Good morning! I trust you were all good to the 'mothers' in your life yesterday!

There were a few hoodoos broken in Round 11 of Super 12 2005. Tana Umaga led the Hurricanes to victory over the Blues 22-10 on Friday. It was a fitting result for Umaga's 100th Super 12 game, but the game was hardly exciting... the Blues made a swag of handling errors. The Canes can secure a semi-final place provided the Highlanders or the Bulls lose next week in the final round.

Later on Friday night, the Waratahs broke their hoodoo over the Reds in Sydney with a 27-8 win, in a game that was tight and tough for the Reds. Chris Latham suffered concussion and was stretchered from the field, and Red's #8 John Roe copped a mighty hit from Phil Waugh. It was also a good night for Tah Peter Hewat who must have savoured the victory against the team that rejected him.

The Crusaders vs Highlanders game in Dunedin was the match of the round with the Canterbury boys emerging victorious 27-13. The half time score saw the Crusaders trailing 6-7 but they lifted and bunged on three tries in the second half. While the Highlanders went down, the end score doesn't reflect either the closeness of the game or the quality of rugby played. It's been some time since we've seen Super 12 rugby of this standard. It really brought home just how much work 'some' of the teams need to do! Great game!

Owen 'Melons' Finegan played his last game for the Brumbies in Canberra, and while he scored a try and the Brumbies looked poised to win as they led 28-14 with 20 mins to go on the clock, the fairytale ending was not to be for the 'serial pest' that we've come to admire. The Chiefs fought back to draw the game 28 a piece. The Brumbies only have themselves to blame - they should have locked the game away. Good luck playing in Pommy land Melons!

The Sharks gave the Bulls a run for their money in the first half of their clash this round as they came out attacking against the steamrolling Bulls team. At half time the Sharks led 17-10. The scoreline, and the knowledge that their semi-final chances were diminishing before their eyes must have shocked the Bulls into action. They rallied and lifted to take the game 23-17. Tries late in the match from Matfield and Botha helped their cause.

The Cats dominated the first half in their game against the Stormers in South Africa to be leading 13-0 at the 40 minutes mark, but the half time break saw the Stormers get their acts together and come back to score three tries in the second half and take the game 25-20. The home win for the Stormers is all a little bit too late for their Super 12 2005 chances, and the loss saw the Cats again on the sad end of the scoreboard - they have lost their last 10 matches straight :(

More later!