Sharks Vs Bulls Who Will Take It?

So it looks like Puke Watson, is still in the papers and even if they are rumours I like the idea. If the Springbok selectors pick Pukeythen the rest of the Springboks must boycott the tour. They should site playing rugby with a hypocrite and racist is just not rugby. Andy Marinos has fervently denied these rumours stating that John Smit and the senior players did not mention this in their meeting over the weekend. I think the Peter De Villiers and the selectors should just avoid all problems by not selecting Watson. He has not been in great form this year and if you are selecting on form alone, he won’t even make it into the top six fetchers in South Africa.

In the Currie Cup promotion relegation games played on Friday night, the new B section champions, got thumped by the Cavaliers 54-15. The team that ended last in the A section ran in 8 tries to two including 4 first half tries from the Boland fly half Elgar Watts. Earl Rose eat your heart out! The Platinum Leopards upset the Valke 29-24 at the Bosman Stadium. The Valke out scored the Leopards 3 tries to 2. The Leopards now stand a very good chance of going through to the A section next year. As for the Griffons, I don’t think that they will make the grade to go through.

The time for a smaller Currie Cup Format, needs to be addressed fast. Back to the old format of six test provinces, the promotion relegation, but more importantly, full televised games for all the B section games. This will pump money into the smaller unions, encourage corporate companies to sponsor the unions and encourage the young up and coming players to go and learn their trade in the B section. Have a look at New Zealand; their lower leagues are the feeder grounds for the Premier teams. Every year there is some new super star coming through. Somebody that has three or four years of first class rugby behind them, steps up as if they have been playing at a top level all their life. Just a thought!

It looks like Gary Kirsten will finally get what he has tried for, for so long and get a series win over Australia. After a tame draw in the first test, it looks like Australiaare going to loose the second test in Mohali. The Indians batted first scoring 469 all out. Australia was bowled out for 268, but India did not enforce the follow on. In their second innings the home team racked up 314 for 3 declared. Leaving Australia a target of 516 to win. By the close of play Australia were 141 for 5 with a full day left to bat. Looks like it will be 1-0 to India.

The Telkom Knock-out created a huge upset this weekend, when Golden Arrows shot Chiefs down 4-1 in Durban. The defending champs were lucky not to lose by more. Celtic thumped Santos5-0; AmaZulu lost 0-1 to PSL Champions Super Sport. Ajax and Star will have to go to a replay after drawing 0-0. Who says South African club football is boring?

In England, Spurs continued on their woeful run of form losing 2-1 in their bottom of the table clash with Stoke City. The other tale ender side Newcastle, play the worlds richest club, Man City tonight. The talk in the football circles is that Newcastle’s favorite son Alan Shearer is the best man to take the helm. He has denied these allegations, but where’s there smoke… Chelsea again was unbelievable, drilling Middlesbrough 5-0. Hullbeat the Hammers 1-0. Man United beat West Brom 4-0 and Liverpool, who likes to come from behind, got a very lucky win over Wigan. Fulham and Sunderland drew 0-0, Boltonand Black burn got the same result and high flying Villa got unstuck at home also drawing to Pompie 0-0. The Gunners looked nowhere in the first twenty minutes against the Toffee’s and it showed after going 1-0 down after 9 minutes due thanks largely to South African Steven Pienaar. He was Everton’s player of the match and set up a great goal for Osman. There were some glimmers of hop in the later part of the 1^sthalf, but poor finishing from Arsenal left 0-1 down at the turn. It did not take Arsenal long to get into the game after the brake. The introduction of Theo Walcott was the catalyst the Gunners needed. It only took them 2 minutes to equalize through a great strike from the young French midfielder Nasri. Dutchman Van Persie put the Gunners into the lead in the 69^thminute and then the young English star Walcottsealed the game with a special strike in the 89^th minute to put the result out of reach. Arsenal winning 3-1.

The Chinese Formula One Grand Prix was the worst race I have seen this season. It was even worse than Valencia and that; I thought could not be topped. Hamiltonwon, with Massasecond and Kimi third. The win put Lewis 7 points clear of Philippe and he only has to finish 5^thor higher to clinch the world championship. Ferrari is currently 11 points ahead of McLaren. It has been 9 long years since they last won a construction title so I don’t think they will just let Ferrari walk the race, but I am not sure that Lewis would want to lose the title on the last race trying to win a construction title. It will be interesting to watch. Kubica is six points ahead of Kimi and BMW are sure to finish third in the constructors race. Not bad for a team that is technically 2 years old.

So who will it be the Bulls or the Sharks? Going into the game I have the Sharks as under dogs. Yes, they may be playing at home, but they have a much younger side than the Bulls. The Bulls have played in more finals than the Sharks over the last few seasons. They won the Super 14 last year and have a side bristling with Springboks that won the World Cup last year. (Exactly 1 year to this day 20-10-2007) The Bulls are more physical upfront and if they want to dominate the Sharks this is where they will have to do it. Morne Steynis in fine form witha boot that is deadly. What the Sharks must not do is change their game plan. They got to the final by playing expansive running rugby and dogged defence. I am still going to stay with my call of 10 points to the Sharks, but that is because it is my heart talking to me.

Until next week. Enjoy the final and enjoy the champion’s league tomorrow and Wednesday.

Cheers

ONETIME.