Western Force 18 - Brumbies 27: I know what happened in the pre-season matches, but I don't pay attention to scores. If Bartholomeusz is the best that the Force have at ten, Giteau will have almost no opposition.
Cheetahs 12 - Bulls 36: The Bulls are not exactly slow starters.
Blues 33 - Hurricanes 27: The Blues always win their first fixture of the season.
Sharks 18 - Chiefs 13: This is the most difficult game to anticipate. The Sharks don't look certainly near as powerful as they should by this time of year, but the Chiefs are the masters of slow starts.
Lions 23 - Stormers 44: There's definately firepower in Cape Town.
Reds 19 - Waratahs 23: Forget about the pre-season, one cannot expect McKenzie to single-handedly defeat the Waratahs.
Crusaders 38 - Highlanders 17: Last year the men from
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I think you have made a huge improvement in both style and writing. i am certain that the NZ sides will fare better than their counterparts but I am counting on the Stormers and the Cheetahs to pickoff the Sharks and the Bulls and the Brumbies to rule the roost in Australia. As usual I will root for the Hurricanes and watch the Blues and hope that somebody will put the sword to the Crusaders.
ReplyDeleteThank you, miff. Huge compliment.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Stormers are unpredictable. And if last year they were unusually underperforming, this year they could easily be playoff contenders. However, I think the Bulls are a good way ahead of every South African team, and it is difficult to see the Stormers overtaking them.
I think Spiro Zavos said that the loss of Habana (who to his reckoning was 50% of their kick and chase tactics) was always going to be a massive blow for the Bulls. What is your feeling?
Like you said, the Bulls are massive in depth and the loss of Habana won't necessarily hurt them. What will hurt the Bulls more than anything is their Boer rugby mentality, conceptually the antithesis of the new rules.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the Cheetahs can shake that same genetic flaw.
The Sharks have always been my least favorite side because, like Toulon, the Sharks want to buy a great team.
The Stormers have come up short the last few years but I think that of all the South African franchises the Stormers are the most open. I mean, would you ask Robbie Fleck to coach your backline? He must offer something up to get Habana and Fourie.
The Lions are a bit like England in that they have the largest base of players in the country but again I might ask, would you hire Jake White as a rugby consultant?
So, I will go with the Stormers and the Cheetahs.
I will dismiss the Crusaders because of Blackadder and I will vehemently disavow the Reds because of Ewen McKenzie.
Some may say that the coach has nothing to do with the success of a team. In some respects I would agree to disagree but would you invite a contempuous drunkard to an alcoholics anonymous meeting or a vestial virgin to a post rugby match party with Justin Harrison, Quade Cooper, Scott Fava, Matt Henjak, Jimmy Cowan, Matt Rogers, Matt Stevens Robin Brooke , Gareth Thomas, Trevor Brennan, and Jack the Ripper? They might not to anything but then again they might. I'd prefer to know just exactly what they might or might not do. There isn't much room for guesswork when it comes to winning rugby matches and that is what it is all about, isn't it?
I'd say the crystal ball worked well. ironically the two you missed, I got. Have you read Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind, Spanish translation of Diego Rasskin-Gutman(strange Spanish name) by Deborah Klosky...MIT Press
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