A brutal 9 game weekend awaits. Brutal on your couch, and brutal on your SuperBru predictions! Bookies and Bru’s disagree on 2, but there is scope for upsets all over the show.
Tank Lanning
Here’s hoping that you have been stashing away those hard earned pink tickets and a have litre or two of that awfully yellow Monster energy drink at hand! All 18 sides take to the turf in a monster 9 game weekend.
This is the line-up:
Friday, March 18
08h35 – Hurricanes vs Force (CET Arena)
10h45 – Waratahs vs Highlanders (Allianz Stadium)
19h00 – Bulls vs Sharks (Loftus Versfeld)
Saturday, March 19
06h15 – Sunwolves vs Rebels (Prince Chichibu Stadium)
08h35 – Crusaders vs Kings (AMI Stadium)
10h45 – Reds vs Blues (Suncorp Stadium)
17h05 – Lions vs Cheetahs (Ellis Park)
19h15 – Stormers vs Brumbies (Newlands)
23h40 – Jaguares vs Chiefs (Velez Sarsfield Stadium)
Surely no chance of staying up for the Jaguares game after lighting the fire and getting the foot on the coolerbox for the Lions vs Cheetahs? Nope, instead a lekker koffie en beskuit game on Sunday morning me thinks …
For the weekend’s teams, head to Vodacom Rugby’s Team Sheets article that will be updated as each side is announced.
Righto, to the weekend then:
My picks:
HURRICANES to beat Force by 12
WARATAHS to beat Highlanders by 5
SHARKS to beat Bulls by 9
SUNWOLVES to beat Rebels by 2
CRUSADERS to beat Kings by 18
BLUES to beat Reds by 9
LIONS to beat Cheetahs by 7
STORMERS to beat Brumbies by 3
CHIEFS to beat Jaguares by 7
What the Bookies say:
HURRICANES (1/8) to beat Force (10/1)
WARATAHS (5/6) to beat Highlanders (6/5)
SHARKS (10/11) to beat Bulls (13/10)
REBELS (8/15) to beat Sunwolves (15/8)
CRUSADERS (1/41) to beat Kings (66/1)
BLUES (8/15) to beat Reds (2/1)
LIONS (2/7) to beat Cheetahs (62/17)
BRUMBIES (1/1) to beat Stormers (10/9)
JAGUARES (5/6) to beat Chiefs (13/10)
The SuperBru Community picks:
HURRICANES to beat Force by 11
HIGHLANDERS to beat Waratahs by 2
SHARKS to beat Bulls by 4
REBELS to beat Sunwolves by 4
CRUSADERS to beat Kings by 24
BLUES to beat Reds by 7
LIONS to beat Cheetahs by 10
BRUMBIES to beat Stormers by 2
CHIEFS to beat Jaguares by 7
The Bookies like the Tahs and Jaguares, while the Brus like the Landers and Chiefs. I am the preverbial “Soutie” with a foot in each camp. Let’s be honest, both could go either way. Who knows what those Argies will produce in their first home game of the season?
Sunwolves for their first win of the season? Risky for sure, but hells bells they came close against the Cheetahs last week, and I just can’t get past predicting a Rabble win.
In Cape Town the Brumbies must be favourites. But they have travelled, and the Stormers must be soooo gatvol of all the “Toothless” sideways attack that lacks any sort of variation or penetration talk. Had they made use of the ball and territory in the first half last week, they would have put the Sharks away properly. But they didn’t and we all know how that ended. So I am backing them to get it right against what must be the most balanced side of the tournament right now. Yes, another risky pick.
Shit or Champagne I am guessing. See you on the flip side …
