Good morning!

For those of you like me who are NOT sitting in the stands at the Hong Kong sevens here's somes results for you. Australia finished undefeated on Day 1. Good going guys!

Better get moving so I can watch all these rugby games over the next few hours.

Happy Birthday Tai McIsaac - an '0' year I believe :))

You had to enjoy that win by the Reds tonight (20-6) over the Chiefs in Hamilton :) Thanks guys!!! About time :) It's all good!

Justin Harrison's case has been put back to Sunday night....

Boy oh boy! The Justin Harrison 'incident' seems to have taken on a life of its own overnight! I guess the media need something exciting to write about now that the Perth Super 14 coach issue has been put to bed? Either way, Harrison has stood himself down from the Waratahs until the matter is heard by a SANZAR committee - he won't have to tap his toes for long either, the hearing is scheduled for 8pm in Sydney tonight. It will be good to see the matter dealt with.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for Nathan Grey - the Cats' players have continued insisting it was Grey who made the offensive remark; this despite Harrison having spoken up to confess that it was he who had made the remark. Huh? I hope that gets sorted out expediently!

Anyway, I think we're all kind of over the whole kerfuffle - I know some 'golden oldies' who have told me that what Harrison said is 'nothing' compared to what is often said in games. Then again, sometimes the years can play tricks on the memory.. heh :)

Okay - it's Round 4 Tipping Time!! I trust you've checked out Hansie's tips - you may be wise to follow them :) Luckily I have NO fear when it comes to making a public spectacle of my tipping prowess so here goes.....

Round 4 2005 Super 12 Rugby Tips - by the way, I'm sick of typing 'an hour earlier' in Queensland time so I'm hoping that us Sunshine State dwellers will be able to figure that out for ourselves. Bring on the end of daylight savings I say!!

Tonight:

Chiefs vs Reds: (live on Foxsports at 5.30pm) If the Reds play like they did last week then I think they'd risk being beaten by some of the junior teams I've seen running around the paddocks. Seriously though, eventhough the Chiefs haven't been going too well this season until their win (18-9) against the Blues last week I don't think the Reds have a hope in hell of winning. I really do hope they prove me wrong.... but I'm tipping the Chiefs by 5

Hurricanes vs Bulls: (live on Foxsports at 3.30pm) The Hurricanes have had a superb start to Super 12 2005. The Bulls got walloped again last weekend, and I think the Hurricanes Juggernaut will continue to impress.. I'm going the Canes by 15

Blues vs Crusaders (live on Foxsports at 5.30pm) This has the potential to be a very good game given the two teams involved and their previous tussles. I think the Crusaders are on their game though and eventhough the Blues are at home, I reckon the Crusaders will sneak away with the win so I'm tipping them by 2

Waratahs vs Stormers (live on Foxsports at 7.30pm) The Tahs might be a bit unsettled given the media attention to Justin Harrison this week, but I'm hoping that they will be able to put that out of their minds during the game and focus on playing rugby. I don't think they're going to want to give up their ladder position without a fight so I'm going to tip the Waratahs by 3. I noticed Hansie tipped the Stormers....

Tomorrow:

Cats vs Brumbies: (live on Foxsports at 2.00am) Don't these people know I need my beauty sleep? :) I think I'll snooze through this game, if anything exciting happens I'll watch a replay. I think the Brumbies will win easily over the Cats so I'm tipping the Brumbies by 6

Sharks vs Highlanders: (Foxsports at 5.40am) Well the Highlanders got their act together last week, but that WAS at home, and it WAS against the Bulls... still, I like the Highlanders and the Sharks haven't set the world on fire this Super 12 season as yet, so I'm going to go with my heart and not my head and say the Highlanders by 1. I'm tempted to say 'draw' as well....

Okies - that's it for my tipping this week. Have a great rugby weekend :)

PS - don't forget Six Nations games - that's Sux Nations for the Kiwis here :) .. You can catch Italy vs France at around midnight on Saturday. Sunday morning at 3.50am the Wales vs Ireland game is on the tube - should be a cracker!! And, at 11.40am Sunday you can watch the England vs Scotland game. Wouldn't it be nice to see the boys in skirts get up in that one :)

Later!

Good morning :)

The racial slur incident that occurred during the Waratahs vs Cats game last weekend has taken a new twist. The good news is that Nathan Grey has been cleared of any wrong doing. The BAD news is that Justin Harrison is the apparent culprit.

