Great Super 15 for SA

with 3 sides in the top 5, is pretty impressive and shows the depth of quality we posses.

Brilliant by the Stormers to finish tops......they have been steady throughout, relying on a rock steady defence and at times a power pack.....all this without the services of Schalk and Vermeulen. The profiles of youngsters like Kitshoff, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Kolisi and Elstadt have come to the fore. They have missed the grunt of Etzebeth of late and will need him back in 2 weeks time. The unsung hero is Grant at 10, he has manned the ship well.

The Bulls have been up and down, mostly up, but I fear that they might have peaked and face the Saders who struggled early on and are now peaking. Their biggest issue is the exposure of Werner Kruger at 3 and without Flip they lack grunt. Jacques Potgieter has been a good find and the real star emerging is JJ Engelbrecht at 13 - the Bulls have not had a quality 13 in years. Good to see Hougaard back to his best today, the guy is awesome. Its going to be a tough call beating the Saders at home - they will have to play out of their skins to achieve this.

The bloody Sharks are brimming with talent but have been so frustrating to watch at times, losing games they were dominating. But credit must go to them for clawing it back and they look like real contenders. Bismark in the power stakes is a freak, Coetzee has been a revelation, Daniel and Kankan are in great form, Frans has added the finishing touches, JP is on fire and they have some quality youngsters in Steph du Toit, Bresler, Whitehead and Jordaan.

Meyer just needs to make sure he identifies the talent that is so apparent and translates this into a dominat Bok side......what a treat it must be to be the Bok coach right now with all this talent at your disposal.  

...sitting bull can see both the dozy bulls and sharkies getting knocked out next week ...sharkies being SA best bet with Frans Steyn allowed to play...leaving just a rain puddle team that fails to score tries, to defend SA Super 15 hopes....haha...things are looking up...

Bulls not looking as convincing as earlier in the season. Both Steenkamp brothers are very ordinary at lock for their respective unions and will really need to get some mongrel into their game.

Moving forward, the Bulls have a very tough assignment against the Crusties which I suspect they will lose. The Sharkies on the other hand will play the Reds, also a tough assignment especially without Fransie at 12, but can still take it to the Reds and beat them at Suncorp, more so if Cooper does not play. The Stormers really need to back themselves and start running in some tries, cos they look awesome when they put the phases together and run the ball. All in all, I think the Crusties are the biggest threat to a SA victory.

The fact that SA has three of the top 6 teams in Super 15.   The Sharks buggered up by losing to the Lions - but the same can be said about the Crusaders losing to the Rebels.    However, there  a problem - the Chiefs lost three of their games to new Zealand lower-ranked teams - especially the loss against the Hurricans showed that they do not have the fire-power up front.   The same can be said about the Crusaders.  

I have also noticed that despite their power in back lines - there are far too many bad passes and far too many penalties - especially given away by McCaw and other forwards as well.   They are not unbeatable and that is a fact.   They actually struggle when under pressure - and the missing 16th man that they had for years - namely referees - are not allowed to bugger up and influnce games as they did in the past.   Crroked and poor referees allowed them to win games they should have lost.

Although I am pretty sure that the Crusaders can beat the Bulls - their next assignment will be the Chiefs.   I favour the Crusaders in such an event.   The New Zealanders must hope that either the Sharks or the Reds can beat the Stormers in the other semi - otherwise the Crusaders will have to travel to SA for the final.   That would not be very easy for the New Zealand team involved.

I give the Sharks a better chance to beat the Stormers at Newlands than i give to the Reds - but continent hopping could be a factor in this scenario.

To come back to the main topic.   The Stormers plays uninspring rugby - but despite that they still tops the log.   Big problem for opposing teams to face - New Zealand teams in the past had problems in the finals if they had to travel to SA for semi-finals or finals (remember the Chiefs and Crusaders also had problems) - so there is a chance that the same could happen in this case..

The games next week will be particularly interesting and could also have upsets involved.   Over the past three weeks there has been upset results all-round so it can also happen in the play-offs also.  The top two teams on the log can indeed be lucky that they have a week off.   and not be involved in the play-offs.    I give the Vrusaders a 60% chance to beat the Bulls and the Sharks a 60% chance to do the same.   The Crusaders would have a 55% chance to beat the Chiefs.    In any event - Stting Bull - both teams should have pryayer sessions to pray for the Stormers to be beaten at Newlands - a visit there would be very difficult - especially after a hard game in the semis. .

.....sitting bull predicts Crusader win against dozy bulls....Crusaders then travel to Newlands for splashing good fun game with Moonbeans rain puddle team.....resulting in Crusaders and Mighty Chiefs final at Waikato stadium....so does'nt look like the Mighty Chiefs will get to play rain puddle team sadly.....meaning the two leading teams wont have played each other all season...not very satisfying for sitting bull but winning the Super 15 title should make up for the disappointment.....

Sitting Bull

Please do your homework properly before you post anything on this site.   There is NO WAY in the world that the Crusaders can come to Newlands for the semi-final at all - because of the fact that the Chiefs ended up second on the log.   They will have to beat the Bulls and then play in the semis against the Chiefs.   As a mattr of fact there is no chance of a New Zealand final this year if the Chiefs loses against the Crusaders.  In that event the final will be played either in Cape Town or Brisbane.

I give the Crusaders a 60% chance against both the Bulls and the Chiefs.  I believe the Reds will not beat the Sharks and that would lead to a semi at Newlands.   In that event the messy travel schedule would count against the Sharks.    In that event there is a 70% chance of a final at Newlands - irrespective of which new Zealand team won in the semis.   Your hope of a final between two New Zealnd teams are non-eistent. 

...so the Mighty Chiefs get to play against the Sharkies at Waikato stadium then....

Mike'

"There is NO WAY in the world that the Crusaders can come to Newlands for the semi-final at all - because of the fact that the Chiefs ended up second on the log".

I think you got this wrong Mike because if the Reds (ranked 3) beat the Sharks, they play the Chiefs in Hamilton and if the Crusties (ranked 4) beat the Bools, they will play the Stormers at Newlands.

The Sharkies will never play the Chiefs in a semi final because they (Sharks) have the lowest ranking (6th).

,,,so sitting bull got it right the first time.....someone needs to go to the back of the class haha....

green

You are correct about that one.  I give the Reds a very small chance of beatibng the Sharks though - and the Crusaders could end up at Newslands - but that is a remote one.   My main conteinion was that there is no way that two New Zealand teams can be in the final.