Super 12 2005 Round 10 - just three more rounds to go. Goes quickly huh?

Time to get in my tips for this week - after getting them all correct last week, I only have one way to go this week… uh oh. Anyway, onwards and forwards.

Tonight:

Crusaders vs Sharks: Live on Foxsports at 5.30pm The Crusaders will be out to lift their form after last week's game against the Cats which they only won by 4 points, and at Jade, against the bottom of the ladder Sharks, I'm going to have to tip the Crusaders, and I think they'll win convincingly so I'll tip them by 8

Reds vs Cats: Live on Foxsports at 7.30pm Chris Latham will be playing his 100th game for the Queensland Reds tonight - Yay and congratulations!! We all love Latho  The Cats played well against the Crusaders last week, but the Reds pulled off a win last week and they should be have gained some confidence. With Ben Tune back, Latho playing his 100th, at home, I'm going to tip the Reds again this week, by 2 - I don't expect this to be a pretty game to watch though.

Tomorrow:

Bulls vs Blues: Live on Foxsports at 3.05am UGH! Don't these people know I need my beauty sleep? Well, the Bulls are in 6th spot and have been on a steamrolling frenzy the last few games, but the Blues are in fourth spot and I think this game could go either way, but I think the Blues will outsmart the Bulls play and so I'm tipping the Auckland boys to win by 3

Highlanders v Waratahs: Live on Foxsports at 3.30pm I wouldn't mind being at this game except Dunedin is a bit cold for this Queenslander, this game 'should' be a goodie! It will be interesting to see Brendan Cannon and Adam Freier take on Anton Oliver. The Tahs are on top of the table but they've had two losses compared to the Highlanders who have only lost the opening round. The Highlanders have been to the finals before, back in 1999, so I think they're very keen to be at the finals in 2005. I suspect the House of Pain will be filled with happy Highlanders by the full time whistle so I'm tipping the South Islanders to win by 4

Hurricanes v Brumbies: Live on Foxsports at 5.30pm This is a coin toss…. Both of these teams have gone off the boil. The Brumbies have had ongoing injury woes, but Giteau is up for it at flyhalf and that's got to be a good thing. I'd love to tip my beloved Brumbies, but I think the Canes are going to be at their spoiling best, and they'll be keen to get back into the top 4 on the ladder so I'm going to tip the Canes by a point.

Stormers v Chiefs: Live on Foxsports at 12.00am This is a really hard call to make as well! I think the Stormers will be determined to win after blowing it against the Blues last weekend. I just took a peek over on the South African rugby website - Schalk Burger is definitely playing - I reckon he could take on the Chiefs all by himself… I'm tipping the Stormers by 3

Well that's it for the tipping. Good news for my fellow Gold Coasters - Uncle Pete's springing the money for a shiny new footy stadium down here. I hope it'll be located conveniently to me - yep that's selfish!! But hey....

Have a great weekend of rugby - if you're playing go hard or go home, if you're watching from the comfort of your lounge chair, enjoy!!

Cheers

Good morning!

I can't believe it's Friday already - I don't want to believe it's another long weekend coming up. I remember a time I used to love long weekends, that was sometime BC (before children).

Hansie's tips for Round 10 are up - I'll do mine a bit later on, I know the anticipation is hard to handle for you but you'll just have to wait a couple of hours :)

I caught the replay of the Heineken Cup semi-final between Toulouse and Leicester last night - reminded me just how fast those French backs are! Sheesh! Toulouse have been runners up for the last two years - I think it might be their year in 2005. Either way, with an all French final at least it'll be France's year :) The final between Stade Francais Paris and Toulouse is May 22 at Murrayfield in Edinburgh.

Round 9 tipping comp winner. It's nice to see my name up amongst the top, but I can't win the prize anyway, so take my name out of it, and there's 7 people who scored 5/5 for Round 9: In accordance with the rules...

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 :)

There are three tippers on the front page of the 'Tip the Scores' leaderboard for Round 9 - shane oneill, Darren Brew and Rowan, but Shane has done it again this week - congratz! I'll mail your $5 scratchie out to you.

I had a quick look at the overall 'Tip the Winners' leaderboard - it's close! Ben Cummings is sitting on top by a point, but there's a swag of people breathing down his neck.

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....