Jeepers! This Super 12 season is flying by - Round 9 already :(

South Africa's new team, in Free State central for next year is in limbo - the selection has upset RSA's sports minister who was pushing for the base to be in a black African rugby stronghold. Even the country's rugby management committee didn't all agree, with five of the committee filing a motion to have the decision set aside. The upshot is that there's to be a special meeting with the powers involved this Saturday to review the whole selection process. Messy!

The Force claim to have 11 players signed up for next year - give us names guys, that's what we want to know :)

The Reds heads will no doubt be a slightly happier crew today now that Hugh McMenimen has re-signed with them for the next two years. Sadly he won't be playing in the game against the Sharks tomorrow night in Brisbane due to a corked thigh.

It's time to get in the tips for Round 9. The Brumbies and Tahs have a bye, so again there's just five games this week.

Tonight:

Hurricanes vs Highlanders: Live Foxsports at 5.30pm This is a really hard game to pick. The Canes at home will be very strong. The Highlanders have been playing good footy though and their confidence must be high enough for them to really rate themselves a chance in this game. I think I'll go the Highlanders by a point.

Tomorrow:

Crusaders vs Cats: Live Foxsports at 5.30pm. Crusaders by a country mile :)

Reds vs Sharks: Live Foxsports at 7.30pm. Well the Reds have absolutely nothing left to lose this Super 12 season, so I'm hoping that they're going to get out there and give it a go. I reckon they should pull Wendell in off the wing and either put him at inside centre or in the forwards - he's strong enough, and at least he'd get to see plenty of ball :) Yes, they've been dismal, but I'm going to tip the Reds to win this game - by 3.

Bulls v Chiefs: Live Foxsports at 10.57pm. I suspect the Chiefs are going to get belted by the big Bulls forward pack - just watching them scares me :) Bulls by 5

Sunday:

Stormers v Blues: Live Foxsports at 12.55am. Another toin coss for me - I suspect this game will go one way or the other quite convincingly. The Stormers are at home but the Blues have gotten their acts together in the last few rounds, so I'm going to tip the Blues by 3.

So there you go - good luck with your tipping, and have a great rugby weekend!!

The Force execs have been busy rustling up players for their new team. So far they've managed to nab Flyhalf Lachlan Mackay from the Waratahs as well as Red Nathan Sharpe. Clyde Rathbone's over in Perth being wooed, so we'll have to wait for the outcome on his expedition. Reds Ben Tune, who for all money was expected to sign up with Perth, is wavering - he has a young family and a new baby to consider so he's got some thinking to do as yet. And, in an interesting move the Force has withdrawn its offer to lock Hugh McMeniman who's been one of the shining lights in the dark hole that has been the Reds Super 12 2005 season. Jostle, jostle!

Former Waratahs player Milton Thaiday has decided to switch codes and play rugby league, the code he grew up playing, and he's under contract to the Newcastle Knights. Good luck!

Hansie's tips are up. I've just started thinking about mine.... as usual.... Some are simple decisions this week, and then there's Stormers vs Blues... hmmmmm

Yesterday the NZ union were cranky with ticket scalpers on TradeMe - today they've got a pile of tickets for the Lions tests listed on TradeMe.. I shit you not - take a look at one of them for yourself - LIONS v ALL BLACKS, AUCKLAND 3RD TEST $395.00 They've at least stuck to their moral high road and the price is a 'buy now' price - no more, no less. Still......

Good news for the Reds - it couldn't be any worse than it's been. Ben Tune and Flats will both be playing this week in the game against the Sharks. I'd love to get along and be a Ballymoron just to see BT. And.... Lloyd Johansson is on the bench this week. I hope Miller pulls him off that bench and throws him on the field, I hope the young Gold Coaster gets capped this week.

The West Australia Super 14 rugby union team is to be known as...... the Western Force. The logo has a black swan, blue background, and golden lettering. Looks pretty good! Simple yet effective. Kudos to the designer :) Nathan Sharpe will look good wearing that!

Good morning! No news as yet on the Perth logo or name... it will supposedly be released 11.00am-ish WA time.

Interesting story in Stuff.co.nz this morning about ticket scalping for the upcoming Lions tour of NZ. Apparently a swag of Kiwis are auctioning off their tickets on TradeMe - the shaky isles homegrown version of ebay. The NZ Union isn't too impressed and have said that they "would wipe the validity of tickets sold by on-line scalpers".

