Well that was a disastrous weekend for rugby, in the South and in Cape Town, where the atmosphere and the pre-match had to be seen to be believed.
It’s just a pity the game didn’t live up to the hype.
There were far too many mistakes from both sides and the ability of the All Blacks to close out games has a long way to go.
Then we had poor old Southland getting pumped by Wellington and Canterbury proving too strong in the second half after the Blue and Golds looked the goods at halftime.
Auckland finally nailed a win at the expense of cross-town rivals North Harbour. Then the Tasman Mako proved me wrong to grab the Shield off the Bay for the first time in 50 years. Wellington and Tasman are now the only unbeaten teams in the competition.
In the South, Jo from Deep South Glass still leads but Shane from GWD made big inroads with the top score of the round to sit one point behind. Two of the big names — Simon from GJs and Sean from Bayleys — crashed and burned to drop to sixth and seventh respectively.
So what happens this weekend? (Remember this column is being written before the midweek game between Otago and Wellington where I tipped the Capital city boys to inflict more hurt on Otago.)
The Stags are at home to Canterbury (12-) on Friday night and it pains me to say Southland won’t get it done and will tumble further out of the top eight.
Bay of Plenty host Taranaki and they are fourth and fifth on the table so it’s nearly too close to call. Taranaki (12-) just.
North Harbour (13+) will keep poor old Manawatu winless.
Waikato aren’t travelling that well and Hawke’s Bay (12-) have the post Shield blues but may just bounce back. Otago take on Counties in Pukekohe and this is a banana skin game for them. They are out of the eight and if they lose it could be curtains. Otago (12-) just.
Northland host Auckland and they will be smelling Jafa blood. I’m picking the Taniwha to somehow get it done — how sweet it will be.
The two unbeaten teams, Tasman and Wellington, face off for the Shield in the ‘‘big dance’’ of the round.
Wellington are coming off a midweek game against Otago so I’ll tip the Makos to hold on to the log.
In next week’s midweek game Manawatu host the Stags (13+) and the Maroon and Golds will bank a valuable five-pointer.
- By Paul Dwyer
