SupeRugby Round 7 PreJudgement:

Looking at this weeks fixtures I'm going to put my head on a block for three certainties. Blues, Force and Reds for wins, good ones. The Bulls could sneak a win and the rest is pretty tough to call. With the Crusaders on a bye this week, which puts them on top of the log before a tackle is made, some of the other NZ hopefuls get a chance to strut their stuff for NZ National coach, Graham Henry. One thing for sure is the game of the week will without doubt be in Durban as the Sharks host the Stormers.

Highlanders v Brumbies (Invercargill)
The Brumbies will be hoping that the past weeks bye for the Highlanders will put them off the pace. The Brumbies have gotten off to a shocking start this season and are in serious trouble of not qualifying for the knock out stages. The Highlanders, on the other hand, will be looking to put the Australian team out of the running and strengthen their own chances.
PreJudgement: Highlanders by 4

Waratahs v Chiefs (Sydney)
The Chiefs are bottom of the NZ conference and looking to turn their luck around in Sydney against the Waratahs. Both the Waratahs and Chiefs haven't been performing to their usual high standards and are going to be attempting to capitalise this weekend. Kurtley Beale at 10 for the Waratahs might be the difference in this game.
PreJudgement: Waratahs by 11

Blues v Cheetahs (Northland, NEC)
I think the only people remotely willing to put money on the Cheetahs, would be a few die hard fans, the coaching staff and parents. I'm sorry to say but I think there could be a record broken here. I really hope that I am proven wrong but looking at what the Cheetahs have to deal with just in the backline, I fear the worst.
PreJudgement: Blues by 29

Hurricanes v Bulls (Napier)
This is proving to be a tough one to call. Both teams have lost their mojo, with the Hurricanes physically looking down and out once the Rebels started applying the pressure last week. The Bulls have just not been themselves. If one of these teams don't turn it on this week we could be in for the most boring game in history...
PreJudgement: Bulls by 8 

Force v Rebels (Perth)
The battle of the newbies. The two youngest SupeRugby franchises will be doing battle in Perth on Saturday. If the Rebels' short history is anything to go by, they are going to be on the wrong end of 40 points. The Rebels have often struggled the week after a win, coupled with the fact that they are away from home.
PreJudgement: Force by 17

Lions v Reds (Johannesburg)
The Reds are going to walk this by some margin. The Lions have shown some promise this season but it looks as if they they will only reap the rewards in the 2012 season. The Reds have been  on fire this season and with New Zealander Mike Harris getting his first start this season, there are going to be fireworks.
PreJudgement: Reds by 22

Sharks v Stormers (Durban)
The game of the weekend! I think the Sharks have made two mistakes with the run on team for Saturday: 1: Jacques-Louis Potgieter should be somewhere else and Meyer Bosman should start at 10 and 2: Lwazi Mvovo should be starting. The Stormers welcome Schalk Burger back to the starting line up which is always good to see for the Stormers, Springboks and neutral fans. Hopefully all the traveling won't get to the Sharks as they need to be on top of their game to beat a resurgent Stormers team.
PreJudgement: Stormers by 9

Adidas and the Stormers are ALL IN

A few of the Stormers were at Canal Walk, Cape Town promoting the new Adidas campaign, Adidas All In. Some of the Stormers Springbok representatives were present: Schalk Burger, Peter Grant, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana, CJ van der Linde, Jean de Villiers, Gio Aplon and Juan de Jongh.

Just looking at these eight players it is no surprise that the Stormers are top of the SupeRugby log. The Stormers have the added bonus of welcoming captain, Schalk Burger, back from injury on Saturday, as he starts against the Sharks in Durban.Conrad Jantjies returns from injury too but can't make the Stormers squad to travel to Durban and plays in the Vodacom Cup.

Why no justice?

Sonny Bill Williams aka SUPERMAN has tried his best to take Ryan Kankowski's head off during, what I see as a dangerous tackle. Once the sighting commission had a look at the incident, they decided not to act on it as "it was not a red card offense"! What! What is that rubbish? How on earth is that 'tackle' legal? 

I am speechless at what seems to be inconsistent results that come out of these sighting commissions. 

Are the rules different from player to player or does it go as far as from country to country?

I would love to hear your comments on this matter. Feel free to view the clip first and let me know.

SupeRugby Round 6 Recap:

With four teams winning with a score of 40 or more points if you didn't watch an interesting game of rugby this weekend you weren't watching SupeRugby! The Stormers put 51 points past the Force.The Crusaders and Rebels both stormed (sorry about that) to comprehensive victories over the Sharks and Hurricanes respectively. Both the Stormers and Crusaders have put themselves in great positions to qualify at the top of their conference this early.If they carry on playing like they have this past week nobody will argue that statement either.
Right, here we go...

• The Rebels destroyed, and that is a nice way of describing the Hurricanes performance, their visitors from Otago on Friday by 42-25. It was an inspired performance and they are proving to be the most unpredictable team this year. Read my write up here.

