RugbyBits

Shaun and Thala review the weekend of Nations Championship and Nations Cup games which saw a lot of entertaining rugby and tries. We start with the Springboks thrashing England on the back of impressive games from Damien Willemse, Jasper Wiese and Paul de Villiers. The Boks adjusted to the late withdrawals of Kolisi and Etzebeth, but we are left with questions about what Steve Borthwick is doing a...

Kooks and Shaun shake off the FIFA World Cup blues after Bafana Bafana's exit and look ahead to the opening Nations Championship clash against England after Rassie Erasmus names his match day squad early. We unpack the side, look at the strength's and weaknesses and look ahead to the England threats and how they will approach the game. We then take a deep dive into the tournament as a whol...

Shaun and Thala react to the first Springbok teams announced for the year in preparation for the Springboks clash against the Barbarians and the South Africa A curtain raiser against Zimbabwe. The big surprise is Quan Horn starting at flyhalf and we discuss why he was selected there and the opportunity he has to establish himself as a utility player. We see Riley Norton and Vusi Moyo getting oppor...

Shaun and Thala unpack the Prem Rugby Semi Final action as Leicester try valiantly to beat a Henry Pollock lead Saints side that mean business. We look at who performed and what more Leicester needed to do. We unpack the Bath loss as Shaun asks the question around why the Bath forward pack off the bench is less impactful than last season, we look at the Santiago Carreras performance and why there...

Shaun and Thala review a jam packed weekend of rugby, which included the semi finals of the United Rugby Championship. We start with the Bulls 18-point comeback win over Glasgow in Murrayfield off the back of huge performances from Embrose Papier, Steadman Gans and Cameron Hanekom. We discuss how the Bulls turned it around, whether the Canan Moodie centre experiment is working, and how Glasgow col...

Shaun and Thala review the United Rugby Championship quarterfinals and other rugby tournaments barrelling towards the business end. We start with the Stormers victory over Cardiff and are impressed with the performance of the forwards and how impressive Imad Khan played, but we discuss how the Stormers can deal with the injuries to Sacha Feinberg Mngomezulu and Seabelo Senatla. The Bulls also won...

Shaun and Thala look back on the finals weekend in the EPCR, which saw Bordeaux thrash Leinster in the Champions Cup final. We rave about Lucu and Jalibert dominating the game and the impacts of Woki and Moefana. We discuss Bordeaux controlling the game with their kicking and defence and why they are already one of the great historical European teams. We then turn to the Leinster post moterm and w...

Kooks and Thala look back on the final round of the URC, with the 8 playoff teams finally confirmed, including 3 South African teams. We review the Stormers disappointing loss to Cardiff and how the second half of their season faltered. On the other hand, the Bulls look to be peaking at the right time after taking care of Benetton. In spite of the loss to Munster, the Lions finally secure their ti...

Kooks and Sharky dive into a review of the weekends Champions and Challenge Cup Semi Finals. We get underway with the controversies of the UBB v Bath game with Sharky not fully subscribing to all the footage being hidden and asks how a business as big as the EPCR will allow a random TV Director influence their product. Kooks also weighs in and provides insights from a production point of view and...

Shaun and Thala look back on the weekend’s rugby, as the URC’s Race for 8 heats up. There are still 11 teams in the race for playoff spots and all 4 South African teams can still qualify. We looked at Week 15’s results and the remaining fixtures for the contenders. The Bulls took care of business in Wales against the Dragons with a bonus point win and have fixtures against 3 of the bottom 4 sides...

Shaun and Thala look back on the weekend's rugby, including the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup. We start with Bath's comeback win over Northampton which saw Bath come back from 21 points down after fantastic games from Finn Russell and Alfie Barberry. We also debate the pivotal penalty and yellow card to Henry Pollock. In Glasgow, Toulon outlast Glasgow, who will be kicking themselves...

Kooks, Shaun (and Top 14 SuperSub Thala, Ben Tameifuna, Msutu) chat about the dire weekend as all the South African sides made an exit from Europe. We unpack the way forward for the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions if they are to make a stand in the competitions moving forward. We take a brief look at the next few rounds of the URC and how each side will approach it along with why we think the Li...

