Match thread

Hooroo
Hooroo is offline

When are the teams named?

taniwharugby
taniwharugby is offline

How many finals have been won by the away team, off the top of my head, i think there have been a couple in NZ and the crusaders in Canberra once, but never in SA! Although I guess not many finals have been there.

hydro11 is offline

@taniwharugby said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

How many finals have been won by the away team, off the top of my head, i think it is a couple but those were NZ teams in NZ and the crusaders in Canberra, but never in SA! Although I guess not many finals have been there.

Only one final has been won by the away team in a foreign country.

booboo
booboo is offline

@taniwharugby said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

How many finals have been won by the away team, off the top of my head, i think there have been a couple in NZ and the crusaders in Canberra once, but never in SA! Although I guess not many finals have been there.

Somebody has probably answered this but off tge top of my head ...

98 Saders v Blues
99 Saders v Clan
00 Saders v MLPs

Think Bulls beat Sharks at Durban not sure year

15 Clan v Canes

Not sure any others

Stargazer
Stargazer is offline

@booboo said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

@taniwharugby said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

How many finals have been won by the away team, off the top of my head, i think there have been a couple in NZ and the crusaders in Canberra once, but never in SA! Although I guess not many finals have been there.

Somebody has probably answered this but off tge top of my head ...

98 Saders v Blues
99 Saders v Clan
00 Saders v MLPs

Think Bulls beat Sharks at Durban not sure year

15 Clan v Canes

Not sure any others

2007

Stargazer
Stargazer is offline

FYI, according to the Vodafone TV guide, Sky Sport will broadcast past Super Rugby finals this week, starting on Tuesday afternoon (5.30pm) with the 2006 Final, on Sky Sport 6. Sky's tv guide is not showing this channel yet, but I hope Vodafone got it right.

pakman is offline

I'm picking a win for the red and blacks.

Stargazer
Stargazer is offline

Kick-off time confirmed:

Sunday 6 August, 2.00am NZT

akan004 is away

@Crazy-Horse Granted it sucks for us viewers, but I am sure the Crusaders won't be complaining. Playing on the highveld is hard enough, but playing there under the mid afternoon sun must surely make it even harder. A 4 pm kickoff works in the Crusaders favour.

taniwharugby
taniwharugby is offline

they shoulda made k/o at 11.30am SA time to give us a more familiar viewing time.

G-Man
G-Man is offline

@taniwharugby said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

they shoulda made k/o at 11.30am SA time to give us a more familiar viewing time.

Shurrup, I'm still sleeping then. 4pm suits me just fine thank you very much.

Tickets went on sale straight after the Lions v Canes game and there was a long queue to get them tickets. I don't suspect the full house signs will go up, but I reckon a respectable 50k supporters to pitch up.

mimic
mimic is offline

@akan004 said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

@Crazy-Horse Granted it sucks for us viewers, but I am sure the Crusaders won't be complaining. Playing on the highveld is hard enough, but playing there under the mid afternoon sun must surely make it even harder. A 4 pm kickoff works in the Crusaders favour.

Do they not have lights to play night time footy? Why not 7:30pm?

Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse is offline

@mimic that's was I was wondering. We have to suck it up and play at night to appease overseas viewers, why can't we have the favour returned?

akan004 is away

@mimic I don't think they are too concerned about NZ viewers. Besides, a 2 am k/o or a 5.30am k/o are both equally as bad.

Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse is offline

@akan004 530am is a hell of a lot better than 2am as far as I am concerned. And yeah it's pretty obvious they don't give a rats about NZ viewers.

pakman is offline

An obvious question, but I'm struggling to remember any team crossing the Indian Ocean to win a Super final. Am I missing someone?

taniwharugby
taniwharugby is offline

@pakman hasnt happened, only a single team has crossed the Ta$man (travelling East to West) to do so, otherwise only NZ teams beating NZ teams in away finals.

akan004 is away

@pakman No, no team has done it since the start of professionalism. Qld Reds did it in 94 in the Super 10 comp against the Sharks.

taniwharugby
taniwharugby is offline

@akan004 Highlanders beat Stormers in semi in 1999 in Capetown
Crusaders beat Stormers in 2011 semi in Capetown
Brumbies beat Bulls in Pretoria in semi 2013

I only checked teams going to SA, didnt see if any SA sides had won coming this way

akan004 is away

@taniwharugby Chiefs did it two weeks ago. I think pakman meant winning the final. But your stats do show that it can be done.

taniwharugby
taniwharugby is offline

@akan004 yeah hasnt been done in grand final, and I guess the Crusaders travel pretty good so are in with a decent shout.

Cyclops
Cyclops is offline

@taniwharugby said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

@pakman hasnt happened, only a single team has crossed the Ta$man (travelling East to West) to do so, otherwise only NZ teams beating NZ teams in away finals.

