Can you believe it? Four South African teams played Super Rugby last weekend and the only one to come away with a win was the one that we strongly believe shouldn’t even be in the competition. Typical. Bloody typical.
But then, it was another weekend of upsets – caused largely by the abysmal standard of refereeing. That’s a subject for another day as we let the evidence pile up like it is doing at the State Capture Commission.
The weekend began with two shocks on Friday: Rebels travelled to Dunedin to face Highlanders and managed to come away with a win (22-28); and Lions visited Parramatta (about half-a-hour out of Sydney) only to be robbed by Waratahs (29-17).
Saturday morning dawned with a return to normality, albeit briefly, as Hurricanes blew away Sunwolves (62-15) in Napier. But then the upsets were back as Sharks inexplicably beat Reds (23-33) in Brisbane.
But perhaps upset wasn’t quite the right word for what happened at Newlands on Saturday afternoon when Blues arrived from Auckland. The home team could simply not get into the game and were absolutely awful – more so than usual according to our highly partisan editor. In the end, the visitors ran out 14-33 victors.
The final match of the weekend was at Loftus in Pretoria where the visiting Jaguares simply out-played their opposition (24-39). The win was helped by a Bulls team still intent on playing a domkrag style of rugby and, if that persists, we have a feeling that it will be a long season for the men from Pretoria.
But there was some good news that might help the Bulls’ cause: World Cup-winning eighthman, Duane Vermeulen, will be rejoining the side in June after his contract with Kubota Spears ends.
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