Jantjies – square peg in a round hole

A season of regret for the Stormers as wins over the Cheetahs and Bulls prove what could have been. How big a role did the Elton Jantjies loan and selection play, asks Tank Lanning in his eNCA.com column?

And then there were six … And of those six Super Rugby teams making up the finals series, one had a bye on the final weekend of league matches, one won convincingly, two won unconvincingly, and two went down in flames!

And those teams doused in petrol also happened to be two of the top three sides on the log – the Bulls and Brumbies.

Like any long form tournament based on league matches over a period of time, the log represents form displayed over the entire tournament, rather than form at the time.

The key, thus, is to try and merge the two, much like the Crusaders have done so well over the years, and seem to be doing again this year, along with the return of rugby union legend, Richie McCaw, to the side for their quarter final against the Reds this week.

And the bookies have taken note … oddschecker.com, the site that consolidates all odds in one place, will offer you the following odds on the 2013 Super Rugby tournament winner:

Chiefs – 9/4

Bulls – 13/4

Crusaders – 19/4

Brumbies – 7/1

Reds – 18/1

Cheetahs – 50/1

Obviously the 2 sides with a bye this weekend and home semi-finals are installed as favourites, but of the sides needing to play a quarter-final this weekend, the Crusaders are top dogs, and to be honest, at 19/4, definitely worth a flutter …

Talk about season and player management!

Something the Stormers might want to take note of, perhaps? While the Bulls were crowned SA Conference winners in Cape Town on Saturday, it was the Sharks and Stormers who took the spoils in the final round of Super Rugby league action.

Semi-finalists in 2012, both sides, ravaged by injury it has to be said, have been far too inconstant to make the finals series this year, but did notch up splendid final round victories to end disappointing seasons on a high.

For the Sharks, though, that win came against an under strength Kings side focussing on the promotion / relegation games against the Lions, and perhaps not too much can be read into that.

But for the Stormers, their win was against a side who would have topped the tournament log had they won, and ended the Bulls nine-match winning streak and chance to become the first local team to record a “SA Slam” by winning all their derbies in one season since the expansion of the competition in 2011.

And together with their very convincing win over the other SA side going into finals series battle for South Africa, the Cheetahs, two weeks ago, one has to presume that the odds on men in blue and white winning the title would have been a lot better than 50/1.

But as they say in the classics, there is no remarks column on the scoreboard, and based on the season’s results, both the Bulls and Cheetahs deserve to be there. Now they just need to find the form that got them there.

A season of regret then for the Cape Town side, though, and one has to wonder how much of an influence the expensive loan of Elton Jantjies, and resultant obsession with picking him, had on the franchise.

Right from choosing a player that I believe to be a square peg in the round hole that is the defensively minded Stormers set up, to picking him for the first Super Rugby game before even getting a run in a warm up game because of his father’s death, to seemingly trying to prove the media and public wrong by continually selecting him despite not showing the form that deserved it.

Injuries and refereeing decisions played their part, but to my mind, this was the biggie …