Good morning! What a long long weekend we seemed to have here in Australia. I played social butterfly all weekend, in amongst rugby commitments, and I suspect it's going to take me the better part of this week to recover. It sure was fun though :) Hansie's got his wrap for Round 9 up as well.

Friday night saw the Highlanders beat the Hurricanes by a convincing 10 points in Wellington. And to think I only tipped them by one.... Still, it was a clever game of rugby by the Highlanders, who didn't allow the Hurricanes to play a spoiling game by dominating and hanging onto possession. No doubt they're a happy lot down Dunedin way!

The Crusaders at home in Jade Stadium on Saturday were given a run for their money by the Cats before the final fulltime score of 40-36. The Cats, with nothing to lose, came out determined to have a go and caught the Canterbury boys a little by surprise. Rattled, the Crusaders turned over far too much ball in the first half, and struggled to keep the Cats at bay. But the Crusaders weren't about to let the Cats get away with an upset win, and went on to be victorious. Andrew Mehrtens, Crusader flyhalf and goal kicker extraordinaire, kicked his way back into the record books during the game by reclaiming his title as Leading Points Scorer in Super 12. Good one!

In Brisbane on Saturday night the Reds had a win 30-25 over the Sharks. It does the old heart some good! Okay, this was a bottom of the ladder type clash, but it was good to see the Reds giving their fans something to cheer about after the last few weeks, and it was delightful to see Ben Tune back out on the paddock scoring a try and setting up two others. Throw in 'Man of the match' and it's not difficult to see why Queensland has missed him for so long. Welcome back :)

The Bulls' big forward pack came out to dominate as predicted to beat the Chiefs 29-26. The first half was Bulls all over, and despite the Chiefs making a good comeback in the second half, it was to no avail. The loss just about puts the Chiefs out of Super 12 2005 contention, but they'll still be playing hard with those All Black test positions up for grabs for the upcoming Lions tour.

There was some controversy over a try scored by Chiefs Anesi during the Bulls' game. Anesi was awarded a try and his foot was on the touch line. The decision was correct - IRB law 22.4 (h) states: "If an attacking player is in touch or in touch-in-goal, the player can score a try by grounding the ball in the opponents' in-goal provided the player is not carrying the ball"

Despite running in a quick three tries, the Stormers went down to the Blues 37-24 when the Blues dug deep and played tightly to answer their opponents by runing in six consecutive tries.
The Blues received a standing ovation from the SA crowd - I'll bet that surprised them, but their victory is tarnished in that Rua Tipoki has been suspended for three weeks after being found guilty of striking Stormer Jean de Villiers.

Suppose I'd better check the tipping comp results....