Only one more sleep until Super12 2005 kicks off.. Yay!

The 'House of Pain' will host the first game of the season with the Highlanders taking on Auckland. Anton Oliver will hit the 100 super 12 caps mark during the game, the first kiwi to do so. I 'know' I'd rather have him hitting a mark than me on a footie paddock, but I digress. Even though he'll be making NZ Super 12 history on Friday night, he says in an interview on the All Blacks web site (see? there is no truth to the rumour that I always refer to the ABs as the All Bads... :) that he finds the game the most important of the season each year because he's playing for Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy. So who's Gordon Hunter I hear you asking? Well he was a former Otago, Highlander and Blues coach. He also was a national selector and he sadly passed away in 2002. He and Oliver were good mates.

Meanwhile, Mat Rogers gave the Tah Tahs a bit of a scare yesterday when he jarred his hip at training. It seems he will live, so hopefully he'll take the field Friday night in Sydney when the Waratahs take on the Chiefs.

The Chiefs are no doubt pleased that their captain and lock Jonno Gibbes is fit to take the field on Friday night.

I'm pleased to report that someone seems to have pushed the 'start' button over in South Africa as well with sarugby.com reporting their latest Super 12 news. Yes, it's this year's :) Anyway, here's the link to the Super 12 news page. You'd better bookmark it incase I inadvertently forget to ever mention that link ever again.....

The Reds meanwhile appear to be blaming laws, refs, and different referee interpretations of rucking laws for.... well as much as it hurts to say.... their thumping in the forwards by the Crusaders last trial game. Get on with it guys! You can read all about how the Reds are now thought of as pussycats over here at Foxsports.

Thank God Super 12 kicks off tomorrow night, I just read that the Perth Super 14 coach could be named by tomorrow!! The daily goss, speculation, and wild tales surrounding the WA rugby coach selection that has kept us all on the edge of our seats... will be no more. Geez, I can't even feign disappointment. What does crack me up though is that John Mitchell is now tipped to be the man selected for the job. He's had more lives than any cat in this selection process, well, it seems that way at least.... it's just been going on and on and on.... kind of like a dentist with his drill down your throat!

Later!