Autumn 2019 in New Zealand

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The Super Rugby third round saw a great game of Rugby down at Palmerston North where the home team Hurricanes played the Canberra Brumbies. Local all-black hero Ngani Laumape scored a hat trick of tries while Beauden Barrett bossed the game showing no fatigue having just returned from his honeymoon. They thrashed the Brumbies 43-13.
The scoring in this competition is different to it's European Cup equal in that you have to have three tries clear to score a bonus point. Much harder that just scoring four tries to qualify.

The Highlanders were in Melbourne the same night but could not beat the Rebels in a close game who triumphed 24-19.
The next day our regional side the Waikato Chiefs lost at their home ground of Hamilton to the Japanese Sunwolves 15-30 while the Queensland Reds were well beaten in Brisbane by the champions Canterbury Crusaders 12-24.

In Jo'berg, South Africa, the home side Lions lost to the Pretorian Bulls 12-30. Over in Durban the home side Sharks also lost to the Cape Town Stormers 11-16 while on the other side of the South Atlantic in Buenos Aires the Jauguares beat the Auckland Blues 23-19. The current finalists after three rounds are shown in the table above but the Oz teams started a week later than everyone else so have only played two rounds.

The Six Nations had a week off so there was just the Gallagher Premiership for me to watch. Bear in mind that a real rugby nut can also watch the French and the Guinness league games here on NZ Sky and you can have too much of a good thing.
Brissle were shipshape and Bristol fashion beating Glaws 28-24 at Ashton Gate whereas my lot Barf were misshaped and Barf fashion losing at the Rec to Quins in the final play of the game 29-31 just like last week and many weeks previous.

They Tiggers managed to beat they Waspies at Welford Road 19-14 and Executer just held the Sale Sharks at bay at the A. J. Bell winning 14-20. Elsewhere Sarries won comfortably against visitors Saints 36-17 as did Newcastle who gobbed Worcester 17-6 thereby staving off the potential relegation threat for another week.

We are now in the 15th round with a further 7 rounds to play before the semi final play-offs between the top four. You can see the current positions in the adjacent table and as you can see there is not much separating the teams from 4th to 9th who are likely to be scrapping for that 4th place play off. I anticipate Barf will come 5th after the 22nd round in typical Bath fashion and pray that Tod Blackadder is recalled to coach the All-Blacks next season!

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The Six Nations penultimate round finished with no surprises. Wales just managed to hold off Scotland 11-18 at Murrayfield and the adjacent photo is of my mate Murdo who has a very silly hat on 'cos he said it was "effin Baltic". He is very happy here just outside the ground but he was very unhappy later, no doubt drowning his sorrows in a few pints at the Athletic Arms.

England gobbed Italy at Twickers 57-14 as expected which puts them within a point of Wales. A point behind England is Ireland who dominated France in Dublin for 70 minutes leading 26-0 then France suddenly found some energy and ran in two converted tries so lost 26-14. They did make their score look respectable but their performance was not.

If Wales can beat Ireland in Cardiff next weekend they will become Grand Slam Champions but if not then England and Ireland still have a chance of winning. England play Scotland at Twickers and the Scots delight in putting England to the sword but on form we should "send them homeward tae think again". Should both sides win, Ireland can only draw on points with England and then England would probably win on points difference but it is all to play for, apart from France and Italy who once again, even if they beat France, will get the wooden spoon.

The Gallagher Premiership began on Friday night with a big surprise. Barf actually beat Sarries 18-9 on a very wet Rec and Tod Blackadder thought his heart would burst with joy! OK it was Sarries 2nd XV but we were missing Joe Cokanasiga who was Man of the England v Italy match plus a few of the big names like Rocco, Louw and Joseph. If Priestland had kicked a bit better the score might have been even more impressive!

Brissle performed a minor miracle at Franklins Gardens to beat the Saints 24-26 which included a repeat of the Worcester v Barf game at Sixways. Brissle were camped on the Northampton try line with the score 24-19. Repeated scrums and repeated violations eventually saw the Saints get four yellow cards so reduced to 11 men. Eventually they managed to stay upright long enough for Brissle to get the ball out of the scrum and pass it wide to score the try and tie the game. Maddigan had a difficult conversion kick to win their first away game for Brissle this season 24-26. Brilliant!

So as you can see from the table above it is radically changed from last week. Barf now move up to 6th position just behind Sale but level on points but we have a lot of hard away games to come. Poor old Leicester have sunk to 10th behind Bristol who now look safe from relegation.

Down 'yer in Kiwiland the Super Rugby fourth round began with a local derby between the Hurricanes known as the "Canes" and the Highlanders known as the "Highnes". Although it is nearly 800km from Wellington to Dunedin, all games between Kiwi teams in Super Rugby are called derby's.
It was played on a usual wet and windy day at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington giving the Canes a distinct advantage and who just managed a scrappy 25-22 win.

In Melbourne later that night the Rebels also just managed to keep the Brumbies at bay with a 26-29 win. We are two hours ahead of the east coast Australian time, just the right amount of time for a game of rugby!

The next day the Crusaders demolished our lot of Waikato Chiefs in Christchurch 57-28. Sue tells me in her younger day all the best rugby players came from this region but today those Cantabrians seem to be beating allcomers.
Up at the Albany Stadium on Auckland's North Shore the Blues scored their first win of the season beating the Sunwolves 28-20 led by their captain Sonny Bill Williams. But it was the two Ioane brothers Akira (No 8) and all-black winger Rieko who stole the show with the latter scoring all four tries.
Over in Sydney the Waratahs, known as the "Tah's", and the Queensland Reds fought it out at the SCG with the Tah's winning 28-17.

The final day of Southern Hemisphere matches saw the Lions beat the Jaguares 47-39 in Jo'berg and over in Pretoria the Bulls beat the Sharks comprehensively 37-14 meaning the Bulls move up to 2nd in the finalists standings while the Sharks are relegated to 5th. The Crusaders remain at the top, the Stormers slide off the bottom replaced by the Tahs. Bear in mind both Aussies have a game in hand.

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Some MP's questioned how a codicil could change European Law on which the Withdrawal Agreement is based. The deputy PM said that it was International Law that would apply if ever the so called Irish Backstop were to be implemented and not European Law. Tony Bliar took the UK to war when his Attorney General declared it was legal to do so and now he is doing his level best to circumvent another democratic vote because he does not agree with it. Are all UK citizens futures dependant on a bunch of lawyers opinions?

Labour MP Yvette Cooper commented that MP's had gleaned more about these new changes from Twitter than from the government and she had a point. You could see all our elected members twittering away on their mobiles while the chamber debated. If MP's spent more time properly debating matters in the house rather that twittering with each other then the rest of us might have more respect. They continue to play politics while democracy burns.

