Can’t we have Friday on Saturday?
July 5, 2012 in Rugby, Super Rugby
If, like me, you are a hard working individual who spends most of his day in a 3×3 office banging away at the keyboard without any hope of watching Rugby at the office, looking at the fixtures for this weekend makes for depressive reading.
On Friday, while I’m in my office finishing off my year end, the Chiefs take on the Crusaders and the Reds face the Highlanders, which is about as entertaining as you can get from the overseas teams this weekend, and then later on Friday night it will be another classic encounter when the Sharks host the Bulls in a must win match for both teams.
Saturday has me totally uninterested. Firstly we’ll have to suffer through a bottom of the log, totally useless with no effect on the competition, error ridden and about as exciting as your mother in law driveling on about her Sudoko solving methods match of the Blues versus the Force and then another yawn inducing Aussie derby, unless Phil Kearns is commentating in which case you may well want to rather listen than watch the match, between the Aussie Bulls (Waratahs) and the Aussie conference leading, Jake White coached, Brumbies.
In the afternoon we’ll see the Stormers take on the Cheetahs, which might be entertaining to some degree but trust the Stormers to smother the life out of this match with their latest conservative approach to the game and in the evening it will be another clash of the useless when the Lions try to prove why they don’t need John “I talk ugly to you” Mitchell in their coaching box and rather Johan “kyk my bak ore” Ackermann when they host the Crusader beating Rebels….without Bieber O’Connor and Kurtley Beale…
Ja, I do have the benefits of Live Scoring updates, on Twitter, Facebook and other websites, but it just isn’t the same if you can’t yourself see what the heck is happening on the field! Not even to speak of shouting your lungs out when your team scores and the secretary comes running wondering if you spilt your hot coffee on your lap again…..but that’s another story for another occasion….
So considering the fixtures this weekend, it would have been fantastic if the morning matches were switched around…and perhaps if the Stormers and Lions fixtures were swapped on Saturday. But perhaps the organisers were thinking of the hangover state of the Bulls and Sharks supporters on Saturday morning when they decided on the fixtures. Either way, both team’s supporters will have serious headaches come the morning!
My picks for the weekend (don’t use my picks, my record in Superbru is appalling this year!)
Crusaders to beat the Chiefs. McCaw, Carter, Dagg, Read are all black…I mean BACK and the Chiefs’ Sonny Bill already has his eyes squinted on his Japanese millions. I’ve said it before and I say it again, for all the talent he has, it’s wasted on a person who only plays for his own glory and not for the team. A real pity, if he was a true team player, he would have been incredible, but the Saders will keep him intact and experience will defeat youthful exuberance in the closing stages of the series.
Reds to defeat Highlanders. As usual the Highlanders’ season is coming to a stuttering end and they just don’t seem to be able to finish a great start off with a good finish. The Reds on the other hand is on the up and the timing of Quade Cooper’s return was perfect to get the Reds to the top of the Australian conference just in time.
Sharks to pip the Bulls. On paper both teams are very close in terms of quality. Both have very strong packs, good loose forwards and talented backlines. But where it will come down to for me is how Morne Steyn’s boot performs on the day as opposed to the creativity of Michalak combined with the strong running Frans Steyn. The thing with Michalak is, he is french, and we know how good and bad the French can be on any given day…it will be close.
Blues to smash the Force and the Tahs to beat the Brumbies.
The Lions should hold their own against the Rebels, they have some good players coming through and did well against the Stormers’ B team last week. The Rebels as mentioned is sans their Talismen in Beale and Bieber, so it will be a huge ask from them to win on the Highveld.
The Stormers should manage a win against the Cheetahs if they can get their choke hold on them early enough in the game and go into the half leading.They will need a rather strong lead though as we’ve seen last week that if the Cheetahs get a sniff, they go at it like a pitt bull at a fence with a female on heat on the other side…
So, there you have it. I’ll try and sneak a view of some games on Friday morning on the Supersport website live streaming, but you can rather do your shopping with the missus on Saturday morning to make up for Friday night’s late braai…
mickeynelster said on July 6, 2012
Wouldnt mind banging that chick in a 3×3 any day of the week!
