three strikes and ur out,,,

wow talk about a whitewash weekend congrats to the saffa teams for the spanking they gave some of NZs finest, not an easy feat considering two of those games were in NZ and the one home game was against the spXV champs.
none of those results were expected, but none of them should come too much as a surprise when considering the logic of it all.
but congrats to to the cheetahs/stormers/bulls again & heres my two cents worth on those matches, :o)

cheetahs vs highlanders,,,
of all the results, this one surprised me the least, but it still came as a shock. was very impressed with the cheetahs as a whole in this match especially their defensiuve line. their forwards won the battle upfront and their loose forwards were simply amazing. had the forwards delievred that performance against the chiefs a week earlier, it really could have been a differnt story.
cheetahs had some favourable bounces of the ball, but that favour was well earned thanks to pressure they applied in the game accordingly, pressure that the highlanders for various reason failed to adapt too.
pieter labuschange was my man of the match, every tackle and run he made created momentum for the cheetahs. i would have to say thats one of the most dominant displays ive seen from a loose forward in a long long, it was for lack of a better word, a McCawish dispaly of dominance.

stormers vs cheifs
this was my favourite match of the round, though the result left a lot to be desired for, at least beeno1 aka storminged now has some fuel for the fire as his contribution to the site has been very low as of late, naturally im talking about volume not value, lolz.
but that little jibe aside, hats of to the stormers who shocked me with both their ability and wilingness to run the ball, something i havent seen from them in the last few years.
i would like to say its a sign of things to come, but a lepaord dosnet change its spots and i get the feeling the stormers will crawl back into their 10man rugby game cave. i hope im wrong, cos the stormers have always had the talent to play that brand of rugby, theyve just never had the right encoragment.
even though the stormers leaked in 4 tries for the first time since june 2011 against the cheetahs, it was their defence which came through in the end & kept out the cheifs who were starting to mount a comeback in the 2nd half.
my man of the match was tied between siya kolisi and JDV, IMO both of these players really led up front. kolisi was a real powehouse handful and JDV tapped into every ounce of experience he had and organised that backlines attack and defnece perfectly.
jnaties had a very good game too and full credit to coetzee for sticking with him after his shocking start and average 2nd game. hes clearly getting better and better and if the stormers stick with him, hes only going to get better and better.

bulls vs blues,,,
by now i was looking forward to NZs last hope of the round, btu after the losses to the highlanders and cheifs and the fact that kirwan had made some huge selection errors, i was already half expecting a loss.
one of kirwans idiot selections was changing callum retallick (brodie retallicks cousin and mikeys favourite lock ever) for liaki moli. moli ended up giving away three penalties, two errors and three miss tackles and that was all in the first half, o_O
bulls were very clinical on the back of morne steyns clinical tactical kicks, his goal kicking wasnt the best though. the bulls really didnt give the blues much of anything, forcing them to work tooth and nail for everything, even though they got very little reward.
vermeulen better watch out cos if spies continues to play like that, IMO meyer will pick him back for the Boks excepth this selection will be warranted. best spies game in a long time, he really showcased his spped and power in this match and the bulls are going to need a similar effort from spies against the crusaders next week.

all in all they were very good albeit frustrating games to watch, if nothing else at least i have some new fanatsy selections to consider, especially as i copped a beating on that front too, lolz.
congrats my saffa brus, savour the moment, cos as u know these moments are very far and few in between, :oP

 Fascinating games watching the clash of styles. For this week, the forward play and defense lines won out. Next week could be totally different as there wasn't much margin in any of the wins. NZ teams adjust quickly. 

Anybody got the balls to call a Kings win over the Chiefs?

Sasue

I did advise you and everybody else to pick Labuschagne for your fantasy teams.   I had him in my team for the Test Ruby side and he managed to get 426 points - the highest point score of all fiorwards in the competition thus far.   He is going into my Foxsport selection next time around,

The other problem I have for New Zealand rugby was the number of line out possessions lost by your man Retallick in the game on Saurday and he is really not the line out player he should be.  LOL.  Was considering him for the next game in the test rugby case - but will likely go with Kruger ahead of him.

I do not know what the Bulls will be like against the Crusaders this weekend.   Any hangover as to the jet lag issue that certainly affected the Cheetahs  in the second half of the Chiefs eetahs game -  will be gone by this weekend and the Crusaders may have problems against the Bulls.   They will have to tidy up their game considerably and their forwards may be under pressure with the backs getting bad balls.   I thik te Buls will e favourites in that game.

I also think the Cheetahs are going to get the better of the Waratahs -- who seems to be completely out of depth this year thus far. 

Anyway I hope you otherwise have had a good weekend and am glad you made top score in the Test rugby fanatasy league this weekend.