As a Brexiteer ever since we joined the EEC and certainly since the Maastricht treaty created the political union which we only got to vote on in the last referendum, I would of course like MP's to respect that result. We voted by a majority to leave the EU. More people voted to leave than had ever voted for any political party in any general election in our history. We did not vote to leave with any sort of withdrawal agreement and were not asked. We voted to leave, with or without an agreement and it is the job of MP's to respect that democratic vote or risk losing even more respect from us voters. We both still have a UK vote for another 15 years.

Both mainstream political parties said in their manifesto's that they would respect our vote to leave the EU and almost 500 MP's voted to trigger article 50 to leave. Some of those same MP's are now threatening to delay or even stop Brexit.

We did not vote to pay the EU billions for the privilege of leaving neither were we asked. If our elected representatives judge it is in our best interests to pay that money to have a withdrawal agreement then so be it, that is what they were elected for, but if they are unable to conclude an agreement then the only alternative is to leave without one. Remaining in the EU is not a democratic alternative. It would not be an economic catastrophe if we traded on WTO rules as 95% of the world does already.

New Zealand where we now live and Australia where we used to, relied on the UK for most of their trade and were abandoned by the UK when they joined the EEC. That was very hard for such small populations at the time. They were forced to go out to the rest of the world to seek new markets and the UK in turn lost a valuable export market. The result has been spectacular for both countries who now have an enviable living standard by comparison. The UK should learn from their experience.

Since writing the above comments the MP's have voted by a small majority for the UK never to leave the EU without a deal. Although the vote was not legally binding on the government it does effectively remove the only political leverage we have left to try and convince the EU that the current withdrawal agreement is unacceptable if it can legally tie us into the EU indefinitely which is what the Attorney General has advised.

11 government ministers defied the whips to vote for the amendment including 4 cabinet ministers yet only one has resigned and Mrs May says she won't sack the rest. It would seem that anarchy is alive and well among today's politicians. How can a government govern without collective cabinet responsibility? Parliament also voted by a large majority not to accept May's revised withdrawal deal for the second time of asking after her Attorney General once again warned that legally the UK could be tied to the EU forever.

Once again the UK's elected representatives are playing politics with the electorates future including Mrs May who is effectively saying "it's my deal or no deal" as is the EU, or risk a long Brexit delay or even remaining in the EU. I suspect that the EU will not give them a short delay to extend article 50 but will insist on a long delay, thereby keeping them in the EU for years to come with little influence on future EU laws and keeping the UK cash cow regularly milked. Let that be a lesson to any of the 27 vassal states left in if they try to leave!

If that is proposed and if UK MP's had any sense, which very few have, they should reject it. They should stick to their guns and if the EU will not give them an acceptable deal then so be it. The EU might be the UK's largest export market but I think that the EU now realise that they would be losing their biggest customer. The UK has announced tariff changes if they leave with no deal for imports of things like motor vehicles and beef cattle.

This has put the fear of death into the Irish who sell 50% of all their beef production to the UK and the Germans who sell 6.6% of all the cars they produce to the UK worth $94.7 billion. Then 15% of all our wine imports are French and we are the second largest wine importer in the world. We are Spain and Italy's 5th biggest customers.

There is no doubt that we have a £95 billion trade deficit with the EU so logically they are likely to come off worse on WTO rules. They are also scared s**tless what we might do to attract new investment like reducing corporation tax. If they have no deal with the EU then as the 2nd biggest boozers in the world the UK would of course buy more Australian and New Zealand wine than they they do now. They would eat more Argentine beef and it would be cheaper than the Irish stuff despite the tariff. They might also be more inclined to buy a Jag rather than a Beamer as the new tariffs only apply to new cars and not to parts.

The following day they voted on an amendment by the remainers to hold another referendum proposing that the question be "should the withdrawal deal be accepted or should the UK remain in the EU", in other words a naked attempt to reverse the original referendum decision. This amendment was defeated by a substantial majority and the vote carried for just for a request to the EU for an extension of article 50.

Theresa May will now present her deal for a third time to Parliament. If that fails yet again to get a majority she will ask the EU for an extension of article 50 who she says will demand a long extension without any certainty of agreement in the UK. But here the EU seems to be divided with some countries not wanting years of further uncertainty. That would also mean that the UK would be bound by European law to hold EU elections in May 2019 where the likelihood would be a large number of anti-EU MEP's from the UK would join an equally large number from other countries to form a disruptive bloc in the European Parliament. Not at all what the EU wants to happen.

The game which really made no difference was Italy v France in Rome. Italy could have won this game which would have been a surprise. They were within three points of France towards the end of the game when just before full time it looked like they would score a match winning try but Zenon knocked on when he was tackled by Penaud who minutes later scored the final match winning try for France to steal the game 14-25

Wales then proceeded to take Ireland to the cleaners in Cardiff who had an uncharacteristic poor game as they did against England in Dublin. They will have Joe Schmidt tearing his hair out with their inconsistent performances. Ten minutes from time they were 25-0 down and it looked like Wales were going to nil them but in the last minute Larmour ran in a try to make the final score 25-7. So congratulations to Kiwi head coach Warren Gatland on his third grand slam coaching Wales the first time any coach has done that and congratulation to Wales as the Grand Slam champions.

Wales get 3 extra grand slam points and winning a Six Nations Grand Slam is arguably the hardest thing to do in any of the international rugby competitions including winning the world cup. This is because you have to win all five games in a row home and away and it is the luck of the draw if you get to play the best teams on your home ground. Talk about the luck of the Irish, it was the luck of the Welsh drawing Ireland and England in Cardiff.

So there was nothing to play for but pride in the final game at Twickers in the England v Scotland Calcutta Cup game and England came out of the blocks fast putting Scotland on the back foot for most of the first half leading 31-0. Just before half time, a Farrell kick was charged down in the Scottish half by the Scottish hooker McInally who then grabbed the ball and outsprinted May and Farrell to score a fine solo try under the post which was converted.

Eddie Jones must have given England sleeping pills in the interval because in the second half they went to sleep and Scotland woke up to carve up England, drawing ahead to 31-38 with about 10 minutes of play left. George Ford scored and converted under the post in extra time to draw the game 38-38 but Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup as they were not beaten in a hell of a game of Rugby.

Gallagher Premiership Rugby

The Friday night game was at Welford Road where in a local derby Northampton Saints beat Leicester Tigers 15-29. That result puts the mighty Tigers within 5 points of relegation. Surely something a lot wrong with the management there? Geordan Murphy was a great player for the club but he is a novice coach and should not be in that position, however, at Barf we are willing to do a swap with Tod Blackadder even though we swapped you Georgie Ford for Burnsie!

