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FORUM / RUGBY /  The Armchair Coach: Round three

The Armchair Coach: Round three

Started by Just_win5 REPLIES182 VIEWS· 03 Mar 2014, 08:50
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JW
Just_winCaptain18,570 posts
03 Mar 2014, 08:50
#1
03 Mar 2014, 08:50#1

Patrick McKendry runs through all the highs and lows of Super Rugby's second round of action.

Fab four

Blues
Won 35-24 over Crusaders
Eden Park, Auckland
7th overall 2nd in NZC
Look out South Africa, the Blues are coming and on this form they will be expected to beat the Bulls and Lions and maybe pick up one or two bonus points. For the last 46 minutes of this match at Eden Park, the Blues made the All Blacks-laden Crusaders look like a bunch of amateurs. A stunning comeback.

Chiefs
Won 21-19 over Highlanders
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
3rd overall, 1st in NZC
As if we needed any more evidence that the Chiefs are a very good team, this was it. They left it late against the Highlanders, who would have every right to feel disappointed with this result, but they found a way to win. They can be happy with their work so far this season heading into this week's bye.

Waratahs
Won 32-5 over Reds
ANZ Stadium, Sydney
1st overall, 1st in AC
It's hard to know just how good these Waratahs are. Yes they enjoyed their best ever victory over their old rivals the Reds and are sitting on a perfect 10 points after two rounds, but they have played only Australian teams. We'll know more when they play the Sharks and Stormers in South Africa in rounds seven and eight.

Rebels
Won 35-14 over Cheetahs
Aami Park, Melbourne
6th overall, 2nd in AC
The traditional easy-beats have started with a bang. It was only the Rebels' first game of the season - they had a bye last weekend - but there were few signs of rust against the Cheetahs, who have become the one South African side to have become adept at touring.

Back of the week
Israel Folau (Waratahs)
Folau scored two tries to take his tally to five from two matches and is reaping the benefits of playing in a team performing with clarity and belief. Former Crusaders backs coach Daryl Gibson appears to be doing something right in Sydney. Fullback Folau has so many dimensions to his game the Tahs just need to keep giving him the ball.

Forward of the week
Scott Higginbotham (Rebels)
The big fella is back for the Rebels after an injury wrecked 2013 and the Wallabies loose forward is leading from the front. Set up a try with a piece of quick thinking against the Cheetahs and scored one himself, his team's fifth and final five-pointer against an outfit they had never beaten before.

Coach killer
Crusaders
They looked reasonably good in the opening half hour against a Blues team finding their feet, but once wings Frank Halai and Tevita Li scored for the home team, the Crusaders collapsed into a witless, mistake-ridden rabble. A similar Crusaders implosion is difficult to recall.

NZ Form XV
15 Ben Smith (Highlanders)
14 Cory Jane (Hurricanes)
13 George Moala (Blues)
12 Jackson Willison (Blues)
11 Tevita Li (Blues)
10 Simon Hickey (Blues)
9 TJ Perenara (Hurricanes)
8 Liam Messam (Chiefs)
7 John Hardie (Highlanders)
6 Faifili Levave (Hurricanes)
5 Joe Wheeler (HIghlanders)
4 Patrick Tuipulotu (Blues)
3 Chris King (Highlanders) 
2 Dane Coles (Hurricanes)
1 Pauliasi Manu (Chiefs)

Highlights
Blues 35 Crusaders 24

JW
Just_winCaptain18,570 posts
03 Mar 2014, 08:53
#2
03 Mar 2014, 08:53#2
Watch out boys the Blues are coming to town. Better pray for rain, lol
BE
Beeno1Captain40,032 posts
03 Mar 2014, 09:17
#3
03 Mar 2014, 09:17#3
The blues are in for a big reality check. Blow the away bulle!
3K
3ku1Pro2,580 posts
03 Mar 2014, 09:31
#4
03 Mar 2014, 09:31#4
 blues 48 Bulls 10
sharkbok
sharkbokCaptain23,297 posts
04 Mar 2014, 10:22
#5
04 Mar 2014, 10:22#5
 The Blues lineouts will be their achilies heel. With Big Mac back on the mix the Blues are in for real trouble. I expect they will have major scrum problems as well.Stegman is back for the Bulls, and they are allways much better at the breakdow. n with him playing
MD
Monkey D LuffyPro6,277 posts
04 Mar 2014, 10:40
#6
04 Mar 2014, 10:40#6
yup om picking the blues to beat the bulls in loftus.

on paper the blues are a much better outfit, tom donnoley needs to play the way he did against the saders and that impressive patrick tuipulotu was a major handful with some serious gas.

peter saili, luatua and braid are better then the bulls loosies by a country mile, and the only two backs to worry about are serfontein and jj, and moala, wilionson and francisis saili who ever should start for the blues from that three, will be more than capable of rising to that threatening challenge.
rest of the blues backs poo all over thier bulls counterparts, or any saffa team for that matter.

bulls do have the loftus advantage which is no small thing, nothing like the crusaders in christchurch, but still a challenge in its own right.

blues to win by10pts.

ofcourse my prediction all depends on whether jk selects his best team, cos this time last year (pretty sure a year to the date) when the blues and bulls met at harbour, jk made some real stupid selections benching a lot of his best players, saying he didnt want to overwork his players, despite them having a bye the following week, o_O
nice logic.

GO THE BLUES!!!
— END OF THREAD —

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