CAPE TOWN – With Super Rugby returning to our screens next weekend, The Independent Group's rugby writers Mike Greenaway, Wynona Louw and Jacques van der Westhuyzen tell us what to expect for the season ahead.
Who will win it?
Chiefs
Why they will win it?
This year the Chiefs will have the golden touch of Warren Gatland. He is a proven winner, be it with Wales or the British and Irish Lions and he has now returned home to Hamilton. Gatland is one of the favourites sons of the Waikato having spent his entire playing career in the region and he cut his early coaching teeth with Waikato, too. Now he has come full circle and I am expecting a fairytale homecoming for Gatland, who just happens to have arguably the most talented of the New Zealand squads at his disposal, including All Blacks Sam Cane, Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown, Luke Jacobson and Aaron Cruden, the latter having returned home from France.
Possible surprise package?
Stormers
The Stormers are Super Rugby’s greatest underachievers, with one appearance in a final (losing to the Bulls in 2010) a pitiful return on the rich talent they have had at their disposal over the 24 years of the competition. In recent seasons, they have boasted a fantastic forward pack that went on to form the foundation of the Springboks’ World Cup win. They again have a world class pack, notably a front row of Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi and Frans Malherbe. They have the World Rugby Player of the Year on the flank in Pieter-Steph du Toit and, mostly, the World Cup-winning captain in Siya Kolisi. Kolisi will have grown hugely from his Japan experience and the Stormers will benefit.
Backline hotshot to watch?
Aphelele Fassi
In last year’s Currie Cup, and then the Super Hero Sunday event a fortnight ago, we saw that the Sharks have a mercurial backline that is going to be a handful for the strongest defence should they get turnover ball. It is easy to pick out Makazole Mapimpi for his deadly finishing but for me the surprise hotshot for the Aussie and Kiwi defences will be fullback Fassi. He was given limited chances in Super Rugby last year because coach Robert du Preez favoured his son at flyhalf and pushed Curwin Bosch to fullback, but in the Currie Cup Fassi turned on the heat, showing that he is the quickest player in South Africa with his famous overhaul of Aphiwe Dyantyi.
Cruncher in the pack to watch
Karl Tu’inukuafe
The Blues have been the New Zealand Conference’s bottom dwellers for too long and in a bid to turn around their fortunes they managed to lure All Black flyhalf Beaudon Barrett to Auckland, but it is upfront where it will start for the Blues and they have a talisman in the inimitable prop Karl Tu’inukuafe, he of the drooping moustache and bullocking forward runs. Tu’inukuafe completed a memorable rise from nightclub bouncer to All Black in 2018 and was a nominee for the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year award, but last year lost his All Black place because of illness. But the 27-year-old has recovered and will be handful for defenders this season, not to mention opposition front rows.