Down at Brissle, Worcester Warriors pulled off a great away win 25-27 while Glaws stormed to victory at Kingsholm beating they Waspies 27-14.
In the other Saturday games Sarries met Quins in the London Arena in front of 42,000 fans and just managed to beat them 27-20 while Newcastle managed to get back to winning ways by beating Sale 22-17 but they still remain anchored to the bottom of the table.

So we come to the Barf v Executer game which was played on a beautiful sunny spring day down at Sandy Park. We began well and ended badly as usual 29-10 and that result meant that Exeter are certain to make the semi finals but takes Bath down to seventh place. We play Brissle next week at the rec. Surely we can't lose that game? If we can win with a bonus point we will be on 44. Glaws play the Saints away and Quins play Sale away next week so if the home teams win, the last two play off places will still be up for grabs with four more rounds to play.

Super Rugby

It was week 6 in this competition and began with that miraculous win by Auckland Blues over the Highlanders 33-26 at Eden Park. My mate Byron was there and nearly wet himself seeing this was their first win in 20 games! Those Ioane brothers were superlative but they do need a fly half who can kick.

The next day the Canes beat they Jarpie Stormers 34-28 at the Westpac, courtesy of those other Kiwi hearthrobs, the Barrett brothers.
The Tah's beat the Crusaders at the SCG 20-12 which took everyone by surprise including the Waratah's. There is a politically correct move afoot to change the name of the Crusaders as it is offensive to Muslims.
Finally the Lions beat the Sunwolves in jolly old Singer's 24-37. It looks like the Sunwolves will be dropped from the competition next year as they are not paying their way.

In Pretoria next day came another big surprise when our local team, Waikato Chiefs, who are at the bottom of the NZ conference, hammered the Bulls who are at the top of the SA conference 20-56.
Over in Durban the Melbourne Rebels lost to the Sharks 28-14 and to conclude week 6 Queensland Reds beat the Brumbies 36-14 in Brisbane.

We see that a million people turned out in London to support a "peoples vote" according to the Peoples Vote Campaign. Read more here....

The only problem with that estimate of a million was that "experts" estimated the numbers as nearer 400,000. But there was no doubt about the numbers who voted in the on-line petition to parliament to rescind article 50 and remain in the EU. Nearly 6 million voted for it including "William Reece-Mogg", "Brexy McBrexit Face" and many other ficticious persons plus non-Brits who were not really entitled to petition parliament.

The EU Council President, Donald Tusk announced to the EU Parliament "You should be open to a long extension, if the UK wishes to rethink its strategy. 6 million people signed the petition, 1 million marched. They may not feel sufficiently represented by UK Parliament but they must feel represented by you. Because they are Europeans."
I would only comment that 17.4 million voted to leave in a proper democratic vote and 80% of the electorate voted for two parties who promised to honour that result. Just like the EU have done before when the results of previous referenda have been contrary to their wishes, the votes of those majorities have been ignored. Are those majorities also not Europeans?

I also take issue with Tusk that the remainers are not "sufficiently represented by UK Parliament". The problem we have now and have always had is that remainers are over represented in the UK Parliament who are instinctively remainers whereas the majority of the people that elected them are leavers.

When the petition was analysed it seems the the signatories were in the same areas and in the same proportions to those who voted to remain in the referendum. So it was just a large bunch of middle class remainiacs most of whom are far more well educated and intelligent than us brexiteers, who will always know best and will perhaps never change.
Interesting that the Peoples Vote want us to vote on Theresa May's deal as a peoples vote is the only democratic solution and if we were to vote No then the default is to remain in the EU. How very democratic that the default is to remain and not to leave.

Since writing the foregoing our ridiculous parliamentarians have voted again on four more marginally changed Brexit alternatives and once again voted no to all of them. Many of them abstained so if there was a binding vote on one of the alternatives on which they had voted yes and everyone then voted there would be no certainty of success.
Our system of government does not work if the executive is unable to command a majority. If the government can not find a majority for any deal then the only solution is to leave the EU on WTO terms. That is the logical result of article 50 for which 500 of the stupid bar stewards voted! Voting NOT to leave without a deal is ridiculous if you can't agree on one.

The weekend of round 7 began with a much touted local derby in Wellington between the 'Canes and the Crusaders who played their captain Kieran Read for the first time this year together with 9 other All-Blacks in the side. Needless to say they took the 'Canes to the cleaners who managed to do even worse than the 32-18 loss the last time they played them in Christchurch, going down this time 8-32.

Not a good game for 'Canes fan Bro Fred to watch either with lots of mistakes including a couple of intercepts off Beauden Barrett passes who had a poor game. The rest of them were also pretty poor with loads of handling errors, turnovers, penalties and knock-ons. They didn't score a point in the second half despite having most of the possession.

The Crusaders having 10 All-Blacks in their XV can help or hinder as the deal is that they must be rested after six games. They are the current champions and have a great coaching team including Ronan O'Gara who must find it a bit different to Paris. I don't suppose they would be interested in taking Tod Blackadder back from Barf?!

In Newcastle NSW the Sunwolves beat the 'Tah's 29-31 the week after the latter beat the Crusaders so these early season games are difficult to predict, however the next day the resurgent Blues beat the Stormers at Eden Park 24-9 in a close and thrilling game of rugby that the score belies. It was anyone's game up to the last few minutes when the impeccable Rieko Ioane took the offload from his brother Akira to score a try. At that time the Blues were down to 14 men after Tanielu Tele'a was red carded for dangerous play. Maybe a yellow but not a red card offence in my book as he pulled out of taking the ball in the air but instinctively touched Leyds who was sailing above his head to protect himself who landed on his back.

After last weeks performance fly half Plummer was relegated to the bench and Otere Black took his place and had a great game, scoring from a brilliant offload in the tackle by Sonny Bill Williams. So after 20 defeats on the trot they now have three wins on the trot and a bonus point win. Byron will be pleased.
Meanwhile in Brisbane the Reds were getting stuffed by the Rebels in an Aussie derby 13-32. Not so much of a great game for the Rebels but rather a dreadful display by the Reds who hardly touched the ball and when they did quickly lost it again!

On Sunday in Durban in another local derby the Bulls beat the Sharks in a close game 16-19 while our Chiefs from Waikato pulled of a second straight win in Buenos Aires against the Jaguares 27-30. So the Crusaders remain at the top of the standings with the Rebels moving up into second. The Blues move into the top eight for the first time and replace the Bulls

In the European cup quarter finals which I couldn't watch, Sarries beat Glasgow 56-27, Munster beat Edinburgh 13-17 and Leinster beat Ulster 21-18. So Sarries will play Munster in the first semi-final at the Ricoh on 20th April and Leinster will play Toulouse the next day in Dublin who managed to hold out against Racing 92 to beat them by one point 22-21. The final will be on 11th May in Newcastle-on-Tyne.

