Round 8 Super 12 2005 Tips

It's that time of the week when I show to the world just what a useless tipster I am - I started off well this season with my tips, but the last two weeks I've been hopelessly off the mark. Maybe I'll go a bit better this week?

Tonight:

Chiefs vs Cats: Live on Foxsports at 5.30pm After the thumping the Chiefs dished out to the Sharks last week, I am going to go with the Chiefs. The Cats haven't been having a good run, and I reckon the Chiefs will be strong at home, confident after last week's win. Chiefs by 4

Tomorrow:

Bulls vs Reds: Live on Foxsports at 3.05am The Bulls will be buoyed after their win over the Crusaders last weekend. I felt the Reds were unlucky 'not' to win last week against the Stormers, but they seem to have themselves in a gigantic hole that they can't seem to climb out from. I wish they'd just get out there and thump the opposition - I don't think their problems are physical though... I'm tipping the Bulls to win by 3

Blues vs Sharks: Live on Foxsports at 5.30pm Well geez, both of these teams have been patchy in performance this season. At home though, I think the Blues are going to dominate this game so I'm tipping them to win by 5

Brumbies vs Waratahs: Live on Foxsports at 7.30pm Where's my coin when I want to flip it? I'll be keen to watch Chris Whitaker up against George Gregan. The Brumbies haven't been having a good run with injuries and what not, and the Tahs have copped a couple of losses as well. Tough to call this one, I'm going to go for the Brumbies though because at home, they're very difficult to beat. Brumbies by a point!

Sunday:

Stormers vs Crusaders: Live on Foxsports at 12.55am I think the Crusaders will win this game with a decent margin. They got whacked around last week by the Bulls, but I am sure that they will have collected themselves for this round - the wealth of experience in the team, not to mention talent, will stand them in good stead so I'm going to Canterbury boys by six.

Good luck with your tipping and have a great Rugby weekend whether you're on the paddock or sitting in front of the telly!

Cheers

Good morning!

I see Hansie's tips for Round 8 are up :)

I suppose I'd better start thinking about mine.... the Highlanders and the Hurricanes have a bye but everybody else is playing.

I'll be back a bit later on!

With the new Perth Super 14 franchise making offers to rugby players from the existing clubs, the competition is heating up between the clubs to secure their valued players for next season and beyond.

The Waratahs' Lachlan Mackay will play this weekend's round against the Brumbies before deciding whether he'll head west or stay put. The Tahs are also targetting Brumbie Clyde Rathbone.

Brumbies' Mark Gerrard has decided to stay with the Canberra club and re-signed for another two years, and the Reds were delighted this week to announce that their prop Greg Holmes has decided to stay a Red as well.

And so it goes on... and will no doubt go on until the four franchises have their players locked into contracts. One thing seems certain, the Perth franchise will enter the 2006 comp with a Bang rather than a whimper! (My apologies to T.S.Eliot for totally butchering 'The Hollow Men' - but since he's long dead... )

I certainly look forward to next year's Super 14 comp. The extra team can only serve to benefit the game of rugby. Players swapping teams and clubs jostling for players is hardly new - happens all the time. These guys are professional players, who can blame any of them if they take up a better contract? We should congratulate players who've been offered lucrative contracts, they've clearly earnt them one way or another. And in the end, each player has to do what 'he' thinks will serve him the best way.

Spare a thought for the Australian Under 19s who went down to NZ's Under 19s in the U19 World Cup in South Africa overnight. The match was 25 a piece at full time and was decided by penalty kicks from the 22 metre line. The NZ boys kicked 4-2 to take the match and head into the final against South Africa who beat England to earn their spot in the final. Wowee - I'll have to check if there's a replay of that on Fox, what a nailbiter! Congratz to the Kiwis and the SA's for getting through to the final.

Later!

For those who care... and no doubt the NZ visitors to this blog will care, the British Lions squad to tour NZ later in the year has been announced. There's bit of a stink going on over Clive Woodward's picks - of the 44 man squad he has 20 Poms, 11 Irish, and 10 Welshman. Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll is the captain and will no doubt do an awesome job - there does seem to be a bit of a lean towards English players in the squad.....

I just checked out Round 7 tipping results. None of us scored a perfect round - I only picked TWO lousy winners!! ack! Still, there were 12 tippers who picked 5 winners, so Okay, in accordance with the rule in the case of a tie:-

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 :)

I then went to the 'Tip the Scores' leaderboard and Wayne Dugan and Shane O'Neill both scored 210 point, so I had to go to the 'Tip the Margins' leaderboard :) Shane's name came up first there so he's our winner for Round 7. Congratz Shane! I'll pop you through an email... and to think I thought that South Australians were only interested in gayFL.... :)


Cheers

I was down and out for the count yesterday so I didn't update the blog!

My tipping went further down the drain for Round 7 when the Hurricanes (26) defeated the Waratahs (24) despite the Tahs scoring four tries to the Canes 3. The NSW boys managed to pick up two bonus points for the game though; one through the four tries, and the second for finishing within seven points of the Canes.

Chris Whitaker was yet another victim of a head thumping on the weekend, when a knock to his scone saw him have to leave the field just 10 minutes into play.

Time to check out the tipping leaderboards....

What a weekend of surprises! Well, some surprises at least. The Brumbies (18) went down by a point (Doh! I tipped the wrong way) to the Highlanders (19) in Dunedin on Friday night. The Brumbies scored two tries to the Highlanders one from Webb. The cliffhanger saw the game being anybody's right up until the end when a grubber kick from Brumbies flanker George Smith went out. Excitement plus! The Brumbies now face a big climb if they want to get back into the top four on the competition ladder.

The Chiefs thumped the Sharks 40-5 on a very wet NZ paddock. The Chiefs totally dominated, the Sharks never really getting into a handling error filled game. Good for the Chiefs, very disappointing effort from the Sharks.

The Blues eventually got up over the Cats 23-6 in the third game of Round 7. The first half was a very tight tussle, neither team able to break through the defence to score a try. The Blues lifted in the second half to take the game convincingly in the end.

The Stormers vs Reds game was surprisingly good in quality :) The Reds went down by two points 15-13, but they were a vastly improved side on the field. Despite scoring one try less than their opponents the Reds really looked like they could win this game - right up until the full time hooter. Dammit!! Still, their performance was encouraging, and there are a lot of positives for them to take away from the match.

If you didn't catch the Bulls vs Crusaders game - make sure you can the replay. I had anticipated that this would be a Canterbury walkover, I was very wrong, but the match was certainly very good to watch with the Bulls totally dominating the Crusaders to win 30-20. The script went wrong for the Crusaders with just two and a half minutes on the clock when Richie McCaw went in to tackle prop Richard Bands. The two clashed heads and McCaw was out for the count before he'd hit the ground. McCaw was stretchered off several minutes later - here's hoping the brilliant flanker has not been seriously injured.

And from there, well the Bulls just battered and bashed the Crusaders taking the game right up to them and dominating play. The Crusaders never really found any rhythm in the game against the Bulls Express train. Daniel Carter went well with the boot kicking 5 penalty goals, but it was just not enough against the determined Bulls. What a formidable team the Bulls would be if they played like that more often!

Just one more Super 12 game this weekend - should be a good one! Hurricanes vs Waratahs - 12.30pm today on Foxsports. My tipping has been up the creek again this week, oh well.