Here we go for the update and first of all I would like to apologise for the delay. I only got back home several hours ago after visiting Crusaders-Sharks in London. This round was absolutely amazing! Besides TNT88, everybody got 14 points or more. Very high level this week.
The Super XV weekend started off in Melbourne where the Rebels invited the Hurricanes over for a cup of coffee. With 5 tries to the season debutant and a pretty decent boot of Danny Cipriani, they landed a 42-25 win over the Wellington side with Blake, Campbell, Vuna and Phipps crossing the try-line. For the Canes there were tries by Eaton, Vito, Kirkpatrick and Coles.
The next day the second match of the weekend was played elsewhere in the land. The Cheetahs, who surprised the world by beating the Tahs last week, took on the Reds in Brisbane. This time there was no chance to cause another upset. Ioane, Davies, Saia Faingaa and scrum-half Will Genia scored a total of 6 tries for the Koala's while Wilhelm Steenkamp was the only try-scorer for the side who were playing with him as their 5th captain in 6 rounds after Adriaan Strauss, Juan Smith, Naas Olivier and Andries Strauss.
Last week the Chiefs managed to beat the Sharks without scoring a try, this time they hosted the Blues and they lost despite scoring more tries. Liam Messam and Sona Taumalolo scored the 5-pointers but seeing they lost the match by 3 points, the 2 missed conversions seem to be more costly than was expected during the game. Jared Payne scored the only try for the Auckland franchise but with a conversion and 3 penalties by Luke McAlister they snatched a 13-16 win in Waikato Stadium.
The Brumbies and Waratahs showed why the new format will be such a success. In Canberra both teams were fighting to the death to get the 4 points and for quite a while it seemed like we were heading to another 22-22 draw this season (After the Force-Blues draw earlier this month) but Sitaleki Timani robbed the Capital side from the points and left them with only a losing bonus point with a last minute try. Kurtley Beale converted to make it 22-29. Earlier in the match Ryan Cross scored the other Tahs try and Ben Alexander crossed the line for the Brumbies. The boot of both Kurtley Beale and Matt Giteau proved to be in good shape with 5 succesful penalties each.
Saturday night has been the most amazing evening so far this season in the Super XV and this weekend showed again that it's worth the wait for the final matches. The Stormers played the Western Force at Newlands. The Cape Town-side went into the match as log leaders with only 2(!) tries scored this season. The Western Force were a side that had some bad luck so far with an early red card against the Sharks, losing David Pocock with an injury and only getting a draw at home against the Blues. Their win over the Lions last week was the push they were waiting for. Once in Cape Town, they were pushed deep into their own 22 for almost the entire match. For the second time this season there were 4 tries addressed to 1 name in a match after Sean Maitland (Crusaders). This time it was Fourie. Too bad it was 2 players. hooker Deon Fourie scored 2 and center Jaque Fourie scored 2. With tries to captain Jean de Villiers and tallest Springbok ever Andries Bekker, they ended up passing the 50-point barrier and beat the Force 51-16. James O'Connor scored all the points for the side from Perth, including a converted try.
When a team only has to travel 100 km for a Super 15 match, it can really be considered a derby. The Transvaal-derby has been one with a lot of history. Nowadays they are called the Bulls and Lions but back in the day this was Northern Transvaal vs. Transvaal. The Lions have been unlucky this season so far but got a bonus point against the Stormers and Bulls for staying within 7 points earlier. This time was no different. Only difference was that this time they did not score more tries than the Bulls, who beat the Lions in round 1 20-24 without scoring more tries. Dewald Potgieter, Gary Botha and Bjorn Basson were the Bulls to get the ball down for 5 points while Deon van Rensburg and the experienced Franco van der Merwe got the points for the Lions. Both tries were converted by Andre Pretorius while Elton Jantjies scored 3 penalties. The Bulls relied on the boot of Morne Steyn and there were no disappointments with 3 conversions and 3 penalties: 30-23
And now for the grand finale. For the first time ever, Europe got to host a Super Rugby-match. The Crusaders and Sharks played at Twickenham this sunday. I can say it was 1 day I will never forget. It started off with singing in the stands, a minute silence, singing both national anthems out loud and then the match started. I can go on and on about the match but it comes down to this: Crusaders scored 5 tries, Sharks 4, Jacques-Louis Potgieter missed 3 conversions and a penalty which costs the Sharks a bonus point. Luckily they scored 4 tries so they got a point for that. Alberts, Potgieter, Hargreaves and Ndungane touched down for the Natal side while Maitland (twice), Carter, Guildford and Israel Dagg did that for the Canterbury side. 9 tries in all and an amazing performance from both teams. This was truly awesome advertisement for rugby.