My Barf Rugby boys did the business on Saturday against Brissle at Twickers and moved them up in the table to potentially contest a top four place for the semi final play-offs. Of course some of my readers have absolutely no interest in rugby so they do not have to wade through loads of comment on the UK and NZ results but those of superior intellect can read more here....

Yes Barf managed at last to play for the full 80 minutes in front of a 60,000 plus crowd at Twickenham beating Brissle with a bonus point 26-19 score. Brissle came back at them in the second half to put the shits up seasoned supporters like myself who are used to seeing us lose games in the last 10 minutes but Barf held on to win, pushing themselves back up to 6th place in the table.
Barf conceded 12 penalties in the game of which Brissle turned four of them into 12 points and Priestland missed a sitter from right in front of the posts as he does from time to time but otherwise had a good game. Brissle secured a valuable losing bonus point to make them more secure at 9th place.

Gloucester however beat Northampton at The Gardens 31-40 which cements them firmly in 3rd place and makes Barf's visit to Kingsholm next week a mouth watering spectacle. The ancient rivalry between these two clubs is legend but Barf have a good record playing Glaws at home as baiting shedheads is a sport they seem to enjoy. That game's result may be the difference between Barf making the play-offs or not.

There is also the tricky problem of Sale who beat Quins 28-17 at the A J Bell and are tied with Barf on 44 points but have won more games. Next week they meet Worcester at Sixways which will be an equally important match, especially for Worcester intent on avoiding relegation.

Executer tanked the Tigers at Welford Road 20-52 with hooker & captain Tom Youngs getting a red card for a high shoulder charge clearing out a ruck. George Ford had a good game as his father, who is now employed by the club as rugby consultant, watched on. It is not inconceivable that this great club could be relegated. They play Newcastle away next week, a club sitting at the bottom of the table and who will fight to the death. The following week they are at home to Brissle then away to Quins with Barf their final game at home which I can confidently predict they will win to save themselves from relegation and prevent Barf reaching the play-offs!!!

Finally they Waspies beat Worcester at the Ricoh 28-16. Barf play Wasps at the Rec in their penultimate and only home game left.
Sarries of course beat Newcastle at home 26-12 so the top two teams are secure for home semi's, Gloucester look pretty secure for a top four place while Quins, Sale, Barf, Saints and Wasps are all within 7 points of each other and competing for that 4th place with 4 games to play. Gripping stuff aye.

Super Rugby

The Super Rugby weekend kicked off on Friday night with a tight game between the 'Lander's and the 'Cane's down in the glass house in Dunedin. This was a thrilling encounter and anyone's game up to the final minute which the Canes scraped after Beauden Barret put Laumape through for a try in the last quarter and then held on by the skin of their teeth for a 28-31 win.
Over in Brisbane the Reds beat the Stormers 24-12.

The next day in Jo'burg the Sharks took great bites out of the Lions to win 5-42 while here at Christchurch the Crusaders gave the Brumbies a 36-14 smacking.
They usually race around the stadium on horses dressed up as crusaders to the delight of the younger audience but this has now been stopped as such activity was not seen as politically correct after the recent massacre of Muslims in the city.
There is still much debate here as to if the Crusaders should change their name. Well if they do change their name then what happens to the Saracens who were Arab Muslims in the 12th century? And what about they Barbarians who are not Roman and don't speak Latin? They are all rugby clubs that's all and their ancient names are irrelevant in modern times.

While the South Island Kiwi's were giving their Oz cousins a lesson their North Island brothers were at Eden Park playing the Waratahs. This was a much closer affair but the Blues won in the end 32-29 and were the better side thanks to exceptional work by the likes of Ma'a Nonu and Akira Ioane. After 20 games without a win this was their fourth win in a row, the last time this happened was back in 2011!

In Melbourne the Rebels beat the Sunwolves 42-15 and in a surprise win the next day the Jaguares beat the Bulls in Pretoria 20-22.

The weekends activity means that the Sharks move up from 5th to 3rd place in the standings. The Blues move up to 5th while the Stormers drop out of the first eight after their poor visit to the Antipode's.

I predicted Barf Rugby might do well at Kingsholm and they started well going 17 points in front until just before half time to the abandoned disgust of the whole goddam shed but of course some of my readers have absolutely no interest in Barf Rugby so they will never know the outcome of this important game or the other UK and NZ results but those of you who have can read more here....

Chris Hockey knows I record the premiership games as they occur in the middle of the night here and he emailed me saying I would need a stiff whisky when I watched the game. I don't know why he thought that as Barf played their usual game getting a good 17-0 lead in the first half then losing it progressively in the second. This time they were hindered by strange coaching decisions; removing Freddie Burns who was bossing the game and pushing them forward then replacing him for no good reason with Priestland. On second thoughts the decision to remove Burns might have seemed crazy to us Barf fans but obviously not for Tod Blackadder who should be forcibly removed back here to NZ and the game finished 27-23 to the delight of the shed and the abandoned disgust of the whole goddam Somerset population bloody shit!

Up in Newcastle a relegation battle raged with they Tigers who managed to beat the Falcons 22-27 meaning Newcastle stay firmly at last place. More results down South at Sixways were further bad news for them but good news for Bath when Worcester took Sale to the cleaners 39-17 which meant the Warriors advanced 7 points clear of Newcastle at the bottom of the table and Bath overtook Sale by virtue of a losing bonus point. Glaws cemented their third place for the play-offs and the fourth place is still up for grabs. The top six qualify for Europe next season.

But in another surprise result they Waspies beat Executer at Sandy Park 19-26. Could the Chiefs be going off the boil at the end of the season? At any rate the result shifted Wasps up from eighth to fifth. Then another surprise when Northampton pipped Quins in the closing minute at the Stoop 19-20 and held them to 50 points in the table. Blow me down if Brissle didn't beat Sarries at Ashton Gate 23-21. OK it was Sarries 2nd XV but they made the mistake of underestimating Brissle, not bringing on their big guns until they realised they might lose at around the 50 minute mark. Then they played badly and the better side won. This result makes Bristol fairly safe from relegation

There are 3 rounds left and next time Barf meet Sale away. Now you would think if Worcester can thrash them at home that we could do the same but don't count on it. Exeter play Quins at Sandy Park and should beat them but don't count on it. A good result in both games might put us in that fourth place but don't count on it because if Northampton beat Newcastle at Kingston Park they will move into 4th spot and Newcastle are unlikely to escape relegation.

But Worcester face an uphill battle at Sixways meeting Glaws and Leicester meet Bristol at Welford Road. Then there's they Waspies who have Sarries at the Ricoh but none of these games will happen for a couple of weeks as the Premiership breaks for the semi-finals of the European Cup which is what Sarries were saving their big guns for at Bristol, being the only English side left in.