• The Reds brought the Cheetahs back to earth with a thump as they beat them 41-8. Quade Cooper is in sublime form and was clearly in the mood to show off his skills with no look passes and a crazy cross field kick-pass to Digby Ioane behind their own try line, which nearly resulted in a try for the Reds. 

• The Chiefs lost a home derby versus the Blues in a rather uneventful game in terrible conditions. The game saw three tries with two going to the Chiefs. The Blues try came from makeshift centre Jared Payne who, I must say looks very comfortable at 13.

• The Australian derby was between the ACT Brumbies and the NSW Waratahs which was won in the last move of the game by a try from Sitaleki Timani of the Waratahs. The game looked destined to be a draw but the Waratahs had different ideas. With the lead changing five times in 80 minutes you would expect it to be close. The Brumbies however didn't capitalise on Tom Carter's 64th minute yellow card, they only added 3 points off the boot of Matt Giteau.

•  The Stormers finally slept well on Saturday evening after having played to their potential against the Force at Newlands. The Stormers more than doubled their tries scored this season in one game by running in six against the Australian franchise. A brace of tries from Deon Fourie & Jaque Fourie were sights for the sore eyes of the Newlands faithful. Jean de Villiers & Andries Bekker added 5 pointers too. James O'Connor was the only contributor for the Force with a try, conversion and three penalties.

• The Bulls ran in three tries to the two of the Lions as they beat the visiting team by 30-23. The Bulls are still not firing on all cylinders and are not looking at all like the championship winning side that they were in 2010. The Bulls start the away leg of the tournament next week as they take on the down and out Hurricanes and will be looking to start the tour with a win.

• By far the best game of the weekend (Rebels v Hurricanes came close) the Crusaders crushed the Sharks at Twickenham by 44-28. There were at total of nine tries scored of which five were scored by the Crusaders who are in the best from I have ever seen them in. An unbelievable display by Dan Carter , Sonny Bill Williams and Robert Fruean.The Sharks fought back valiantly but leaked too many points before half time. A mention must go to Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira who was out there to prove a point and did. He scrummed well and was running like a backline player.

What a great weekend which saw the first ever SupeRugby game played outside of South Africa, Australia or New Zealand. Twickenham is the proud owner of the Northern Hemisphere's first ever glimpse of SupeRugby, and what a spectacle the Crusaders and Sharks put on.

Player of the Week: Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira
Team of the Week: The Melbourne Rebels
WTF of the Week: Jacques -Louis Potgieter (He was just poor against the Crusaders)

SA Players Abroad: JP du Plessis (Melbourne Rebels)

Born in Kroonstad South Africa in 1991, du Plessis is earmarked as a Springbok. Having matriculated from Paul Roos Gymnasium who would be surprised?
He switched codes to play Rugby League in 2010 at the Sydney Roosters and fortunately has made his way back to Union in 2011, playing for the Melbourne Rebels.
At 6ft 1in and weighing 92kg's his preferred positions are wing and centre. I am looking forward to seeing what he has to offer.

Melbourne Rebels smash Hurricanes to secure second SupeRugby win!!

With 8 All Blacks in their team you would expect the Wellington Hurricanes to teach the Melbourne Rebels a rugby lesson, similar to that of the Waratahs and the Reds.
This was not the case as the Rebels ran in 6 tries to the Hurricanes 4 for a 42-25 home win. After 17minutes it was business as usual for the struggling Hurricanes as they shot to a 17-0 lead and looked in control. However, come half time, the Rebels had got their game together and leveled matters at 20-20.
The second half proved to be the biggest problem for the Hurricanes as the only added 5 points and conceded 22. The Rebels fought and fought hard for the victory and clearly wanted it more than the Hurricanes. Special mention must go to Jarrod Saffy, Richard Kingi and Nick Phipps who really lead from the front for the Rebels. The Wellington outfit only decided to travel to Melbourne on Thursday instead of traveling earlier in the week to settle in. This does seem a bit out of the norm and I am sure the travel arrangements will change for away games in the future.
The Hurricanes are in serious threat of not qualifying for the play off spots in a few weeks as they keep slipping up to teams they were expecting to take bonus points off.
See game stats on espnscrum.com.
All in all a great performance by the underdog Melbourne Rebels, well done!

SA Players Abroad: Neil de Kock (Saracens)

Neil de Kock was born in Cape Town on November 20, 1978.He plays scrumhalf and excels there, I do however remember him scoring a brilliant try on the wing for the Stormers.
Schooled in Cape Town he went to Stellenbosch University, where he struggled to make the Western Provence team. The 1999-2000 season saw him at the Free State Griffons and from 2000-2006 de Kock played for WP and Stormers. After 10 games for the Springboks and 2 tries he opted to head to the Northern Hemisphere and play for Saracens in the Guinness Premiership (now Aviva Premiership). He has captained the premiership club a number of times and is still an integral part of the set up.