Boks Fire Warning Shot

daveirl

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Endurance Man

My mate phoned me from the bloody game , rubbing it in the sorry son of a bi^ch. Gonna have to change my sig soon in preparation for the world cup, get my hopes up all over again ^^.

Was he at the Bulls game or the Sharks game? The Bulls one was a tad anti-climatic. Not a single try!


Oh and Dave, the NZ sides were missing 22 key players for the first have of the competition. That kinda puts it in perspective

daveirl

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EdgarAllenPoo

As long as the Sharks win I'm happy, a few things have come out of the Super 14 that will have an impact on the world cup - all the Australian teams except the Brumbies were incredibly poor, NZ may have actually suffered by resting their main players(middle or end of the season would have been the time to do that) and South Africa will be more of a challenge for teams like France and Ireland than Aus or NZ barring injuries.

Linford

Deleted User wrote:

Was he at the Bulls game or the Sharks game? The Bulls one was a tad anti-climatic. Not a single try!


Oh and Dave, the NZ sides were missing 22 key players for the first have of the competition. That kinda puts it in perspective

I think the games were played back to back in the same stadium.

I thought the Crusaders with all of their All Black stars, including Carter and McCaw, looked very ordinary.

marco_polo

GDM wrote:

As long as the Sharks win I'm happy, a few things have come out of the Super 14 that will have an impact on the world cup - all the Australian teams except the Brumbies were incredibly poor, NZ may have actually suffered by resting their main players(middle or end of the season would have been the time to do that) and South Africa will be more of a challenge for teams like France and Ireland than Aus or NZ barring injuries.

You can definately write off the aussies for the business end of the tournament and I do fancy the Saffers to be very strong come world cup time. However I wouldn't be writing off the All Blacks on the basis of S14 form. It does seem that the enforced break has not had the desired effect on the elite players. However it may well be that they will be very fresh and strong come RWC time.

If you were soley going on the form of the provencial / club sides the you could argue that England have better prospects that Ireland or France, which I don't believe to be the case.

daveirl

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marco_polo

daveirl wrote:

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It was more GDM I replying to, I thought it was a bit harsh to lump NZ in the same category as the aussies .

Endurance Man

Deleted User wrote:

Was he at the Bulls game or the Sharks game?

The Sharks, my home team, anyone know when Sky sports might replay this? I'm gonna have to get into rugby fever once these biatch ass exams are over.

PeteJones

Oh and Dave, the NZ sides were missing 22 key players for the first have of the competition. That kinda puts it in perspective

Get real. Why are people always suggesting that it is the Kiwis that dictate the game plays when it comes to win or loose rather than looking at the facts. As DaveIrl have said the SA teams (especially Bulls and Sharks) have completely changed their game structure this year so please give credit where it is due.

SA is the only team to have beat NZ over the past 3 years consistently and on Saturday both the Crusaders and the Bues had all the ABs back in action and they still lost. How does 22 missing key players (that played on Sat) decide a semi-final win or loss? :rolleyes:

I do believe that the "reconditioning programme" have done more harm than good but only time will tell.

marco_polo

PeteJones wrote:

I do believe that the "reconditioning programme" have done more harm than good but only time will tell.

I wonder myself if there is a point where a rugby player can have too much muscle mass on the body to the point where it affects other skill/speed aspects of their game or increases the likelyhood of injuries. I mean them were already damn big boys before they went into the gym for two solid months.

mikedragon32

daveirl wrote:

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By that logic, England must be the best team in the NH, given they have the two finalists in the HC and one finalist in the Shield competition.

Can't see myself going to the bookies to back either SA or England for the World Cup on the strength of their clubs' performances.

daveirl

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burnedfaceman

i think SA are going to trash england in june and will be the dark horse for world cup and methinks they are the most realistic contender to NZ to win the WC

RuggieBear

burnedfaceman wrote:

i think SA are going to trash england in june

That's because england will be missing all thier European cup finalists p[layers.

PeteJones

By that logic, England must be the best team in the NH, given they have the two finalists in the HC and one finalist in the Shield competition

I don't believe DaveIrl suggested that SA is currently the best and that they are going to win the WC. He suggested that the SA teams played better this year and some Kiwi teams poorer. SA have never done well in the S14 before and because of our changed in structure we now have 2 in the finals because we deserve it and not because the Kiwis allowed us.

daveirl

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burnedfaceman

france and ireland are shorter than them on betfair so i think you could call the fourth favouite a dark horse at 7/1!

daveirl

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daveirl

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burnedfaceman

yeah i backed them at 8.4 the other day on betfair, england will be missing there HC finalists in june but they will still be trashed and SA will be showing what they can do in september, put it this way ireland trashed a weak SA team in october and we were world beaters SA will do same in june to england in doing so they will show what they are capable of in France IMO

burnedfaceman

odds change every sixty seconds in betfair in my defence maybe a lot of people took notice of SA teams in super 14 and have put their money on them in last couple of days hence drift of france and ireland in market

Chucky the tree

Been paying a bit of attntion to the WC market and SA have been 2nd favourites since the 6 nations.


Cant believe people have backed SA at 5/1 though, clowns. England are best team to back at 40/1.

daveirl

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Chucky the tree

They have a bice draw aswell. When they come second they will face either Austrailia or Wales, i would fancy them against both of those.

matdabomb

LOL I would lay the New zealanders at that price.

Bulls all the way.....

When living back in SA used to go to most of the home games. With the old skottle out pre-match

Regards

Sangre

super 14 final tomorrow at 1.30pm sky sports extra afaik.

EdgarAllenPoo

The scoreline ended at 20 points to 19 in favour of the bulls with a last minute try and conversion by the Bulls. The crucial point coming when Francios Steyn failed to convert a Sharks try in the final minutes and then the S=harks couldn't hold onto the ball for the final whistle in the end a last minute try by Bryan Habana which was then converted saw the Sharks lose by just one point.

ivoryhunter

sounds like a cracking match, why wasn't I able to watch it on Sky Sports Xtra (thru NTL) like every other match this year? (instead of boat racing????!)

EdgarAllenPoo

It was on Sky Sports extra but you had to press the red button(on the Sky remote not sure how it works for NTL) and access it through Sky Active.

ivoryhunter

oh ok, don't have that option when with NTL. Can't believe they showed boat racing over the S14 final, particularly when they showed all other S14 games through the year. Yet another negative to add to my growing list with NTL!!

Fúck sake GDM have you ever heard of a fúcking spoiler? Was going to watch this game later on, thanks for that. Really appreciate it.

Endurance Man

Deleted User wrote:

Fúck sake GDM have you ever heard of a fúcking spoiler? Was going to watch this game later on, thanks for that. Really appreciate it.

ditto

zAbbo

while I feel your pain, it may not have been best advised to enter a thread which is essentially the game thread.

Pinetree Boy

Don't know why anyone would think the Boks are anything but a good bet. Down here in NZ they have been seen as the biggest threat for the last 18 months followed by the French. South Africas big problem is putting all the talent together in a Bok team where politics is a constant problem.