Thala is joined by YouTube rugby content creator Riaan Louw to break down a dramatic Six Nations Super Saturday and to look forward to the final third of the URC league season. After discussing Ireland keeping Scotland at arm's length, Wales finally winning their first Six Nations game in 3 years and Thomas Ramos winning the Six Nations at the death against England, we discuss who the winners and...

Shaun and Thala preview the final weekend of the Six Nations with France, Scotland and Ireland gunning for the championship. We preview each match and ask if Scotland can finally end their drought to Ireland and who will get the upper hand in the ruck battle. The Wales v Italy has a lot more significance, with Italy chasing their best Six Nations performance and Wales building their confidence fro...

Kooks, Shaun and Thala are back all together to break down a dramatic weekend in the Six Nations. We start in Murrayfield for Scotland’s 50-40 win over France in one of the most impressive Scotland performances we’ve ever seen. Shaun gets a chance to rave about Kyle Steyn and Kooks is feeling smug about Finn Russell, while we wonder what happened for France to lose their heads after halftime of a...

Shaun and Thala look back on Round 12 of the URC and preview Round 4 of the Six Nations. We start with the breaking news that Dave Rennie has been appointed as the All Blacks head coach. We debate whether Jamie Joseph should have got the job instead, what Rennie brings and what he learned from his time at the Wallabies. Next we preview the Six Nations where Steve Borthwick made some confusing sele...

Kooks and Thala review the weekends rugby, including Round 3 of the Six Nations and the Lions beating the Sharks in the URC. We start in Twickenham where Ireland shock England 21-42. While Jamison Gibson-Park, Stu McCloskey and Rob Baloucoune impressed, we discuss the selection and game plan issues England suddenly have, McCloskey chasing down Marcus Smith and how did Fin Baxter do in the royal bo...

Kooks and Thala chat through a busy time in world rugby right now. We start with the South African derbies in the URC, with the Sharks and Bulls bagging vital wins. We discuss how the Stormers have fallen off the top of the log, what has changed for the Sharks, are the Bulls back or were the Lions horrible and Willie le Roux clap backs on Twitter. We then preview the upcoming Six Nations by discus...

Shaun and Thala look back on the last round of European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup games, but they start with the big news of New Zealand removing their head coach, Scott Robertson. Shaun and Thala debate whether this was the right call, the influence of the players in removing Razor and who are the likely candidates to replace Robertson and will Tony Brown possibly leave the Springboks to jo...

Kooks and Sharky get stuck into the Razor and All Black troubled relationship (We recorded this before the big news of him stepping down) We look into the most exciting Champions Cup Pool stages since the new format and again discuss how the South African teams can capitalize on this opportunity moving forward but are under no illusions that the URC is the number one focus.

Kooks, Shaun and Thala look back on the weekend’s matches, which includes the Springboks record win in Cardiff over Wales. We talk about impressive performances from Andre Esterhuizen and Damian de Allende, but the big controversy is Eben Etzebeth’s red card for eye gouging and we discuss why there’s so much noise surrounding this incident. We then quickly review the weekend’s URC games, which inc...

Shaun and Thala review the week's Autumn Nations Series matches which include victories for England, Ireland, Wales, France and Argentina. We start in Twickenham where England passed their big test against the All Blacks, coming back from 12-0 behind. We break down George Ford's masterful performance and big games for some newer faces like Fraser Dingwall and how the All Blacks did not adj...

Shaun and Thala review South Africa's 14-man victory over Italy in Turin. Shaun and Thala are once again in awe of this special Springbok team and try to figure out how they are so good at playing with 14 men. We discuss Damian Willemse's masterful performance at fullback, Rassie Erasmus' proactive substitutions and tactical changes and Johan Grobbelaar finally earning his stripes with...

Shaun and Thala preview the rest of the slate of international fixtures for the upcoming weekend. The match of the weekend is at Twickenham where England and New Zealand play for the right to be seen as the second best team in the world. We discuss why do both teams still confuse us even if they win regularly, whether England can outrun the All Blacks and whether the All Blacks need to keep it tig...

Shaun and Thala react to the South Africa and Italy squads selected for the test in Turin. The Springbok Hooker/hookers are the main story - with Johan Grobbelaar getting a rare chance to impress, Marco van Staden as the back up hooker and Ethan Hooker getting a chance to start at 12. On the Italian side, after a massive win against Australia, they will be feeling confident playing against a secon...