Super 14: Fast and furious at the halfway mark

Here we are at exactly 43% of the Super 14 tournament done. There are upsets galore and the Bulls and Sharks are still up there with 22 and 21 points respectively as number 1 and number 2. A great achievement and a wonderful place to be for the balance of the tournament because now it starts to get fast and furious over the next few weeks, on and off the field.

On the field, with 8 games to go, I have this ongoing fascination with the team that has conceded the most points to date, 196 points against them, even more than the Cheetahs, who are at the bottom of the log and yet this same team has scored more points than any other side, including more than the Bulls, which is lying 5th on the table!

What a paradox is that?

The power of the bonus point is going to come home to roost.

Lo and behold, this team is the Blues.

What they have demonstrated is that besides being overwhelmingly beaten in two games, they had the ability and courage to strike back in each of these pummelling’s to put themselves as the highest points scorer in the Super 14 competition with 176 points, which is 35 more than the Bulls at the top of the log! Are you scratching your head at this? If ever you wanted to bet your mates on a riddle and earn yourself a couple of free beers, now is the time to do it.

Is this an anomaly or what, or is this the way to play Super 14 rugby?

The Blues are a scoring machine and have mastered the offload and pop pass to get those tries.

The 6 danger men who scored most of these 23 tries after just 6 games are:

– Isaia Toeava — Centre
– Jo Rokocoko — Wing
– Taniela Moa — Scrumhalf
– Anthony Tuitavake — Centre
– Chris Lowrey — Loose forward
– Rene Ranger — Full back

This is a backline with strike power and superb ball-handling skills. I could hypnotise you with a blizzard of stats on balls carried, metres gained and offloads. The Blues are at the top of the table in each of these departments as well as having conceded the least penalties of all Super 14 teams. A well-disciplined lot.

The Blues in fact are the “joker” in the Super 14 pack and all opposing teams would do well to be cautioned, extremely cautioned, when playing the Blues as they have the ability and scoring potential to be in the top 4 and do not be surprised when they are up there in the next 4 weeks ready to seek out a home-game semifinal and final. These chaps are really very good and a delight to watch, they epitomise how to play the ELVs.

The line-up this coming weekend for round 7 is:

Fri 27 Mar: Blues vs Waratahs (Auckland)
Sat 28 Mar: Highlanders vs Bulls (Palmerston North)
Sat 28 Mar: Crusaders vs Stormers (Christchurch)
Sat 28 Mar: Reds vs Chiefs (Brisbane)
Sat 28 Mar: Sharks vs Brumbies (Durban)
Sat 28 Mar: Lions vs Hurricanes (Johannesburg)
Fri 03 Apr: Crusaders vs Bulls (Christchurch)

Ah well, onto the off-the-field shenanigans and the brouhaha of the week.

It is going to be a fun 2 weeks. Sanzar officials are in South Africa this week and there is the SA Rugby President’s Council meeting on March 26 where there will be a pitched battle between the “KZN people” and the 13 other unions as to who will be the SA Rugby chairperson and how to expand the Super Rugby tournament with Australia and South Africa banging war drums to be the one extra team in the Super 15.

Keep the 3 conferences of Sanzar as South Africa, New Zealand and Australia for 2010-2014 and admit both the Aussie and SA teams to increase the number of local derbies in a Super 16, which will increase spectatorships at home and please the broadcasters and sponsors and let’s get on with it.

Make the announcements that all is agreed and the players and teams can plan on staying in SA and enter into their 5-year agreements with sponsors for the next Super Rugby rounds.

This is pretty much a shotgun wedding as the South African government is saying, “no Eastern Cape team in Super Rugby, no RWC support for 2015 and 2019”.

Batten down the hatches, a storm is coming!