The Prediction League was brilliant this weekend. 12 participants this week of which 11 scored at least 14 points. One certain Ezequiel was the only one to guess all 7 winners right! Unfortunately for him he was short 1 point on guess with the score of 4 teams (Hurricanes, Western Force, Bulls and Lions) and he ended up with 16 points. Meanwhile the log-leader Olyy expanded his lead by getting 20 points, despite his promise to fall back because in his opinion it's all luck. Now he is the first one to pass the 100-point barrier.
I don't know what is going on in Canada but that freaky Shaggy has done it again! After getting the high score last week with 24 points, he got the high score now again with 23. This week he has to share that ***le with stormer2010 who hopes to keep this form up. Ironically both teams are tied on the log as well with 96 points! Amabokoboko (formerly known as bates) predicted the try score of 4 teams correctly but missed out on winner-predictions with only 3 right. Draggs, the Welsh Sharks fan even had 6 try scores right to snatch a total of 22 points and get to the same total as BadGena.
Jimz0051, 187, Tank94 and Intercept King JDV did not participate this round and get 8 bye points. Meanwhile Jer1cho announced he doesn't have time to play along anymore and asked me to remove him from the log. Log leader Olyy still has his spot on the top but he blocked his mirrors with tape because seeing Shaggy and stormer2010 coming so close, just scares him. I fall back to spot 4 with 2 points behind the earlier mentioned 2 and 7 behind Olyy. Gavin climbs 3 spots to get to nr. 11 while is only 2 points away from 4th place. Draggs and BadGena are tied at 87 points.
Green = Log Leader Red = Wooden Spoon Blue = Best achievement this round
Here is an early preview for round 7. Most interesting thing of round 7 is one where we will see 3 new stadiums this season.
The Highlanders play at Rugby Park (Invercargill) for the first time where they host the Brumbies, who have been disappointing this season. They won once against the Chiefs, lost 4, including a 52-10 beatdown in Nelson against the 'Saders and a last second loss against the Rebels by a Cipriani penalty, and are in 10th spot on the OVerall Log with only 12 points. With the Force and Rebels at 11, the Brumbies should focus to prevent themselves from being bottom of their conference. The Highlanders are phenominal this season. They won the season opener in Wellington against the Hurricanes and even managed to beat the Bulls in Pretoria by scoring 4 tries. The Otago side were brought back down to earth when the Crusaders visited in week 5. Last week they had the bye. 2 years ago both teams played the season-opener at Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin and the Brumbies won by 2 points (31-33) with a total of 9 tries in it. Let's hope they can do something similar this week.
The Waratahs at home... A match that cannot be predicted. They beat the Reds 30-6, lost to the Cheetahs 3-23. This will be the 3rd match in Sydney for the side of Beale, Mitchell and Waugh. The Chiefs travel to Australia where to lost to the Brumbies in week 1. They beat the Sharks at home without scoring a try but lost to the Blues when scoring more than the opponent. Outside of Hamilton, the Chiefs look very insecure and that is where the side is vulnerable. Can they repeat the stunt of the Cheetahs 2 weeks ago? Or will they run Red and lose the way the Brisbane side did in week 2? Weirdly enough the teams have played each other more often in Hamilton (7 times) than in Sydney (4 times) since the turn of the century. 2 years ago it was 11-7 but most interesting were the matches between the 2 played across the water. In '06 the Chiefs both won 37-33.
