Top of the morning to you all. If you are a South African rugby supporter you must be beaming from ear to ear this morning and why not. I like the Blitzbokke, and yesterdays performance, all i can say is wow!! I do think that Sithole was tackled over the dead ball area, but shhh lets not tell anyone, that fightback was definitely worthy of the win :)
The Bulls, doing what the Bulls do best and just bulldozing teams with their bully beef forwards. The beauty for me about their revival is all of a sudden no one is saying anything about Chillyboy. I said it from the begining, that boy has game, just like Hanyani had game, but you need game time to be constantly and consistently at your best!! catching splinters on the bench wont do it. The Bulls up and under game though is still such a bore...such a bore. I am absolutely loving the Cheetahs rugby they are my second SA team, first the Lions, who once again will show us what they can do...next year, but mind you this year they have done better than they have done in the last few seasons though, they have won in both Oz and NZ and its been a while since they have been able to claim such successes. The Stormers had it easy in the beginning but now they are taking a little strain due to injuries. SA teams are on a good wicket at the moment and have the potential to have 3 teams in the top 6 with the Bulls late charge. Sharks have a tricky outing this weekend against the Cheetahs, Cheetahs look insanely fit. I am most excited about the SA conference. The Bulls are doing their thing, the Stormers are playing as they should, as too the Sharks, I do hope that thug Deysel gets put away for a loong time wt f?!!! but the cheetahs, with their sidestepping props, Riaan Viljoen and Sarel Pretorius, Ashley Johnson and the Ebersohn twins...such a pleasure to watch
In Australia, the Reds are by far the best thing they have going for them. Waratahs are close but they have had a few key injuries and their depth was properly tested and they have been found wanting thus far. The resurgence of the Reds is due to the implementation of structure and the development of a somewhat competent pack and blitz backs. The pack was properly owned in the scrums on sunday but they had their man of the match Stu so it didnt matter much
NZ conference is going to get messy from here on in. There are going to be some tough scraps Blues v Chiefs is going to be a toughie, Saders v Blues etc. The Landers poked themselves by not winning last weekend and so too the Saders, looked pretty tired in the second half against the Reds and they scuffed a good few opportunities.
I dont like harping on about refs, but this weekend I saw again why my call for neutral refs holds water. Some of the calls were in my favour...Sharks v Tahs, but I want a fair contest and not for the ref to decide the outcome of a game. Stu missed a lot of things both sides in the Reds v Saders game, but a lot of the 50:50 calls went for the Reds. Its human nature. Before you are a professional, you are human of a specific country. no matter how hard you try and be impartial you will go with your instincts. The culmination of his poor refing was evident in the last penalty which awarded the penalty to the Reds for hands in the ruck?! Someone please show me where the ruck was? there was no one over the ball ball was lying there. How can it not be picked up? Anyway bygones.
I actually properly dislike this conference system with home and away local matches!
Anyway thats me out for now
Have a great week
Y
