You got the cohunes to take a stab at an upset this weekend? Tank doesn’t. Take in his weekend preview including the odds and SuperBru community thoughts before making your picks.
Tank Lanning
The weekend line-up:
Friday 21 April
09h35 – Hurricanes v Brumbies (McLean Park)
11h45 – Waratahs v Kings (Allianz)
19h00 – Lions v Jaguares (Ellis Park)
Saturday 22 April
07h15 – Highlanders v Sunwolves (Rugby Park)
09h35 – Crusaders v Stormers (AMI)
11h45 – Force v Chiefs (nib)
17h15 – Bulls v Cheetahs (Loftus Versfeld)
19h30 – Sharks v Rebels (Kings Park)
All six SA sides in the mix with just the single Currie Cup extravaganza! Not one Kiwi derby, and pesky 19h00 games on both Friday AND Saturday! It’s going to take a good few pink tickets to get through this!
Or not … Saders vs Stormers will be good, even if just to see if Eben can keep his cool with the armband on. Bulls vs Cheetahs might blow out into a try scoring bonanza. Otherwise the PVR and Catch Up is your friend, my friends!
To see the weekend’s teams as they get announced, take in the AOR Team Sheets.
My picks:
Hurricanes by 21
Waratahs by 19
Lions by 7
Highlanders by 37
Crusaders by 5
Chiefs by 13
Bulls by 17
Sharks by 23
What the Bookies say:
Hurricanes (1.1) over Brumbies (8)
Waratahs (1) over Kings (12)
Lions (1.2) over Jaguares (6)
Highlanders (1) over Sunwolves (77)
Crusaders (1.2) over Stormers (5.7)
Chiefs (1.2) over Force (5.8)
Bulls (1.4) over Cheetahs (3.3)
Sharks (1.1) over Rebels (6.5)
The SuperBru Community picks:
Hurricanes by 14
Waratahs by 12
Lions by 13
Highlanders by 23
Crusaders by 8
Chiefs by 15
Bulls by 4
Sharks by 13
Not sure I have ever seen 77/1! That is messy for the Wolves.
No real chance of an upset I don’t think, but if forced to think about potential upset options, I would go with the 2 games that are worth watching …
The Stormers could pull a rabbit out the hat in Christchurch! It was not pretty at Newlands last week as they tried to take the Lions on at their own game instead of focussing on theirs. And having travelled this week, it will be anything but easy at AMI. But Rob Fleck has something good going, and their cheeky move of Pieter-Steph du Toit to the side of the scrum certainly shows their appreciation of a really good Crusaders pack. Will they have enough to tame it, though? Unlikely.
Based on the odds and SuperBru community picks, the best chance of an upset is at Loftus. Perhaps? On their day, the Cheetahs can run with the big dogs, but after their catatonic choke against the Chiefs in Bloem last week, to power up enough mojo to test a Bulls side eking up the confidence chart given their second win of the season against the Jaguares last week seems unlikely.
The main okes in the Front Row Grunt SuperBru pool:
I am sitting at an embarrassing 293rd out of 583!!
Good luck out there …