According to this report in The Australian...

"Harrison would not confirm or deny he called winger Chumani Booi a 'black c---'
during the Waratahs' 40-19 win against the Cats at Ellis Park in Johannesburg
last Sunday (AEDT), but he did admit to sledging the player with a racial remark"

Sheesh!! On the plus side he's owned up to his guilt and he's expressed remorse, regret, blah blah blah, but.. and I mean BUT... Good grief! Maybe he should cop a swift kick UP his BUTT!!

Actually, you know I'm probably most offended by the alleged use of the 'c' word - I refer to it as the 'critter word', and I admit that I can't stand that word. And, for the life of me, I've never been able to figure out why men use a word that refers to a piece of female anatomy as one of the worst insults. It just doesn't make any sense to me - especially when most men seem to invest a considerable amount of their life times chasing that particular piece of anatomy.

Harrison's immediate playing future is up in the air while the rugby powers determine what course of action they will take. I am really disappointed that the incident occurred - I hope my rugby playing boys don't hear about it. I have some spare copies of the rugby 'Code of Conduct' - maybe I should pop one in the mail!

On to some good news :)

Nathan Sharpe is going to captain the Reds this week - Yay! You can't help but like Sharpe - shame about the team he's in... :))

Matt Giteau is back! He'll take over the Flyhalf role for Stephen Larkham who is most probably recovering from minor surgery earlier this week (see yesterday's post).

I have Hansie's tips for Round 4 - I'll put them up shortly. I'm not doing mine until tomorrow :)

Cheers

The Reds have made four changes for this Friday's game against the Chiefs. Just four? Greg Holmes is on for Mathison at prop, Drew Mitchell ousts Peter Hynes (who I reckon played pretty well last Saturday), McVerry moves to lock because Heenan's suspended, and Luke Doherty will take over the #8 role. Well... we'll see what transpires Friday night, but last Saturday they looked like they could all do with a bomb under them :( absolutely hopeless!

Mat Rogers is out for the next two Waratahs games, against the Stormers and the Bulls, due to a groin strain. Ouch! Sounds kind of painful.

Jeepers! One of my most favourite Wallabies, Stephen Larkham, has had a cancerous mole removed from the back of his leg. He will apparently know the results of the biopsy by the end of the week - I'm sure we all wish him the very best.

Nathan Grey has been accused of making a racial slur against Cats' winger Chumani Booi - a claim that Grey strenuously denies. According to the story in the Australian ...

"I did hear a racially offensive comment made in a ruck that followed a tackle I made on Booi," Grey said.

That's a bit sad for Australian rugby - I would have liked to have thought we were all a bit above that sort of thing.... Whoever DID say whatever was said should be a man about it at least and own up. I can't see that happening though, who'd want to admit to that??

I found it!!

********************

There's actually 3 leaderboards inside the competition. One is for 'winners', one if for 'scores' and one is for 'margins'.

Competition winners will be based on... the 'Tip the Winners' leaderboard.

In the event of a TIE - (which can't happen because I don't have enough prizes.. heh.. ) then to break the tie the leaderboard 'Tip the Scores' will be used, and if there's STILL a tie after that, the 'Tip the Margins' leaderboard will be used. If there's still a tie after all that - I give up and we'll do what they do in a rugby world cup final when they've exhausted their avenues... toss a coin :)

********************

Okay.. so Keyte, shane oneill and Peter Edge all got 6 points on the Round 3 Tip the Winners leaderboard, so I had to go to the Tip the Scores leaderboard, and shane oneill's name comes up first out of those three. So congratulations shane on being our Round 3 winner - drop me an email so I can send you your $5 scratchie ticket!

Good morning!

You know what I HATE? I hate it when I can't find the post that has the tipping comp rules. arghhhhhhhhhhh!! There were three showoffs.. er tipsters who scored 6 points in Round 3 and I'm trying to remember whether now it goes to pick the margins or pick the scores.

That post has got to be around here somewhere....

Good morning everyone :)

I'm shagged after my weekend doing a rugby coaching course - so I'm running way behind on everything in here, but I will play catch up later tonight.

NEW NEW NEW NEW!!

Check out Hansie's Corner - he's written a superb wrap up of Round 3 Super 12 games. Thanks Hansie :)

I'll be back later - I'm taking this sunburnt and exhausted body off to the pub!