SA teams stay top
by Tony Johnson | 15 March 2010 (09:41)
The Bulls have picked up where they left off and are firming all the time as favourites to win their second straight Super 14 title.
On current form they are not going to miss out on the top four, and the only thing that might stop them winning the title is if they give up home advantage and have to make a dash halfway round the world for a semi or final.
They are playing a much more complete game this year, with Morne Steyn showing he is far from being a one dimensional kicking fly half. He is playing superbly outside the worlds best scrum half Fourie Du Preez.
The Highlanders did enough to show that they are not unbeatable, by scoring four tries, a fair effort for a team not known for chalking up the five pointers, but the Bulls always had them at arms length.
It is hard to see them losing against a Hurricanes team that has performed woefully two weeks in a row, but we will talk more about that later in the week.
The Stormers again looked impressive in dismissing the Canes. They have really good structure on both attack and defence, which allied with their tremendous physical strength and speed makes for a potent mix.
Their scrum doesn’t look imposing, but they’re ticking all the other boxes
They will meet the Bulls in the final round of the round robin, and who knows what will be at stake.
For the second week running the Crusaders were the only New Zealand team to win, and it came at the expense of fellow Kiwis the Chiefs in a cracking match in Hamilton.
The first forty was as good as it gets, and it was only a heavy blast of rain, the first we have had for a match in New Zealand so far, that prevented the second half from reaching the same heights.
Having spent so much time on the subject of refereeing last week, we should give credit to Mark Lawrence, for his excellent performance. Sensing a positive attitude from both sides he allowed them to dictate the game and the result was a great contest.
I watched the Sharks Brumbies game on Saturday night, and enjoyed the tightness of the competition. Again the Sharks didn’t have a lot of luck. The offside call against Ryan Kankowski that gave the Brumbies the edge certainly looked debatable.
However the Sharks also had plenty of chances elsewhere and made errors at crucial times, so this time I don’t think they can blame the ref.
To let him officiate in any visible capacity smacks of belligerence by the Aussie refs bosses who seem to want to back their guys no matter what. Surely the sensible thing to do for all concerned, including Marks would have been to take him off the radar for a week. To leave him on the roster was inviting trouble
And maybe we have to get off Andy Goode’s back now. The man with the “scullett” atoned for his unfortunate first couple of games with a strong performance. He kicked well and was prepared to take the ball to the line, which is something England could do with right now, instead of Jonny Wilkinson who is playing so deep he might as well be another fullback.
By the way did you see the England Scotland game?
You didn’t? Well lucky, lucky you.
