Just watched the Saders bounce back from last week and put a second half clinic on the Sharks. Richie is back and looks good, Guildford continued his good form. Can't wait for tomorrow night with the triple header.
A good weekend for NZ teams, all getting wins. At this point the Chiefs are looking very strong after getting 3 good away wins, 2 with bonus points.
Yeah some pretty good games, loved watching Masaga back in action. He has so much strength. Interesting to see us against the Reds next week at home.
Yeah it will be interesting to see how the Chiefs go, I guess their three away wins have been against the bottom three teams so that takes something away from them. But it is still a solid start, and they should back up again against the Reds. One thing that will hinder them a bit is the jet lag, but I still think that they will win. The Blues - Crusaders game will be a good one. It will be interesting to see Brett going up against Carter. The Crusaders aren't looking as solid as they normally do this season.
Three bottom teams yeah but the Sharks at Durban is always a massive effort. The other two were games they should have won anyways. Interesting ones for us will be the Saders and Canes. Saders looked a lot better again last week than the Reds game and should improve now with McCaw back.
True, I am surprised at how poorly the Sharks are doing. I think that they will bounce back before too long. I think the Blues will surprise a lot of teams this I think the Blues should be included here too. While it looks like they will lack in consistency, they are a very strong team across the park and have pretty much all their home games at home this season. Yeah, McCaw adapted extremely well to the new rules in his first game. The game tomorrow night will be the best of the round I think.
Holy shit the Lions are terrible. 73-12? Against the very average Tahs? I'm pretty excited for the six nations games; there could be a few upsets on the cards.
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Seeing as it is coming to the business end of the Super 14 I thought I would revive this thread. The next 2 weeks will be interesting, as there are some good games between top teams coming up. The Bulls look like they will win the comp, but have to play the Crusaders and the Stormers who could both potentially beat them. The Stormers also have a game against the Sharks, who are better than their position on the table suggests. And the Crusaders have to fly back to NZ to play the Brumbies in the last week. The Reds are looking a bit shaky, and I think they will be overtaken by one of the teams below them. Which brings me to the Waratahs, Brumbies, and Hurricanes. There is effectively a play-off situation being played out at the moment. Hurricanes vs. Reds, then Hurricanes vs. Waratahs. If they win both of those games they have a good chance of making the semis. And as I said before, the Brumbies will have a play-off against the Crusaders in the final week. My prediction: Bulls to win at least one of the last 2 games of the round and finish top of the table. From there they will win the competition. Stormers to make the semi finals. Crusaders to scrap through into the top 4 and lose their semi final. And I am going to say that the Hurricanes will round out the top four. What are your thoughts?
Depends if the Saders can pull their finger out ebcause they have been dreadful. HUrricanes are looking avergage also they shouldn't have beaten the Chiefs. Brumbies are starting to come good this end of the season and the Reds could be a factor. Don't rate the Waratahs chances at all and I see it being a Stomers Bulls final with either one winning. Actually think the Stormers for the most part have gone well under the radar and should take the comp out.
Yeah, the Crusaders have been playing very poorly, but they are so stocked full of good players that winning shouldn't be beyond them. I agree, the Stormers have been playing the best rugby of the competition this year. They have the best mix of try scoring and sensible rugby, they don't just throw the ball around but they also aren't playing boring rugby. This weeks Hurricanes vs. Reds game could decide who gets the fourth spot, especially if the Crusaders fuck out.
Stupid chiefs self destructed, I had $20 on to beat the Canes at $5.50. Was giggling the whole game until Bruce missed a sitter.
Betting on the Cheifs is worse than betting on the Blues. At least with the Blues you just see what happened the previous week and bet on the opposite happening. I did like Ma'a Nonu's post match swearing. Said fuck 7 times in a couple of minutes. Then did one of the least sincere apologies that I have ever seen.
Just found this site which looks like it has quite a bit of rugby and league streaming. I don't have any need for it myself so I haven't used it, but it might be good.
Having watched the first two All Blacks games and also both The NZ Maori ones its shaping up to be a good year of international rugby. If we can play like we did the second half against Wales for a full 80 minutes I don't think the Springboks will trouble us too much. Very impressed with a couple of the younger guys coming through and stoked to see Kahui and DC back to their sublime best.
Yeah, the ABs are developing a lot more depth. Israel Dagg had a really good first game, but was targeted by the Welsh and didn't play quite as well. Carter's second half against Wales was one of his best performances, reminded me of his form against the British and Irish Lions. It's good to see Rene Ranger making it onto the bench for this weekend, he is a real game breaker although he needs to be a bit more consistent. There is a good mix of young and old in this team, I think the Aussies may have a few too many young guys in their team and the South Africans a few too many oldies. Tri-nations should be good this year, I'm predicting the ABs to go undefeated and there to be the usual talk of them peaking to early.
I caught the Maori game against England. How the hell isn't Hosea Gear on the All Blacks squad? The guy looked amazing out there.
Henry has an unhealthy fascination with Smokin Joe who ain't so smokin no more. Either Gear or Zac Guildford should have been in the side. Can't see Joe being any good this time next year.