Super Rugby

We had a couple of Kiwi Derby's this weekend with the Crusaders v Highlanders in Christchurch and the Chiefs v Blues at the FMG Stadium. As expected the Crusaders were dominant and thrashed the 'Landers 43-17 but were losing by 3 points at half time just like last week. Just like last week they came out after orange sucking and took the lead, never looking back.
In Hamilton it was a completly different and close game where our Waikato Chiefs held on to stop the Blues winning run of four games 33-29. It was an open game played at a hectic pace from start to finish led by captain and lock, Brodie Retallick, who just never gave up. Damian McKenzie also had a great game making passes that defied reason and converted two tries but unfortunately picked up a knee injury early in the 2nd half which will keep him out of the World Cup.
His brother Marty stepped into his boots and converted two more tries. The Blues fought to the death with Ma'a Nonu and Rieko Ioane scoring tries but the Chiefs held on to deservedly win the game, the sixteenth one in a row against the Blues.

In Melbourne the Stormers came good against the Rebels 24-41. Up until the 45th minute it was pretty even with the score on 10-10 then in the next 10 minutes the Stormers found their mojo and scored three quick tries. The Rebels did come back but mistakes by those two posers Quade and Genia let the Stormers in near the end for a decider so they return to Cape Town after only this one win out of the four they played in Australasia. Meanwhile in Canberra the Brumbies beat the Lions 31-20 so they Jarpies not doing too well away from home aye.
Over in South Africa the Sharks took the Jaguares to the cleaners in Durban 17-51 then the Bulls beat the Reds 31-17.

So the Crusaders stay at the top of the standings with the Bulls moving up from 6th to 2nd, displacing the Rebels who dropped to 3rd and Hurricanes to 4th. The Sharks drop to 5th and the Blues to 6th. The Lions and Waratahs drop out of the top eight and are displaced by the Jaguares and Stormers who creep back in at eighth. Note that the Crusaders have played one game more than the rest.

After that piece of good news, those of you who are completely disinterested in Rugby Union will not be subjected to any further news of Super Rugby but the intelligentsia can read more here...

The European semi-finals are played this weekend so the English premiership takes a holiday. That means the only games I could watch were the Super Rugby ones so I feel a bit deprived! The Friday night game was between the Chiefs and they Jarpie Lions, The Chiefs were favourites to win on their Hamilton home ground despite being without rock stars Damian McKenzie, Brodie Retallick and Nathan Harris.
The Lions came out roaring and at the break were 20 nill up. It wasn't until the 4th quarter that the Chiefs woke up and quickly scored 3 tries to get within 3 points but they had left it too late and a drop goal from Jantjies in the final minutes sealed the game 17-23. The Lions were a bit like Barf except they hung on for a win whereas Barf would have lost!

Next we went to Tokyo where the Sunwolves played the Hurricanes to an enthusiastic sellout crowd. The home side lost 23-29 but it was a close run thing and the local enthusiasm for the sport bodes well for the world cup played there later this year. This was the Brumbies first win in Durban for 15 years.

Early Saturday morning NZ time the Sharks played the Reds in Durban. The Reds went in at the break two tries and 14-7 up with the Sharks having most of the ball but not doing much with it. They came back in the 2nd half but never looked like winning the game which they lost 14-21.

Down in Dunedin we had another Kiwi derby with the Highlanders v Blues. Now the Blues had not beaten the 'Landers in the glasshouse since 2011 when we were visiting NZ all that time ago for the World Cup and they continued the tradition. The Blues dominated the first quarter and that ginger Tom flanker held on to a superlative pass from Ma'a Nonu to score a great try while the 'Landers got one back just before the break. The second half was all the 'Landers and they won comfortably 24-12 with the Blues getting a consolation try in the closing minutes. Byron and Terri are very upset.

Over at the SCG the Waratahs were playing the Rebels in an Oz derby. Their big rock star Israel Foloau was sacked by them this week for spouting on about those of the gay persuasion being sent to Hell. He was also sacked by the Wobblies as it was not the first time he has done this and was on a written warning. He is appealing against these decisions as he says he was only quoting the bible.
He may have deeply held Christian beliefs which he is perfectly entitled to but as a public figure you do risk sanctions if you say things which are offensive to others with contrary beliefs and you should keep your mouth shut which he didn't for a second time. I gather Billy Vunipola has also opened his gob in support, anyway back to the Rugby.

The 'Tah's were not expected to beat the Rebels sans Folau and in the first half they struggled, going in for orange sucking 13 points adrift. They came back in a thrilling second half to win 23-20. Proper local derby given the historic rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne.
Reminds me of once flying between the two cities when the Captain announced we were just passing the State border into Victoria and would all passengers put their watches back 10 years!

The final game of the weekend was in Cape Town where the Stormers were playing the Brumbies who hadn't won there for donkey's years and no away games this season. However, they were winning 12-3 when just on half time the Stormers were awarded a penalty try after Toni Pulu was given a yellow card for a high tackle on scrum half Herschel Jantjies.
The Stormers continued to turn down kickable penalty kicks at goal, seven in all and continually failed to score tries in the second half. They did score eventually but so did the Brumbies who held on for a famous 17-19 win.

Week 10's results push the Rebels up into 2nd place in the standings with everyone else dropping a place. The Lions move up to 5th displacing the Sharks which is a nice play on words for a marine creature! The 'Tah's move up to 7th pushing the Blues down to 8th position and have a game in hand as do the Bulls. The Jaguares and Stormers drop out of the top eight and we are half way though the competition.

European Rugby Cup

I can't watch that here in NZ but I am pleased to report that Sarries beat Munster convincingly at the Ricoh 32-16 in the semi final and I confidently predicted Leinster would beat Toulouse which they did 30-12 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It will result in a mouth watering Sarries v Leinster final which will be on 11th May in Newcastle-on-Tyne. I can also predict Sarries for the cup so long a Billy holds his tongue!

Not only do I have a very poor opinion of civil servants but an equally poor one of politicians, particularly the current crop. If you are interested in politics then you can read more here...

I have often wondered why seemingly intelligent people who call themselves politicians so often say things that "normal" people find ridiculous. The latest statement to come to my attention is from Prime Minister May. She has said that despite Cabinet's opinion, the Government had "to govern in the national interest" with relation to her BREXIT negotiations with Comrade Corbine.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary which has been around since 1828, parliamentary government is defined as "a system of government having the real executive power vested in a cabinet composed of members of the legislature who are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature"

Perhaps Mrs May would tell us who she thinks forms the government if it is not her cabinet? It seems to me that it is Mrs May and a few of her acolytes who are doing the negotiating/governing and not her government? She seems to be riding roughshod over any form of parliamentary democracy in order to get her own way and most of her cabinet seem too lily livered to assert their executive power or get rid of her.

When the EU has failed to get a country to vote as they would wish in the past they have simply changed things slightly and asked them to vote again. Mrs May does not even bother to change the Withdrawal Agreement which Parliament has refused to ratify three times. In fact she can't because the EU has said it is not negotiable but she still threatens to persist. No wonder Ken Clarke called her a difficult woman.

