In the end there can be only one

Good Monday to the Lions Den Massive.

Its halfway through the Super 14 and it is turning out to be a good tournament.

I called four out of the six games correctly this week, so it looks like the tournament is finally gaining some measure of normality.

The shock result of the weekend was the Bulls vs the Highlanders. No one expected the Highlanders to win, and fewer expected the Highlanders to win by that much.

But what does this mean for the log, well the win gave the Sharks an opportunity to take the top spot after their good win over the Brumbies. The Waratahs moved up to second after edging the Blues out in Auckland.

But the biggest benefactor of the win was the Highlanders. Sitting in 12th position before the weekend, the win briefly propelled the team into the top of the top half of the log. They ended the super weekend in 6th position.

Halfway through the tournament I always like to take a look at the teams and ponder as to who will make the playoffs.

I think that the Sharks will be good enough to retain their top spot from this point on. They won their hard games overseas and are playing relatively easy teams from here out in Durban. It will be a ding dong battle between the ‘Tahs and the Bulls as to who will finish the regular part of the season in second spot. The ‘Tahs have lost two games and should win the rest of their games from here out.
There is a problem as there is only 4 points separating positions 3 to 8.

The Bulls have a game in hand on the ‘Tahs and provided they win the rest of their games, they wont travel to Oz for the semi final.

Here’s the problem, the Bulls have four games that they can potentially loose between now and the 16th of May.

This weekend they play the Crusaders in New Zealand, the following week they go to Sydney to play the ‘Tahs. They then have a relatively easy game in the Brumbies before they come home to host the Chiefs and the Force.

It could go down to the last weekend when they travel to Durban to play the Sharks.

I think at the end of the regular season, the Sharks and the ‘Tahs should take the top two spots. 1 Semi final in Durban, 1 Semi final in Sydney. 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3, the Bulls should finish third so the one semi final will be between the ‘Tahs and the Bulls in Sydney.

Looking at the log realistically, I think the Chiefs will take the fourth spot as they have the easier games going into the playoffs. From this week their schedule is: Lions in New Zealand, Cheetahs in Bloem, the Bulls in Pretoria, the Stormers in Slaap Stad, the Hurricanes in Wellington, and the Brumbies in Canberra. Sharks vs Chiefs in Durban.

The Watson’s have done it again. This time Puke’s father allegedly called Peter de Villiers a Baboon at a meeting at the beginning of the year.

The slur allegedly came at a meeting of the Eastern Province Rugby Legends, f&*k I never knew they had any, where Cheeky Watson called De Villiers a Baboon who didn’t know how to do his job. Watson denies he ever said it, and an irate Press Officer from the EPRFU sent a bitchy press statement to the media stating that Watson never ever called De Villiers that and that the two are good friends.

Where there is smoke there is fire. I don’t believe the whole Baboon incident is true, but I don’t doubt that Watson could have said something like that as he fancies himself as a future top man in Rugby