Rugby Union

So the top seven in the ITM Cup have now been decided, with one round remaining.
If Auckland win tomorrow, the big four will occupy the four semi-final spots going into the final round.

In the end there have been very few surprises, Counties and Northland have both looked great at times, but in the end their inconsistency will mean they just miss out on the premiership next season.
Southland have folded badly, with three losses in a row, and Taranaki who were sitting in second before the round just got 49 points put on them by Wellington.

If Auckland win tomorrow, the top four will go Canterbury, Waikato, Auckland, Wellington heading into the final round.

The last round sees Waikato take on Canterbury, so if Canterbury win that, and BOP beat Northland and/or Taranaki beat Harbour, BOP or Taranaki will jump ahead of Waikato into the semi-finals, assuming Auckland win their final two matches (both at home against two out of the worst four teams), and Wellington beat Southland in Invercargill.

Also Weepu just broke his leg, so he's out of the end of year tour.
 
The Highlanders have been doing some good recruiting recently, a lot of young talent is heading south.
Shaun Treeby, Aaron Smith, Nick Crosswell, Jarrad Hoeata, Kurt Baker, Lima Sopoaga, Elliot Dixon and Telusa Veainu have all been brought south by Jamie Joseph.

We're shaping up real good.
 
Too bad your domestic team is absolute shite :p
 
To be completely honest the Highlanders should just move to the Taranaki/Hawke's Bay/Tasman area, like Central Districts in cricket.

Otago (the rugby team) are a joke, they are the worst of the 14 teams going around by quite some margin, and to have a super team based their is an utter ****en joke.

Here are the super teams catchments ATM:

Blues - 2nd, 10th, 11th - average of 8th
Chiefs - 3rd, 6th, 9th - average of 6th
Hurricanes - 4th, 5th, 8th, 13th - average of 8th
Crusaders - 1st, 12th - average of 7th
Highlanders - 7th, 14th - average of 11th

My way:

Blues (Auckland, North Harbour, Counties Manukau) - Like cricket
Chiefs (Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Northland) - Like cricket, minus Manawatu

Pretty much Counties Manukau and Northland should switch over, so the Blues is just the Auckland super city, instead of how it's stupidly done now.

Hurricanes (Wellington and Manawatu) - Like cricket, plus Manawatu

Lets face it, last season the Hurricanes were just Wellington plus Cruden, so this won't hurt them.

Crusaders (Canterbury, Otago, Southland)
Highlanders/other name (Taranaki/Hawke's Bay/Tasman) - Like cricket, minus Manawatu

Ideally New Zealand should get a 6th franchise ahead of Australia getting a 5th, so we could then just have the six cricket provinces.

Sorry Dan, but the truth might hurt. :p
Them having to do all this scouting, just confirms that there's not the player talent down in the deep south.
 
Hey easy on, we're on our way up! (Just pretend the ITM cup never happened) :p

Anyway enough of the hate, this is a super 15 winning side ;)

1. Jamie Mackintosh
2. Jason Rutledge
3. Clint Newland
4. Tom Donnelly
5. Hayden Triggs/Josh Bekhhuis
6. Alando Soakai
7. Adam Thompson/Steven Setephano
8. Nasi Manu/Adam Thompson
9. Jimmy Cowan
10. Colin Slade/Mathew Berquist
11. Fetu'u Vainikolo
12. Ben Smith/Jason Shoemark
13. Kenny Lynn/Shaun Treeby
14. Telusa Veainu/Kurt Baker
15. Robbie Robinson/Ben Smith

A decent back-line for once!
Sorry Dan, but the truth might hurt.
It sure does. That's why I'm just going to ignore your post and never ever read it :laugh

-D-S-B- added 2 Minutes and 27 Seconds later...

The stadiums nearly finished, they wouldn't dare take them off us now, haha!
 
Otago used to be pretty decent when I first started watching rugby but they've gone down every single year :p
 
To be fair, when Danny Cipriani gets going for the Rebels there's gonna be no stopping them ;).
 
FFS, first Auckland lose on the last play of the game, and now the AB's lose on the last play of the game, worst few hours of rugby in recent times.

Donald flingen choked, first missed a penalty, and then didn't kick the ball out.

You can see from the Aussie's reactions how much it meant to them, if we won it would just be another win.
 
We don't get to break Lithuania's record of most consecutive test wins :(
 
About time we beat the All Blacks! We certainly did our best to throw it away and boy the defence was dodgy. But the changing point came when Donald came on. I knew we could win once he came on and pretty much put the house on him missing that penalty. However it was his general kicking which was the worse of the lot, a random grubber then not finding touch.
 
It's on again, as we build towards the World Cup!

A pretty scrappy game to start the season off, and a bit of an upset. The Highlanders were pretty dominant though, and if their kicker had not had one of the worst kicking displays I've ever seen, they would have denied the Hurricanes the losing bonus point.

I still can't believe it's already starting, the World Cup doesn't finish until late October, and the Cricket World Cup hasn't even started yet.
 
A great way to start the season for the Highlanders, good for confidence but they'll need a lot more W's to get the fans and crowds back.

Considering we basically tried to lose the game in that last 10 minutes it was a pleasing win and a good game to watch.

After a good start by the Rebels, well they're taking a hiding 43 nil with 15 to go!
 
Because of the conference system, these massive scores are going to hurt the New Zealand teams who don't get first place. (Because the other three places are taken straight off points, no matter what conference)

New Zealand doesn't have any easy beats, like the other two conferences do in the Lions, Cheetahs, Rebals and Force.
 
What a great match there, a massive step up from last night.

We hadn't beaten them for three/four years, so that's a massive win for us first up.

A massive crowd as well, 35,000!
International cricket matches struggle for 10,000... :lol
 
Disappointing seeing the Rebels fall apart they looked so good early on.
Always good seeing those Crusaders losing but I thought they had it early in the 2nd half. Looks like they will be a threat once again though.
 

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