There’s another giant banana peel in the form of Friday’s Aussie derby to trip us up again! Take in what Tank, the Bookies and Brus have to say before making your picks.
Tank Lanning
The line-up:
Friday 24 March
08h35 – Crusaders v Force (AMI)
10h45 – Rebels v Waratahs (AAMI Park)
Saturday 24 March
08h35 – Blues v Bulls (QBE)
10h45 – Brumbies v Highlanders (GIO)
12h55 – Sunwolves v Stormers (Singapore National)
15h05 – Kings v Lions (Nelson Mandela Bay)
17h15 – Cheetahs v Sharks (Toyota)
23h40 – Jaguares v Reds (Jose Amalfitani)
A rare Friday off! Make merry mense. Pretoria beef vs Kiwi lamb deserves better than the spin bike on Saturday morning, perhaps even a cheeky shot of vonkel in your OJ? Brumbies vs Landers on Twitter before unleashing the full fury of your braai grid and coolerbox for the triple header that gets going at 13h00. Another bonus this week is that we only have to make it till 7 … Those bloody 19h00 games really are unpleasantly draining. Jags vs Reds on Sunday morning via the PVR with your finger on the FF button, and it’s a winner chicken dinner!
For fantastic previews of every game, head to All Out Rugby’s Breaking news section, and to see the weekend’s teams as they get announced, take in their Team Sheets.
My picks:
Crusaders by 24
Waratahs by 16
Blues by 18
Brumbies by 5
Stormers by 17
Lions by 21
Sharks by 7
Jaguares by 7
What the Bookies say:
Crusaders (1) over Force (10)
Waratahs (1.4) over Rebels (3.1)
Blues (1.2) over Bulls (5.2)
Highlanders (1.7) over Brumbies (2.3)
Stormers (1) over Sunwolves (10)
Lions (1) over Kings (13)
Sharks (1.7) over Cheetahs (2.3)
Jaguares (1.1) over Reds (5.9)
The SuperBru Community picks:
Crusaders by 15
Waratahs by 5
Blues by 7
Brumbies by 1
Stormers by 15
Lions by 17
Sharks by 4
Jaguares by 10
Brumbies vs Highlanders is the Bata Tuffy. Surely the Landers can’t throw away another one? Surely it’s only a matter of time before the likes of Smith, Fekitoa and Smith fire? Indeed, and well they might. But Brumbies are 2 from 2 in the last 2 weeks and playing at home.
That Aussie derby could definitely go either way. The Tahs have been horrible, but have at last picked Izzy Folou at fullback. Will it be enough? Of course it will …
Can the Cheetahs beat the Sharks?
The Sharks are good at:
- Slotting penalties (No 1 in the comp on 18)
- Kicking (2nd best in tournament with over 3km kicking distance from 95 kicks)
- Tackling (91% success rate and only 3 teams have missed fewer tackles)
- Break tackles (2nd in the comp, but mostly round edges through Du Preez and Vermeulen)
- Winning lineouts (3rd best in lineouts won and lineouts stolen)
The Sharks are not so good at:
- Holding onto the ball (No 2 in both turnovers conceded and handling errors. 44 against Kings)
- Scoring tries (9th in the comp on 9 tries)
- Breaking the line (10th on a season total of only 15)
With the Cheetahs being comp top dogs in offloads, linebreaks and ball carries, it’s the age old “Attack vs defence” kind of game.
Especially given that only 3 teams have made fewer kicks and kicking metres than the home side! Hence them finding themselves playing the game in their own half, and the all-out-attack not leading to tries.
If the Cheetahs:
- Do NOT give away penalties in their own half
- Roll away from the “Run from everywhere” attitude
- Put the ball into the Sharks half and put pressure on their error prone backline
- Thrive off the resultant turnovers
- Kick for touch and attack their lineout (Cheetahs’ 4 lineout steals is 2nd in the comp)
They have a proper shout at home. But they won’t …
Take these predictions from whence they come, my friends … I am 231/573 on the FRG SuperBru pool leaderboard. Perhaps take advice from these brainiacs instead: 
All the best out there, it’s not pretty.