Two Cents said on July 6, 2012
you mentioned Phil Kearn’s commentating. On Reunion, another cracker of an Aussie (forget his name now) made another colourful statement regarding retiring Nathan ‘Sharpie’ Sharp, something in the line of ‘and in his 60th year of professional rugby…’
Met uysh said on July 6, 2012
Hahahaha!
Ja, there’s also that Martin chap, don’t know his surname, but a scrawny chap with glasses. Also good fun!
Powa said on July 6, 2012
Lions game will be a good game to watch to try to work out who will move to the Kings
ovalball said on July 6, 2012
Ireeeeeneeeeeee
Hanjo said on July 6, 2012
Hi Uysh, somehow I missed this post yesterday, I’ve started cashing in on the work’s uncapped adsl, So I simply watch the games on live streaming at work. – I’m still looking to find good quality live streaming though, but for now the limited visuals accompanied by the ‘live typed commentary’ will have to do.
I do realise some of you guys work for companies where any site remotely non work related is blocked, so that would cause some troubles.
Met uysh said on July 6, 2012
Ja, I’m using my own 3G internet card with a 2GB cap per month. It uses about 1GB to watch an entire live match. I watch on SuperSport and just log in with my details. As a Dstv subsriber you watch for free on Supersport.com….
Hanjo said on July 6, 2012
I’m not a dstv subscriber, otherwise that would’ve been my first choice too.
Met uysh said on July 6, 2012
What a game! Thanks SBW for proving me right!!
Hanjo said on July 6, 2012
he did have a very good game though, and did score a great try from a few metres out…not sure I agree completely that he proved you right…?
Met uysh said on July 6, 2012
He does play well and did score a very good individual try and in the end he again wanted to be the glory boy and went for the try all by himself with a massive overlap on his outside and cost the Chiefs the draw. He’s a glory boy, not a team man.
powa said on July 6, 2012
Hoe se hulle? Opregte windgat?
Louie said on July 6, 2012
Thanks China
Loki said on July 5, 2012
Crusaders Chiefs is a tough one, the Chiefs will want to finish 1st and the Crusaders will want to ensure a top 6 finish, but I just can’t help shake the feeling that the Chiefs will take it, no matter how close the scoreline, they have usually been pretty bad but I think if ever they were to win a Super Rugby comp it is now.
Sharks Bulls is also too tight to call, the Sharks have a better team on paper for me, but they never really seem to live up to their potential, I want the Sharkies to win, but as much as I dislike the Bulls I think they might just scrape it.
Lions Rebels is a who-the-fuck-cares match. It would be nice if the Lions could win but they seem to be their own worst enemy. Chances are they will screw it up again. The Rebels beat the Crusaders without the manlier Bieber and Beale, but who knows, they also seem to screw it up themselves. Instead of who wants it more, I think its going to be who wants to lose more…
Met uysh said on July 6, 2012
Agree, they will be very close games!
Only thing I’m looking forward to in Lions vs Rebels is to see if Cooper Vuna can cross the white wash a few times, he’s in my fantasy squad!
Loki said on July 6, 2012
Not a good start to the weekend, damn those Crusaders!
Haha, Vuna can definately cause some trouble for that Lions defense. I’m hoping its another 72-65 Lions game, at least it will be exciting then
Met uysh said on July 6, 2012
Urg! That was exciting for a while, but I got bored with it. Will help my fantasy score though!
Phil said on July 5, 2012
Jeez, there’s another urban myth out the window. Here was me and a 1000 others, all believing that MU never works.
Powa said on July 6, 2012
@Phil and you really believe him, secretary n all. Seriaaaas!