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It is an abridged round of Super Rugby this week with the New Zealanders and South Africans on test match duty. The Reds have a bye but are playing the British and Irish Lions on Saturday night. The other Australian conference teams are undermanned with their respective Wallabies players not available, bizarrely, for this game. [...]
It was a week that gave the pundits for the finals little clue as to what the final make up of top six will be with the Crusaders, Waratahs and Reds all losing games that probably were must wins for them. Conversely the Chiefs, Brumbies and Bulls solidified their stranglehold at the top of their [...]
We are not in the pointy end of the Super Rugby season which seems like a ridiculous statement given that there the finals will not start until July but with the international break looming the victors of some of the games this week could see themselves in prime position for a tilt at the finals. [...]
Round 13 threw up a few surprises last week: indeed it had the feel of “this is what we have been waiting for” from a number of teams with the Reds finally clicking in attack and the bulk of the other games being decided by less than a converted try. This is what the fans [...]
Another week and another pulsating round of Super Rugby last week. Having tipped the Highlanders to lead the competition at the start of the season, I would never would have guessed that we would be waiting until Round 12 for their first win and yet again I underestimated the Waratahs and they came back to [...]
Last week’s round saw, for the first time this season, the favourites in each game winning. For some teams the victories were closer than they would have expected, in particular I am thinking of the Reds victory over the Blues, the Stormers defeat away against the Hurricanes and the Crusaders struggling to get over the [...]
Samsung Electronics Australia and ex-wallaby legend Nathan Sharpe recently announced a newly created national award – the ‘Samsung Nathan Sharpe Medal’. The award has been designed to recognise the effort, dedication and leadership abilities of individual junior rugby union players on and off the field; as well as emphasising Samsung’s commitment to grassroots rugby in Australia. Nathan [...]
It has oft been said by those across the ditch that the Australia conference is the “inferior” conference in the Super Rugby competition. I defy anyone to make the same statement this week after the victory of the Waratahs against the previously impressive Chiefs and the “Battle of Brisbane” between the competition leading Brumbies and [...]
What can one say about Round 9 of the Super 15 last week? Well, it was a tough round for tipsters for one and it was a historic round for the Kings scoring their first win away from home. Really the less said about my tips last week the better to be honest! After the [...]
When it was announced that the Highlanders had the services of Tony Woodcock, Ma’a Nonu and Brad Thorn for the 2013 Super Rugby season, it seemed the Highlanders would have a very competitive team. Between them, the three new signings have 231 All Blacks caps, and 305 Super Rugby caps – when added to the [...]
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