I remember trying to decide who was the worst PM, John Major or 'Call me Dave' (David Cameron). Now I know neither can hold a candle to the present incumbent.

Now to more important matters. This weekend was round 20 of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby and Week 11 of Super Rugby. Now I know that most of you are busting a gut to read my comments on both these competitions and you can do so here...

Barf Rugby has only managed to win one game away from the rec this season and for their trip to the A.J.Bell stadium to play Sale they did not disappoint, losing 6-3. Even Sale's director of rugby, Steve Diamond, said he felt sorry for anyone who had paid good money to watch that game!
In the other Friday evening game Northampton beat Newcastle 17-31 which meant that they might have faced certain relegation by the end of this round depending on the other results. I did predict that the Saints might go marching in and they moved up to 4th place in the standings.

Apart from relegation there were still two matters that remain to fight over. The top four after round 22 will play off for the premiership champions title and the top six will qualify to play for the European Cup next season. London Irish are certain to win the 2nd tier Greene King Championship title and will return to the premiership next season.

Quins had to travel down to Sandy Park to play Executer. I did wonder if they Chiefs had gone off the boil after their loss to they Waspies and I was right. They scored two easy tries in the first 10 minutes and at half time were 12-0 up. Quins came back in the second half and the Chiefs just held on after a dodgy scrum penalty decision to win 17-15.

Sarries gave they Waspies a bit of a hiding at the Ricoh and romped ahead early in the game with two tries but then let Wasps back in although still managing a bonus point 14-31 win.

The upset of the day was Brissle who went away to Welford Road and beat Leicester deservedly 20-23. This meant that Bristol will definitely be playing premiership rugby next season but Leicester's future is still uncertain.

Glaws travelled a few miles up the M5 to Sixways on the Sunday and a vital game for Worcester who were only 7 points ahead of Newcastle. They beat Glaws 27-20 with 57 (Willi Heinz) scoring Glaws a final losing bonus point try to guarantee them a quarter final place with the Warriors moving above Tigers in the table and guaranteed to stay up in the premiership.
So all the West Country clubs will be be in the premiership next season with either Newcastle or Leicester going down.

There are two rounds left to play so the maximum points you can score from those games 10. Newcastle have to do that to have any chance of avoiding relegation and they play Bristol at Ashton Gate next which will not be easy then a final game against Glaws at Kingsholm which will be nearly impossible. They must beat them both scoring 4 tries plus the Tigers must lose both their games against Quins away and Bath at home by more than 7 points. 'Twould be a miracle but they do happen and that would mean Tigers would be relegated. Unthinkable.

So you now have Glaws safely into 3rd place but the final fourth play-off place is still up for grabs. The possibilities are endless but you can take a fair crack now at the possible outcomes:

1. Northampton are on 51 and meet Worcester at home which they should win and Exeter away which they should lose so they should end up with 55 or 56.
2. Quins are also on 51 and meet Tigers at home and Wasps away. They might just beat both but I predict only a couple of losing bonus points so 53.
3. Sale are on 48 and meet Brissle away which they will lose and Glaws at home which they will also lose so just losing bonus points and 50.
4. Wasps are on 47 and meet Barf at the rec which they will lose and Quins at the Ricoh which they will win so 50 or 51.
5. Barf are on 46 and meet Wasps at the rec who they will beat and they Tiggers away which they will lose so 50 or 51.
6. Brissle are on 45 and meet Sale at home who they will beat and Falcons away who they might also beat but unlikely so perhaps 48 or 51.

So you can see that not only the fourth place might go to the wire but also 5th and 6th for the European cup qualification and it might all be decided on bonus points or match points difference. I am betting on the Saints to take that last play-off spot on present form.

Super Rugby

The Crusaders met the Lions at Christchurch who had put up a good performance last week against the Chiefs. This week they were in a different league and the Crusaders put them away easily 36-10.
Over in Tokyo the Highlanders did even better against the Sunwolves. They had a bonus point 4 try score in the first 20 minutes and scored four more unanswered tries in the rest of the game winning 52-0. This result pushes them up into the top eight.

A proper local derby was played in Wellington on Saturday between the Hurricanes and the Chiefs. Bear in mind that the Chiefs are labouring at the bottom of the New Zealand Conference so were not expected to beat the 'Canes at home who are in 2nd place below the Crusaders and they didn't.
On a typical wild, wet and windy Wellington evening, Jordie Barrett waltzed in for two tries in the first 10 minutes which bruv Beauden duly converted and at the break the 'Canes were 28-12 up. They continued the demolition in the second half with a final humiliating defeat of the Chiefs 47-19.

Also on Saturday evening the Waratahs played the Sharks in Sydney and the 'Tahs were beaten 15-23. It was 10-10 at half time then 10 minutes into the second half one of the 'Tahs locks elbowed a Shark prop in the teeth in retaliation for a shirt pull and received a red card for his troubles with the Shark getting a yellow then a few minutes later the 'Tahs were down to 13 men for a spear tackle when it all went belly up. They played at a nice new rugby stadium which was an improvement on the SCG for spectators.
The next day in Cape Town the Stormers just managed to beat the Bulls 24-23 on home turf while over in Buenos Aires the Jaguares and Brumbies fought it out with the home side winning 20-15.

So the Crusaders remain on top with the Sharks displacing the Rebels from 2nd place who have a game in hand. The Canes stay at 4th and the Bulls move to 5th who also have a game in hand. The Stormers and Highlanders move up into the top eight, the Jaguares move up into 6th place with a game in hand and the Lions drop out. If you are confused with the table it is because the highest team from each conference are always finalists followed by the highest five scoring teams.

SKY Sport have not said yet what TV channel they will screen the English premiership finals on and I fear they may do so on the Rugby Channel. They screened all the Super Rugby for week 12 on the sport or pop-up channels but only two of the penultimate premiership games so the signs are ominous, however, you can of course read my reports here...

Of the Friday night games the one I managed to watch was Brissle v Sale at Ashton Gate which I had tipped Brissle to win but they wuz robbed. It was 17-20 in the final minutes when Brissle had a try disallowed by Alapati Leiua as Callum Sheedy pulled Chris Ashtons jersey over his head preventing him defending the try line. The ref then gave Ashton a yellow card for holding Sheedy and awarded Brissle a penalty from which they scored making it 20-20. Madigan missed two long range penalty kicks which would have won them the game and Faf de Klerk did likewise in extra time as his kick came off the posts.

Brissle never gave up and attacked Sale again who turned the ball over when MacGinty thought discretion was the better part of valour and kicked the ball out to end the game to much booing from the Bristolians so it ended a 20-20 draw.

