Bulls squeak home Super 14 Guinness Premiership Magners League

Super 14

The big encounter of the weekend was the Bulls taking on the Crusaders. The result was either a fair reward for the Bulls persistence or a travesty of justice depending where you hail from. A fairer result would have been a draw. It’s dropped the Crusaders to 6th and leaves them with a pretty faint chance of qualifying. The Bulls are sitting pretty on home semis now. The Stormers and Reds both seem to falling by the wayside at the last hurdle, while the Tah’s, Brumbies and Canes are all well placed for the final four. From a national perspective it would be great if the Sharks could save their best performances for teams from other countries. It’s good news for the format of the Super 15 though, where all the teams play local leagues to decide who gets in to the second round, as some of the best recent matches have been local derbies. The Lions will never have to travel overseas again!

This is next week’s matches

Team Points P/D Opposition

1 Bulls 47 119 Stormers

2 Stormers 39 166 Bulls

3 Waratahs 38 81 Canes

4 Brumbies 37 85 Crusaders

5 Hurricanes 37 51 Tahs

6 Crusaders 36 75 Brumbies

7 Reds 34 56 Highlanders

Magners League

Well there were a few heart attacks as Leinster had to come from behind to beat Edinburgh, but they did what they had to do to book a date with … Munster who also came up with bonus point they needed to keep their hopes alive. It should be a good match, I wonder if the new Aviva stadium will get to host it? The Opreys looked imperious as they trounced the Dragons, to book adate at home in the semis with Glasgow. connachts recent dismal form continued as they rolled over to Ulster.

Guinness Premiership

The big shock result was the mighty Leicester losing out to Sarries. I guess they had the home semi in the bag already, but nobody enjoys losing and it will give Saracens hope if they reach the finals. To do that, though they are going to have to beat the resurgent Saints in the pick of the semis. Northampton took down London Irish easily enough, with Mike Catt getting the man of the match award – surely just for pitching up. Bath make up the quartet, that’s 10 wins out of the last 11 matches, could there be some surprises in store?