The Lekker Rugby Pod!

What does a professional rugby team actually look like from the inside?MW spent a week embedded with the Bulls. Harry did the same with the Stormers. Not from the outside. Inside the week, inside the meetings, inside the environment. This episode works through what that access revealed.Some things look familiar. The structure, the preparation, the level of detail. You begin to see why top teams operate the way they do.But then the differences start to show. In how people interact. In how decisions are made. In how the environment feels day to day.The Bulls and the Stormers are similar in what they are trying to achieve. They are not the same in how they go about it.That tension sits at the centre of this conversation.

Fourteen rounds in, you stop guessing.The Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions have all taken shape. Clear enough now to see what they lean on, and what they give away. The question is whether that holds in knockout rugby.This episode works through each team as they are now, and what that could mean when the season tightens. Riveting stuff!

Modern rugby looks different. More kicks, more broken play, more tries.
Yet kicking is still treated as a mistake.
In Episode 159, Harry Jones speaks to analyst and author Sam Larner (Attacking the Space) about how the modern game actually works, and why so many people misread it.
The common view is simple: keep the ball, build pressure, avoid kicking.
The reality is more complicated. The best teams kick more, not less, and they do it for a reason.
This conversation breaks down how kicking controls territory, reduces risk and creates pressure, and why possession often matters less than how a possession ends.
France, Ireland and England approach this differently, but the pattern is consistent once you know what to look for.
This is not a match recap. It is a clearer way of seeing rugby.

People have been asking for it. They’ve been waiting for it. So here it is.The Lekker Rugby Pod reaction to the Bulls vs Stormers derby may not be instant, but sometimes the dust needs to settle before the real analysis begins.MW Welman and Harry Jones take a calm look back at what happened at Loftus. Why the Bulls struggled to adapt once the Stormers slowed the game down, why the Stormers looked calmer under pressure, and what the result might mean for the URC run-in.The reaction may have been delayed. But the conversation was always coming.

This is the match the Lekker Rugby Pod was built on.North vs South. Bulls vs Stormers. Loftus vs Cape Town. For more than a century this rivalry has defined South African rugby, and this weekend it explodes again in Pretoria.In Episode 158, MW Welman and Harry Jones go head to head in a classic preview full of analysis, history and merciless banter. From Pollard and Willie to Sacha and Willemse, from scrums to turnovers to altitude and momentum, everything is on the table.But as always with this rivalry, the analysis quickly turns into something else.Stormpy van Druren makes an appearance. Jeandré Rudolph becomes “Oom Rugby”.Harry predicts a Stormers upset.MW is having none of it.It is the battle of the bad winners against the bad losers. If you love rugby rivalries, this one is special. And if you love the Bulls or the Stormers, this one might hurt.Welcome to the North–South Derby.