Of course whoever won that game could have made a big difference to who gets that fourth play-off place and who plays in Europe as did the other Friday night game.
Leicester played Quins at the Stoop and Quins beat them 23-19 ending a five game losing streak. I had thought they might just do that but felt they Tiggers had something extra in the tank. It was not to be though and this put Quins more in contention for a play-off place and put Barf out of it.

Leicester's fate was decided when Newcastle travelled down to Gloucester on Saturday. The Falcons needed to beat Glaws at Kingsholm scoring four tries in the process which was of course an impossible task. They faced this impossible task (I can feel a song coming on) with fortitude scoring three of those wanted tries. Only problem was that they didn't win and Glaws scored four of their own to win 28-19. So the Falcons are relegated and Leicester safe in the premiership.

Top of the table Exeter went to Allianz Park to play with Sarries who tanked them 38-7. Now I know that both sides did not represent the ones that are likely to play each other in the final but it was a bit of a gobbing. Sarries play Leinster next week in the final of the European Champions Cup so there are no premiership games and everyone can watch Sarries become European champions again except me. I really am gobsmacked that in this NZ Rugby nation we can't watch the most important club rugby game in the Northern Hemisphere yet we can watch all their regular games.

Northampton Saints managed a bonus point 38-10 win against Worcester Warriors at The Stoop which made them firm favourites for that fourth play-off spot as predicted.

My Barf lot were out of the play-off race by virtue of the Saints bonus point win but Wasps were still in with a chance of displacing them if they could beat us at the rec in the penultimate game. Barf proceeded to do something completely out of character! They went in a half time 10-17 down and then came back in the 2nd half for a bonus point 29-17 win holding Wasps to a pointless half. In the final minute the score was 22-17 with tries by Joseph, Mercer and Cokanasiga when Sam Underhill earned his hangover turning over the ball for a line-out in the corner. MOM Mercer went over for his second try which Fotuali'i converted.

So now there is only one game for each team left to play, what are the possible outcomes?

1. Northampton are on 56 and meet Exeter away which they should lose so they should end up with 56 or 57.
2. Quins are on 55 and meet Wasps away. They might just beat them but I predict a loss so also 56 or 57. If they tie on points then Saints will win on games won.
3. Barf are on 51 and meet they Tiggers away which they will lose so 51 or 52.
4. Sale are on 50 and meet Glaws at home which they will lose but perhaps a losing bonus point so 50 or 51.
5. Wasps are on 47 and meet Quins at the Ricoh which they will win so 50 or 51.
6. Brissle are on 47 and meet Falcons away which they will lose so perhaps 48.

So my prediction is still Northampton for the play-offs but Quins could still do it if they managed to beat Wasps and the Saints do lose as I predict against Executer. Any team apart from the bottom three could qualify for Europe. These predicted scores are so close that any upset could affect the outcome and bonus points may decide.

Super Rugby Week 12

Champions and current leaders Crusaders played the Sharks in Christchurch in which the bookies had the Crusaders down to win by a mile. It was also the 150th Crusaders game for superstar Kieran Reid and was supposed to equal their record of 26 home victories on the trot. What transpired was not what anyone expected and the mighty Crusaders just managed to score a converted try in extra time to tie the game 21-21. The Sharks did not deserve that and were the better side, leading for most of the game.
Sharks fly half Curwin Bosch missed a few kicks but still kicked 7 penalties which shows you how bad the Crusaders were but in their defence they were without rock stars Richie Mo'unga, Sam Whitelock and Ryan Crotty.

Over in Orstralia the Sunwolves were playing the Reds in Brisbane and I don't think I have ever seen so many cards handed out in one game! Sunwolves Fijian winger, Semisi Masirewa is usually impressive but collected three yellow cards in succession, the third being automatically converted into a red. Harry Hockings for the Reds also collected a card to match his jersey and the Sunwolves collected two more yellows so at one point 12 men were playing 14. It finished 32-26 in favour of the home side.

There were three Saturday games, the first being in Wellington where the 'Canes met the Rebels who are currently at the top of the Orstralian conference. The 'Canes played like Barf going 26-0 up in the first 20 minutes with the Barrett Bros in control, Geordie scoring with ease and Beauden feeding Ngani Laumape to run 40 metres throwing all defenders aside like matchwood. They then let the Rebels back into the game to score 19 points to their 3. The only difference was the 'Canes still managed to hold on and win 29-19.

Next up was the best game of the week, nay even the season. It was the Highlanders against the Chiefs who were on the back foot and chasing the game from the off. An hour into the game they were down 28-12 but just would not lie down and be beaten. Into the final quarter, down by 16, Angus Ta'avao went over and it was game on. Then Tyler Ardron who had a great game scored a try to get the Chiefs within four points only to give away a penalty at the other end and this was where the 'Landers made their fatal mistake as they could have gone for the corner and perhaps scored another try but they chickened out and took the three on offer so were just the 7 points ahead.

The Chiefs then sent Ta'avao over for a fifth try which Marty McKenzie quickly converted so they could continue to try and win the game in extra time and they almost did but the 'Landers turned them over and kicked the ball out to draw the game 31-31. Fantastic proper rugby and I was yelling my head off at the telly!
Over in Canberry the Brumbies were up against the Blues who continued to disappoint in a lacklustre performance losing 26-21. They have not managed to win away this year.

Next day in Pretoria saw a rampant Bull trample a fluttery Waratah 28-21. The Bulls were dominant in the first half but the Tah's came back in the second. Too many handling errors and a really poor scrum let the Tah's down which they will need to fix for when they meet the Lions next week.

The final game of week 12 was in Buenos Aires where the Jaguares met the Stormers. The Jaguares bit and the Stormers were a bit wet in an error strewn game which finished 30-25 in the home sides favour. This pushes them up to 6th place in the standings with a game in hand as have the Bulls and the Rebels.

Bath Rugby have confirmed that Stuart Hooper will take over from Tod Blackadder as Director of Rugby and Neal Hatley will return to the club as Forwards and Defence Coach when he relinquishes his position as England's Scrum Coach after the World Cup. Welsh Barf lock Luke Charteris will join the coaching team and visit New Zealand to gain experience with the Crusaders and other Super Rugby sides. If you would like to know more about the new coaching set-up at Bath then you can read more here...

Stuart Hooper is of course well known to us Barf faithful as he was our captain for many years until he was forced to retire as a player through injury. He then became a member of the coaching team in charge of Performance and Player Development although he has no coaching qualifications.
He was subsequently made General Manager and was a very good water boy!
As DOR he will not actively coach but he has been around the existing set up for long enough to know the score and will bring his long player experience to bear in the future selection of new players.
Stuart is a Devonian who first played for Sarries then Leeds Tykes who he captained as well as the Churchill Cup winning England Saxons side in 2009. He joined Barf in 2007 and was appointed captain in 2011 who he led until his retirement in 2016.

