IT – IS – HERE. We have waited and waited for this weekend, and it dawns upon us the CRACKER ALERT winds up to full voice. 7 games, 14 teams going toe to toe and 7 occasions to crack a cold one and be a rugby fan again. All together now, let’s get into week 1 of the 2012 SupeRugby competition!
Not now luv - rugby is on.
Friday: Blues vs Crusaders 08:35
TheBounce says: Blues by 5
Crackerometer: 9/10
Blues:
15: Isaia Toeava 14: David Raikuna 13: Rene Ranger 12: Benson Stanley 11: Rudi Wulf 10: Michael Hobbs 9: Alby Mathewson 8: Jerome Kaino 7: Daniel Braid 6: Chris Lowrey 5: Ali Williams 4: Anthony Borix 3: Charlie Faumuina 2: Kevin Mealamu 1: Tom McCartney
Replacements:
16: Pauliasi Manu 17: Tevita Mailau 18: Brad Mika 19: Luke Braid 20: Piri Weepu 21: Hadleigh Parkes 22: Sherwin Stowers
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This year’s SupeRugby tournament sees the introduction of the White Card to join the yellow and red that already takes pride of place in the refs pockets. What is it? Well it appears to be a speculative bit of bollocks that claims to take pressure off refs and help them remove foul play from the game.
Give him a 'white' ref! Hang on - a what ?
So basically if a ref thinks foul play has taken place but can’t be sure about who is responsible for what, he can wave the white card in the air so a citing commissioner can get onto it as the on-field officials didn’t pick it up. It will also be used to address player complaints on incidents that the ref did not see like a bite here, or an eye gouge there. Apparently this new system is a great way of being more transparent with regards to how things are sent through to the citing commission. On the subject of transparency, the white card has naturally opened up a veritable can of worms in the rugby world. Read more »
No I do not have a stutter. I do though have a bit of fun involving some rugby gurus, an online betting site and a rather important rugby tournament. Welcome to the SupeRugby Bet bet challenge, a fun little side platform where 5 guys look to take a humble sum of cash and turn it into something a little more handsome – Wynand Olivier handsome.
Oh yeah.
Let’s meet the players and see how you can get involved too!
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You may have noticed I plugged joining our pool quite hard recently, and that is because I knew it would be the pool for all to join and here is why. At last count the pool had 473 members which makes it one of the largest private ones going made up of the who’s who of online rugby predictors. So to win this would be to win something special, but not only do we have a title at stake, we also have some kickass prizes to make it even more worthwhile!
It is with great pride and a fair amount of excitement that I tell you that each week during this year’s pool stages of the SupeRugby tournament we shall be delivering a case of Castle Lager to the most impressive performer in our pool*! Yes you read right. 21 weeks of pool games, 21 cases of lovely Castle Lager to members of TheBounce SuperBru pool. This is enough for me to even concentrate a little more than usual!
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Our week of SupeRugby previews has now brought us to the websites worth viewing to get all your bits and bobs for staying in the know. Just like in our post about the Top 10 people to follow on Twitter, the following sites are my personal favourites which I find give you all you really need. There are naturally a whole lot more out there, but life is too short to find them, so this list will generally be all you need if you are a time conscious person.
What! Bekker is injured again!!!
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We’ve had a look at the SA and the NZ conferences, now in our third and final SupeRugby preview we look at the Aussies. Arguably the least competitive of the three conferences, it still has a fair amount worth considering and worrying about, not least that it holds the defending champs. The Reds were head, shoulder, tattooed torso and a decent sized Johnson above the rest of the Aussie teams last year. The question is naturally can they be again, or will there be a new contender?
Aussie conference - mostly a bunch of shirt lifters.
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