And South African teams beating South African teams away (Sharks lost at home to Bulls)

PN
PN is offline

Tickets went on sale straight after the Lions v Canes game and there was a long queue to get them tickets. I don't suspect the full house signs will go up, but I reckon a respectable 50k supporters to pitch up.

alt text

alt text

80% already sold as of Monday Morning.

G-Man
G-Man is offline

Yip, apparently I was wrong, sold out signs are up.

taniwharugby
taniwharugby is offline

That is good to see!

mariner4life
mariner4life is online

who the fuck physically lines up for tickets?

booboo
booboo is offline

@Crazy-Horse said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

@mimic that's was I was wondering. We have to suck it up and play at night to appease overseas viewers, why can't we have the favour returned?

Isn't evening kick off more about Sky's domestic audience?

booboo
booboo is offline

@pakman said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

An obvious question, but I'm struggling to remember any team crossing the Indian Ocean to win a Super final. Am I missing someone?

No.

KiwiMurph
KiwiMurph is online

Match Officials Announced for 2017
Super Rugby Final

SANZAAR has announced the match official appointments for the Super Rugby final on Saturday 5 August at Emirates Airlines Park, Johannesburg, between the Lions and Crusaders #LIOvCRU.
The match referee will be Jaco Peyper who refereed the semi-final between the Lions and Hurricanes. The assistant referees will be Glen Jackson, who refereed the Crusaders versus Chiefs semi-final and Marius van der Westhuizen. The Television Match Official (TMO) is Marius Jonker. The match kicks-off in Johannesburg at 1600 local time.

antipodean
antipodean is online

@KiwiMurph That's dreadful. Jonker shouldn't be employed as a TMO, that role should have gone to Ayoub (I feel dirty suggesting that). And there's no way vdW should be there instead of Gardner. Then they need to scan the crowd for someone only slightly inebriated to get a better AR than Jackson.

SammyC
SammyC is offline

Given the appointments last week (and hearing earlier that Gardner had been named to ref club rugby in Sydny this weekend) I was expecting those appointments.

Still doesn't make it any less of a joke.

Stargazer
Stargazer is offline

And this is SANZAAR's reasoning. What a joke.

MATCH OFFICIALS ANNOUNCED FOR 2017 FINAL
SANZAAR has announced the match official appointments for the Super Rugby final on Saturday 5 August at Emirates Airlines Park, Johannesburg, between the Lions and Crusaders #LIOvCRU.
 
The match referee will be Jaco Peyper who refereed the semi-final between the Lions and Hurricanes. The assistant referees will be Glen Jackson, who refereed the Crusaders versus Chiefs semi-final and Marius van der Westhuizen. The Television Match Official (TMO) is Marius Jonker. The match kicks-off in Johannesburg at 1600 local time.
 
Commenting on the appointments, SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos said, “SANZAAR congratulates Jaco Peyper and all the match officials selected to this year’s final. The match official selection is never easy as we have a very dedicated group of officials who week in week out perform very professionally and to very high standards.”
 
“The selection criteria for all match official appointments for the last two years follows a clear tournament policy - as agreed by the SANZAAR Executive Committee and the tournament’s stakeholders – that such appointments be merit-based.”
 
“This policy is written into the tournament protocols and appointments are made according to this policy on a weekly basis and is also the policy used for the finals last year as well as this year.”
 
“This merit-based policy was reflected with the appointment last year of New Zealand referee Glen Jackson to referee the Hurricanes versus Lions final in Wellington. SANZAAR stands behind the policy and believes the best referees should be available to officiate the best matches,” added Marinos.
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse is offline

Apologies for going off topic but @booboo I thought it had as much to do about the international audience? If I am wrong and it is for domestic purposes, I say fuck that and give us more day time games. It seems like the players aren't being given the best conditions to excel in. I know it is a different scenario to Super rugby, but maybe a few more of those passes would have stuck in the third BIL test if it was played in the day time.

Wally
Wally is offline

@SammyC

Crusaders chances just dropped 25%.

akan004 is away

I have no issues with Jaco. He's always tried to be fair to both teams and will no doubt do a good job again on Saturday. Good appointment.

booboo
booboo is offline

@Crazy-Horse said in Lions v Crusaders - Super Rugby Final:

Apologies for going off topic but @booboo I thought it had as much to do about the international audience? If I am wrong and it is for domestic purposes, I say fuck that and give us more day time games. It seems like the players aren't being given the best conditions to excel in. I know it is a different scenario to Super rugby, but maybe a few more of those passes would have stuck in the third BIL test if it was played in the day time.

It's all about money.

We want Super Rugby the trade off is the majority of games get played 7.30.

It's been reported on numerous occasions and stated by people like Tew that Sky pay more (apparently significantly so) to have the gsmes in prime time.

booboo
booboo is offline

Jack is a reasonable ref.

But just for appearances sake surely you go with Gardner who at the very least is as capable and has the added bonus of not being from either of the countries involved.