Toll Stadium, Whangarei... The second new venue we see this round. The Blues against the Cheetahs is a match only to predict the score and the number of tries to be honest. The Blues are leading the NZ conference and the Cheetahs are last in the SA conference. Both teams lost to the Sharks at the start of the season but the Blues did it after beating the Crusaders in round 1. The Cheetahs have used 5 captains this season already, just to illustrate how injuryblown the Bloemfontein team is. Matches between these 2 teams are a great opportunity to see some tries. In the last 3 seasons when these 2 teams were playing, they scored 58 points or more together (46-12, 26-50 and 36-32)
Who would have thought the Bulls from Pretoria would have been in 7th place after 6 weeks? Who would have thought their point-difference would be negative (-4)? Meanwhile the Hurricanes have only managed to beat the Rebels. This match can really go either way. The 'Canes rely on a backline with Nonu, Jane, Gear, Savea and Smith while the Bulls have been very dependant on New Bull Basson and scrum-half Fourie du Preez, who missed the entire Currie Cup season and made his comeback in week 1 after 9 months of recovering from surgery. Together the duo scored 5 tries this season so far. Can the Bulls win their first match on tour or can the Hurricanes finally win again?
In Perth we see the bottom 2 of the Australian conference go head-to-head and decide who grabs the final straw to make the play offs at the end of the season. I know the season is still long, but the team that loses this one, can forget about the play offs. The Force have been without Pocock since week 3 and have to rely on James O'Connor with not just his boot, but his running as well. The Rebels seem to have finally found the way to the try line, scoring 4 against the Sharks and 5 asgainst the Hurricanes after only scoring 2 in the first 3 matches and staying try-less in Brisbane 2 weeks ago. Cooper Vuna, who switched this year from League to Union, has gotten used to the different style and is their most dangerous asset on the wing. Who will win this? No history here of course since the Rebels are new.
The question everyone has been asking lately is "Can the Lions win matches with the attractive attacking gameplay they show now?" So far they only managed to beat the Cheetahs but they were awfully close to beating both 2010 finalists earlier. Scoring 3 tries at home against the Bulls who only got 2, they lost the match mainly because of Elton Jantjies missing conversions and bad luck. In Round 2 they travelled to Cape Town to score 2 tries (again 1 more than their opponent) but Jantjies missed both conversions which ended up expensive since they lost 19-16. Against the Blues at home, they lost 32-41 with another missed conversion, which would have given them a BP. Well, how about the Reds? They beat the Reds by 1 point at home, got crushed by the Tahs, beat the Brumbies in week 3 and the Rebels 53-3 2 weeks later after their bye. Strange to see that the Cheetahs last week were the first foreign opponent this season. Now they travel overseas themselves. Can they beat the Lions? More important: Can they put up a good performance outside of Australia? It's a good warmup for next week's match against the Stormers. Fun fact about this match is that ever since the Lions are a franchise of their own (With being seperated from the Cheetahs) no match between these 2 was won by the team playing at home! The Reds won in Johannesburg in '10 and '06 and the Lions won in Brisbane in '09 and '07 while they came to a 24-24 draw in 2008.
What else can I say about this match? Both teams played each other back in October in the Currie Cup final. The Sharks beat Western Province 30-10 with 25 points to Patrick Lambie (which is a CC final record) but Lambie is missing out on the match with a hand-injury. Jacques-Louis Potgieter was bad with the boot in London last sunday which cost the Sharks an extra bonus point. What can they do at home? The Sharks return after a 4 week tour Across the Tasman in which they beat the Force and Rebels with bonus point wins and lost to the Chiefs and Crusaders, which both got them a bonus point despite losing. This resulted in a total of 12 points for their 4 overseas matches. The Stormers have only played in South Africa so far and were leading the overall log last week with only 2 tries to their name! This weekend they scored 6 including 4 by Fourie (2 for Deon, 2 for Jaque). Can the Stormers beat the Sharks in Durban? Or will the Banana Boys recover from the loss and put first blood to the Stormers this season. Will the Stormers finally beat the Sharks? Yes, you heard me. Finally. The Sharks have won 5 in a row against the Stormers. Beating them in Durban in 06 (24-17), 08 (12-10) and 2010 (20-14) and in Cape Town in '07 (10-36) and '09 (15-20).
I'm away for three weeks in Crete on an excavation so I'm going to give my prediction up to round 10 now; sorry if this causes confusion, just don't want to be left behind.
I'm away for three weeks in Crete on an excavation so I'm going to give my prediction up to round 10 now; sorry if this causes confusion, just don't want to be left behind.