Let's think about that for a moment. The same story goes on to tell us that scalping is legal in New Zealand. (that's ticket scalping - not the other sort, I'm sure they've made that illegal by now) - so what's the problem? By making scalped tickets invalid the only people who will dip out are the poor sods who pay the big money for the tickets to the scalpers. The scalpers aren't going to lose! I don't see the point in punishing the ticket buyers - is it some kind of reverse logic peculiar to Australia's East island neighbours?

I don't condone ticket scalping, but hey it's not 'new' - I suspect there were shady looking guys in skirts hanging around outside the Gladiator events in ancient Rome muttering 'Tickets for sale'. It's supply and demand. Quite frankly I find it more annoying that the ARU only offered tickets in sets of 4 for last year's Australia vs England test, and the Quarter finals onwards RWC games in 2003 - too bad there's 5 people in this family, three of them being kids. It would have been pleasant if we'd been able to sit together, alas that is apparently a too big an ask.

Ticket scalping is no doubt the last thing on the minds of the English dominated Lions squad - Clive Woodward's apparently gathered his crew together and the chest puffing has commenced. I'm sure we're all pleased. Clive wants them to focus on winning, but also wants the squad to enjoy themselves on this upcoming tour - according to the article that's a newie.

Hansie's Round 8 wrap up is up! Thanks mate! psssst... I think I did better in my tipping this week than he did.. heh

I've updated the Super 12 Ladder as at the end of Round 8 2005. The Waratahs are on top, but oh boy there's a pile of Kiwi teams breathing down their necks! The Crusaders, Hurricanes, Highlanders and Blues all take up the next positions. Good for NZ rugby! But I don't know... when the NZ teams 'aren't' winning their fans bellyache like mad, and when their teams 'are' winning they crow like mad... I'm not sure which is the lesser of the two evils :))

Anyway, there was a pile of smart alecs who picked all the winners in Round 8 - I'm holding the Brumbies responsible for my only flaw this week!! So, in accordance with the rules of the tipping comp, I've gone to the 'Tip the Scores' leaderboard for round 8 and David Tucker's name came up first from the perfect 'Tip the Winners' leaderboard - David scored 174 points on the Tip the Scores board. Congratz David, drop me an email and I'll send you out your scratchie!

And because I just KNOW how thrilled everyone will be... tomorrow - the Perth Super 14 team's name and logo will be announced. I could speculate.. the Perth Pussycats, Perth Patriots, Perth Pumas, Perth.... bit like naming a baby really without the associated trauma :)

Later!

Once the local rugby season starts full on and Super 12 is on at the same time I almost feel overdosed on the game by the weekend's end. Is it just me or does anyone else get that 'it's all blending into one' feeling at times?

On Friday night the Chiefs thumped the Cats 45-14 in Hamilton, Byron Kelleher starring by scoring two tries for the NZeders.

The Bulls forwards came out again this week determined to take no prisoners in their game against the Reds. Who can blame them? The formula served them well in the previous round against the Crusaders, and it again proved very effective against the lacklustre Reds with the Bulls having a convincing 32-7 win, picking up a bonus point in the process.

The Auckland Blues should thank Xavier Rush for their flattering final scoreline finish of 36-13 over the Sharks. There were mistakes aplenty in this encounter, and for the majority of the game the game could have gone either way. In the last quarter though, Rush stepped up to the mark and led by example to directly help his team bung on three quick tries to finish the game and pick up a bonus point.

The Brumbies blew their Round 8 game down in Canberra trailing the Waratahs 6-10 at the end of the 80 minutes. This was not a good game to watch, but the Tahs got the points on the board to win in a game that saw George Gregan break his leg - meaning of course that he's now out for the rest of the Super 12 season. Good win for the Waraths!

The Crusaders cruised to a whopping 51-23 victory over the Stormers. Ouch! They might start the season slowly, but once they get going it doesn't take them long to get up near the top does it? In the second half of this game they ran in 7 tries and 48 points! Reminds me of that old joke about what Hirohito said when the atomic bomb landed... They're now in second place on the ladder. I think I'll have to try to get over to Jade to watch them play a game this season - awesome performance.