Andrew Conway picture from http://bit.ly/iE3T1Z
Super Rugby
The Canes have sucked consistently this season, generally they intersperse periods of excellence between periods of sucking, but this season they are Mr Consistent. Interesting to see what the clear out of Nonu and Hore will bring for them in the future.
Then it’s going to be a slug fest between the Bulls and the Sharks for one of them to go through. This promises to be a typical, low scoring SA derby, high body count, lots of niggle, a snooooze fest for all except the faithful and the lovers of Greco roman style wrestling. The Sharks should have been in the driving seat going in to this match, but due to their risible performance against the Lions last week, they have to go to Pretoria to beat the Bulls to get in to the last 6 now, and I can’t see that happening.
The only opportunity for the Sharks is that they are the one SA side who occasionally try to run round players instead of through them, and this will be handy as they won’t be running through any of the Bulls in a hurry. They don’t quite have the midfield players to pull this off on a consistent basis though, with Meyer Bosman the chief bashing culprit. I’d reckon the Bulls are going to beat the Sharks by their traditional method (beating them to bloody pulp) and then for the Tahs to take the last place by thumping an underperforming Brumbies side.
IRB Junior World Championships
Ireland have had it tough in these championships, having had to take on heavyweights (in every meaning of the word) England and SA. They’ve acquitted themselves well in both matches, the 42-26 scoreline doesn’t do justice to their tenacity and their never say die attitude against the Boks. Andrew Conway scored a blistering try for Ireland ( see that here http://www.irb.com/jwc/video/index.html under 'JWC Round 2 highlights- Pool C' at 10 mins 30 secs) and they were constantly one pass away from getting past the Boks. Those passes didn’t stick though, but comparing player resources, Ireland punched way, way above their weight by running the Boks a lot closer than the result suggests. Tiernan O'Halloran at full back had a good match, as did Tadhg Furlong. Physicality is something we expect from the Boks, but their number 5 Ruan Venter had an unfortunate and fairly illegal habit of trying to remove the head of whoever he was tackling. Their flyhalf Johan Goosen has some drop goal boot on him, and substitute scrum half Pieter Rademan is a hell of a player.
Ireland wrap things up against Scotland, and I reckon the Scots are going to catch the backlash of two close defeats.
18 Jun, 18:10 Italy - Wales Stadio Comunale di Monigo,
18 Jun, 18:10 Argentina - New Zealand Stadio Plebiscito, Padova
18 Jun, 18:10 Fiji - Tonga Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo
18 Jun, 20:10 Australia - France Stadio Comunale di Monigo,
18 Jun, 20:10 England - South Africa Stadio Plebiscito, Padova
18 Jun, 20:10 Ireland - Scotland Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo
Super Rugby
Friday , June 17
Blues vs Highlanders 19:35
Melbourne Rebels vs Western Force 19:40
Saturday , June 18
Chiefs vs Reds 17:30
Crusaders vs Hurricanes 19:30
Waratahs vs Brumbies 20:30
Bulls vs Sharks 17:05
Cheetahs vs Stormers 19:10
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