Upsets Continue in Round Three

Stormers Get First Win Against Lowly Chiefs

The Stormers handed the Chiefs their third loss from as many games, defeating one of the most dissapointing franchises from New Zealand this season 21-16 at Newland Stadium early saturday morning Australian time. I'm hoping that this is the last time this season that there wont be a game on to watch on Friday evening, nice organisational skills SANZAR. Get your act together. Aside from that, not much to say about this game except that the Stormers and the Chiefs are now tied at the bottom of the table on 5 points. It will be a long season for fans of either side from here on in.

Western Force Surprise Hometown Faithful

The Bulls surrendered their growing legend of toughness at home to newcomers, the Western Force this weekend, going down 30-27 in what was one of the more thrilling games this weekend. Cameron Shepperd was to the fore in his sides win against the predictions of most punters, and certainly the bookies. He scored 2 tries and kicked 6 goals for a massive point scoring haul to take his side home. Always nice to see a fat man score a try, and in this case we saw prop Gareth Hardy score the winning try for his side - especially sweet. The Force seem as if they may be...well a force to be reckoned with this season.

Hurricanes Pip The Blues

In Wellington the Canes managed to make Tana Umagas 300th first class game a fond memory for him downing the Blues by one point 23-22 in a see sawing match that the Blues will be kicking themselves for losing. They ought to have taken this match, but failed to show the necessary discipline and toughness in adverse circumstances and this cost them the game. Having won by one point the previous week, there is a certain sense of poetic justice about this result, incuding the fact that the Blues will at least walk away with a bonus point, and possibly can get into a good frame of mind to take on the resurgent Reds at home this coming weekend.

Ausse Derby Falls Flat

The much hyped Reds Brumbies match failed to deliver any attractive rugby as a hard fought, and very lucky 6-3 victory was attained by the Brumbies over a poorly judged match. Eddie Jones has been described as being OUTRAGED over the referee's calls during the game, especially those against the dominant scrum...I'd have to agree with him. There are too many backs outthere refereeing scrums about which they clearly know nothing and it is ruining the one aspect of the game that still sets Union apart from the other codes. The scrum is key, and we want to see a decent competition up front and well matched sides use their beef. This was a scrappy and intense game, but again this is one that wont make the highlights dvd for this season. Unfortunately Jones' contribution to free speech in Australia is likely to land him in hot water and incur a fine. This only adds to the Reds predicament after centre Johanssen was cited for a high tackle.

CheeTAHS To Good For Woeful WarraTAHS

The battle of the Tahs has been fought this year, and the Aussie side have slumped to their second loss for the season, the homeside Cheetahs continuing on their impressive run since entering Super 14 last season. They won in Kimberley 30-26 over a Warratahs side that included the underperforming multimillion million dollar man Lote Tuqiri who was shown a thing or two about commitment and performance by the rising star Kurtley Beale who scored brilliant solo try in his first Super 14 start. We will be seeing much more of Beale, and may even see more of him come world cup time...The Warratahs will look forward to the bye and to having some home games in the coming weeks after this tour.

Crusaders lose to Lions

The biggest upset of the round must be the Crusaders loss to the woeful Lions in the republic in a poor game that was decided 9-3 in faovur of the home side. This was a tryless encounter, as the Crusaders continue to feel the effects of the loss of their All Blacks for the first half of this season. On the road in the republic this side have been knocked over in other boilovers, but this was a particularly poor game by their standards and it can be put down to the second string side having to play in World Cup year. Not much to take out of this one except the fact that the Crusaders may not be worthy of backing this season, and of course they do get a bonus point in this one which may help at the end of the season.

Sharks Beat Highlanders

This was probably the easiest to predict of all games this round. The Sharks did manage to play to the script and took out the game thanks to Montgomerey who scored all 23 of the Sharks points against the 16 mustered by the Highlanders. This kept the Sharks unbeaten record intact and provided good competition points for this side who are now at the top of the table, 3 points clear of the Force, Blues, Cheetahs, Brumbies and Hurricanes all tied for second place on 9 points.

And that is it for round 3. Plenty of tight games, but only a couple produced any actual excitement. Bring on Round 4 (the first of the rounds with byes for some of the sides).