into Nienaber getting criticism and whether it is justified and what we need to win the series on Saturday in Cape Town.
 
First Phase this week is about our and your favorite Springbok try.

Detailed chat about Springbok win in week 1 and a look at the coming week in test rugby

Jared, Shaun and Thala reflect on the first week of the July tests.
The boys break down the Springbok’s last-minute win in the first test against Wales. We look at what went wrong in the first half, Elton Jantjies’ horror show of a first half and then how Jasper Wiese, Damian Willemse and Willie le Roux turned it around.
We react to the team selected for the second test by the Springboks and discuss the players we are most excited to see - spoiler alert: Jared is very excited about Marcel Coetzee.
We also look at the storylines from the other test series - how did 14-man Australia turn it around against England; how the Marcus Smith/Owen Farrell axis is working; the All Blacks’ ruthless beating of Ireland; a second-string French team looking impressive against Japan and Michael Cheika winning his first test coaching Argentina against Scotland.

Finally Time To Talk Test Rugby

International season is here! 
The boys talk about who some of the impact players will be, like Damian Willemse and Nick Tompkins. We look at what a successful series will be for the Springboks, who are we looking forward to see and also talk about how dangerous Wales can be.
Will Ireland finally win a series in NZ? What does Eddie Jones have planned for Australia? Is Argentina ready to bounce back against Scotland and we talk about exciting the France vs Japan series could be.
Catch this and more in this episode of RugbyBits

Hacjivah Dayimani & Freddie Burns celebrations, Stormers glory, Crusaders class and Leicester Magic

Jared and Shaun take an in depth look at the Super Rugby, Premiership and URC Finals.
A virtual fist pump to Hacjivah Dayimani & Freddie Burns who have taken title celebration up a notch and we are all here for it.
 
Shaun takes a look at a few referee moments in the Stormers v Bulls game highlighting some problems which have been an all too regular occurrence in the game
 
First Phase has some controversial calls as we swop out test players from one nation to another with some interesting calls from the Dirt Trackers.
 
Kooks, via a text, gets his 'I told you so' moment after Thala laughed at him about the Blues and Crusaders final.
 

Springbok squad for Wales tour: RugbyBits deep dive

The full squad is here to break down the squad chosen by Jacques Nienaber for the Springboks’ test series against Wales.
We break down the selections, the surprises and the snubs in each position and how we expect them to figure out during the test series.
Hear why Jared highly rates Rynhardt Elstadt, Shaun and Kooks’ concerns at flyhalf and the debate about Deon Fourie’s inclusion. We also briefly look at the Wales squad and give the Springbok coach a mark out of 10 for his first squad of the year