It’s that time of year again, it’s super rugby. Yeah. For those of you that don’t know it’s rugby on steroids played by hardcore New Zealanders, angry Polynesians, combative Aussies and stern faced South Africans. It is essentially a wanton cocktail of awesome. T-bird has drafted me in like some kind of Southern hemisphere rugby intellectual to enlighten the dark northern reaches on whats going down south of the equator on a weekly basis.
We start our whirlwind tour in Middle Earth, or New Zealand as those academic types insist on calling it, with the news that the game between the Crusaders and the Hurricanes was won by an earthquake and they shared the log points. The Christchurch earthquake left the pitch unplayable combined with the death of one of the Crusaders board members a decision was made to abandon the match. Onto brighter news the Highlanders continued their improbable winning start against the All Black laden Chiefs with a 23-13 win.
We’re staying in the Antipodes with news that the Rebels, or the Rubbles as they were affectionately named after their 43-0 drubbing in round one, beat the Brumbies 25-24 in a nail biter. England reject Danny Cipriani kicked a last minute penalty to snatch the Rebels first ever W. The Waratahs continued their trail blazing ways with a rampant 30-6 win over the Reds. The Reds continue their drastic downward slide from last year and Quade Cooper tricks seems to have lost their element of surprise as he was tackled into a fleshy human stump for the second week in a row. The flying Waratahs winger Drew Mitchell, however, is in the form of his life. He is so good right now that even if Jesus of Nazareth laced up his holy boots and tried to tackle Drew, he would just sidestep him and goosestep into the goal area.
The round wrapped up in good ‘ol South Africa with the Sharks playing the New Zealand based Blues. The game was played in smothering Durban humidity and both teams struggled with their ball handling. The game ended 26-12 in favour of the Sharks and once again it was basically man mountain/android/genetic experiment Willem Alberts looking for victims to physically harm in some way. Northern hemisphere fans can expect to see a lot more of him over the next few years. The Cheetahs and reigning super rugby champs the Bulls slugged it out in Bloemfontein in a tightly contested SA derby. The Cheetahs pushed the champs to the edge until Fourie Du Preez scored the winning try right at the end to win the game for the Bulls 25-23. The round finished with The Stormers facing the rejuvenated Lions in Cape Town. The Stormers had a bye in week 1 and looked very rusty. They were outgunned for most of the match by the younger and hungrier Lions but in the end experience counted and another game was decided by a late winning try with the Stormers winning 19-16.
And that’s that guys, until next week. Cheers.
