Round Three Shocks!

Round three ends with a Sunday lacking in any footy.  I hate it when you have a whole day and there isn’t even one game to watch.  How else is one supposed to overdose on heavily salted deep fried snack treats, and imbibe altogether to much of the amber liquid?  Please administrators of the game, don’t do this to your watching faithful.  With three countries in the competition and three very different time zones there should be a game on each day of the weekend including a great line up on Friday night.

First up the Hurricanes demolish to Force in New Zealand.  No question that it was always going to end this way, however there is cause for concern that Conrad Smith may have suffered a broken leg.  The Hurricanes are riding high after their second successive bonus point win in the competition, leaving them second only to the Crusaders at the end of Round Two.  The game failed to excite, and the long periods without score must’ve perplexed the crowd.  However, this appears to be a consequence of the professional era with teams doing just enough to win.  Some of the easiest points of the weekend predicting this one, and for a full match report click here.

Back to the Blues who have generated so much comment on the blog so far, the Southern men interpret their first win of the competition.  An ‘analysis’ or as near as you’ll get to it from Otago, can be read here.  Some good comment on how the Highlanders managed to tough out a win against the flashy boys from the north whom all seem to agree have their minds elsewhere.  However, the Southern men will be less than impressed that the first suspension of the competition involves flanker Craig Newby, suspended for a high shot.  Click here for the scoop on that.  Suspensions are part of the game and the Highlanders ought to be able to cope with it.

A suspension for that in the context of the kicking the Colonel’s best mate, Sione Lauaki, got at the weekend when being welcomed to South Africa by some of the locals.  Fair enough to beat the rap if you weren’t involved, but that does raise the question of who was responsible for the low shot?  In any event, being caught on the wrong side of the ruck should carry consequences for players and perhaps it will happen a bit less often and we’ll see more good clean ball being fed to the backs this season because of it.  Click here for the basis of the decision according to the South African press.  Click here for more on the game.

Another ‘shock’ of the weekend was the Brumbies 27-21 win of the Bulls at home.  As we’ve seen previously on this blog, the Bulls have had the hopes of a nation pinned on them in the competition.  And, they choke at home.  Last season they were cellar dwellers having been on the road in the first half of the competition, and then strung together 6 or 7 wins on the trot at home.  Not to be this year I’m afraid boys, you’ll have to do better than that against the likes of Gregan and co.  Looks like all the preparation against the crafty Bill Young went astray!  Click here for the full report from Aussie, and here for the match report from South Africa.

Although not such an allegedly shocking result as the one above, what was remarkable about the Reds Crusaders match from Brisbane was that it took until the 68th minute for the Crusaders to take it away and seal the deal with a bonus point win over the Reds.  Two second half collapses in as many weeks for the Reds leave me wondering what has happened to their conditioning and fitness training.  The boiler room atmosphere of out of this world humidity and heat used to be a problem for the visiting sides playing the Reds, not the home team.  Apart from this the Reds showed some ticker in this game, but fell apart when the Crusaders lifted the tempo to secure the bonus point win to put them at the top of the table.  In season gone by the Crusaders would’ve lost this match as part of their usual slow start to the season and I think we are beginning to see the emergence of the strongest team to claim the Championship this year.  Click here for Aussie comment on the game, and here for the comment from New Zealand.

Elsewhere, New South Wales grab a win on the road.  Not an unexpected result I would suggest, the Warratahs seem to have things together and after the win against the Reds and are riding high early on in the competition.  Two strong second half performances in a row leaves them as contenders to make a push for the finals this year if they can keep the momentum going.  I think that they will struggle against the stronger of the New Zealand sides this year, and I don’t see the necessary improvements they needed to make to beat the Crusaders, but maybe that will come out of they can develop their play during the competition.  Click here for a full match report from Australia, and here for a match report from the South African perspective.

The final upset of the round sees the new Cheetahs outfit devour the Sharks by a whole point!  I guess that the feline newcomers like devouring fish!  At least the new boys have been able to get off the mark and it couldn’t have been against a nicer team.  Take that Percy!  I am guessing that the beef in the front row helped, as did the inspiration of previous antagonism between coach and departed players.  Unfortunately the margin does not give much cause for optimism, but at least they wont be winless this year.  Click here for comment from South Africa on the result, and here for comment from New Zealand.

The standings after round two are quite interesting.  Of note are that the Blues, touted as contenders this season in the pre comp hype, are second to last on points differential, and have yet to get an actual point in the competition (perhaps they need to get the point of the game which is to win on the field, and then develop a celebrity reputation or cult following, not the other way around).  Even the lowly Reds and Chiefs are ahead of the Blues as each team has been able to muster at least a bonus point.  The top four in the competition are, as expected two New Zealand teams, being the Crusaders and the Hurricanes.  The other two teams are from Australia, being the Brumbies and the Warratahs.  Again this is not unexpected.  The Africans will need to pull finger to get themselves into contention for a final in this competition. Check out the results from Round two and the standings here.