Neal Hatley is a Lancastrian who grew up in South Africa where he played in the Currie Cup and Super Rugby. Returning home he was capped 193 times for London Irish and Bedford before becoming academy manager for Irish. He also captained England Saxons in 2007 when they won the Churchill Cup.
Neal joined Barf as a first team coach in 2012 and with the then DOR Mike Ford took Barf to the premiership final. Barf had arguably the best scrum in the premiership when Neal was in charge so we are expecting great results in the future.

Neal left Barf to become the England scrum coach in 2016. As had also been announced previously Toby Booth and Darren Edwards will be leaving the club at the end of the season and Girvan Dempsey will continue as Attack and Backs coach. There is a fair amount of both optimism and pessimism about this new structure amongst the fans but all agree they must get us back to winning ways.

Luke Charteris will become the lineout coach and take charge of the maul. He is studying for his RFU coaching badge and is working with local University and School teams to this end. He will also visit New Zealand shortly and will join Ronan O'Gara at the Crusaders in Christchurch to gain further coaching experience as well as at other Super Rugby clubs.
From my own short experience in watching Super Rugby regularly it is a much faster game here and the NZ teams are very skillful in off loading and passing the ball but they don't seem to kick much in attack. The Sharks taught the Crusaders a lesson last week by superior line speed preventing the off load and passing. The Crusaders could have beaten this opposition by kicking ahead occasionally but are conditioned to holding on to the ball. The Blacks will have to learn that you don't have to always keep the ball if the opposition are intent on shutting you down and superior ball handling skill does not always win games as I am sure they will.

Girvan Dempsey joined Barf from Leinster last year where he was the Backs coach. You can't get much more successful as a club than Leinster but so far we have not seen any real improvement in performance of the Barf backs. He has had Watson and JJ out with injury for much of his tenure and he has had to work with Darren Edwards who was leaving (pushed?) but now he is in sole charge so he has no excuses.

Dempsey is Dublin born and only ever played as full back for Leinster and Ireland of course where he was capped 82 times. After retiring as a player he became Leinster's elite player development officer then Academy Manager. In 2015 he became Backs Coach until joining Bath in 2018.

So what do I think about the new coaching set-up? Well first of all it's not that new. Hoops has been around for some time but in a different capacity taking his orders from the mighty Blackadder who we all know was useless as a coach. Hoops has little coaching experience but if he leaves his two experienced ones to get on with it and just manages things then he could shine, otherwise Martin Johnson demonstrated how a great rugby player can fail as a manager.

Rugby Union here in New Zealand is just called Rugby and is considered to be the National Sport. Rugby League is called Rugby League. SKY NZ broadcast all the Super Rugby franchise games, some school games and all the French, Pro14 and English premiership club games but now Spark, the NZ equivalent of British Telecom, has started Spark Sport copying BT Sport and begun to challenge SKY NZ.

Sarries beat Leinster 20-10 as I predicted and there was no premiership rugby as all the players and fans were on the Newcastle Broon (why aye man!). By all accounts it was a battle royal with Sarries going 10 points down, losing their two props to injuries and Itoje to the sin bin early on. The game of Rugby can be won through sheer determination which Sarries have in spades and so do the Waikato Chiefs as you will read later.

Here in the Godszone the opening Super Rugby derby in week 13 was at Eden Park between the Blues and the Hurricanes who were sitting in a comfortable 4th place with 36 points. The Blues however are languishing in 12th place overall with 21 points so a win for them might just get them up into the running for the play-offs.

The Blues attacked the 'Canes at Eden Park in the first quarter and had most of possession but eventually succumbed to the superior team. The 'Canes are well coached and patient. When they see an opening they seize it and they then score, often against the run of play. This game was no exception and the 'Canes won 12-22 so the Blues chances of reaching the play-offs are not good.

In Melbourne that evening another derby was staged between the Rebels and the Queensland Reds. This was a close affair with the home side eventually winning 30-24 keeping them at the top of the Orstralian conference for the time being.

The first game on Saturday was in Pretoria when the seasider 'saders showed that good sides should not fear altitude as they put the Bulls to the sword 13-45. Their first 5/8th Richie Mo'Unga is a pleasure to watch and will undoubtedly be the Blacks first choice in that position over Beauden Barrett come the World Cup. He had a hand in all 7 tries, scoring two himself and setting up Sevu Reece for three more. And Winger Sevu is another brilliant prospect for the Blacks with an impressive skill set and lightening speed who qualifies for both Fiji and NZ. He only joined the Crusaders as an injury replacement.

The second game of the day was down in the Dunedin greenhouse between the Highlanders and the Jaguares (pronounced; hag-ewe-are-ees if your name is José). The Landers were dominant for most of the game but the Jags came back at them late on and almost pinched it. Keeping their record run of home wins against foreigners the Landers held on for a 32-27 win.

Now we come to the best game of the weekend. Last week I waxed lyrical about the Chiefs refusal to give up and coming from behind to draw the game against the Highlanders through sheer bloody mindedness. This week at home against the Sharks it was no different.

The Sharks were a side that held the Crusaders to a draw last weekend and the Chiefs could not match their teamwork, the difference was the Chiefs determination to win was the greater.
In the 67th minute Anton Lienert-Brown went over for a try to put them within a point then some great passing from within their own 22 preceded a great try by Scrum-Half Brad Weber to take them 6 points ahead.

With minutes to go I watched heart in mouth as they played more dangerous passing rugby when they should have been concentrating on keeping the ball which they eventually lost. The Sharks then fought their way towards the Chiefs try line but eventually lost the ball in extra time and it finished 29-23. Another great game of rugby from the Chiefs and I again woke Sue up shouting at the telly! The win pushes them up to within striking distance of the play-offs with 23 points. Next week they meet the Blues at Eden Park.

On Sunday the first of the final two games was in Jo'berg where the Lions met The Waratahs sans Israel Folau. This was between two very evenly matched sides and from the off they exchanged tries at frequent intervals until they had four each. At the final whistle it was just a question of who happened to be in the lead and it was the Lions who won it at 29-28.

The final game of the weekend was in Canberra between the Brumbies and the Sunwolves. It was Mothering Sunday and all the little Brumbies had their mummy's Christian names on the back of their jersey's! It certainly helped them as they trounced the Sunwolves 33-0 propelling them to the top of the Orstralian Conference and displacing the Rebels

So the Sharks move to the top of the SA conference and up from 5th to 3rd place in the finalist standings. The Rebels drop to 6th displaced by the Brumbies from 2nd and the Canes are unchanged whilst the Landers move up from 7th to 5th place. The Bulls drop to 7th and the Jaguares to 8th while the Lions drop out of the top eight. The bottom three teams have a game in hand and only match points difference separates them.

The final English rugby premiership round 22 featured crunch games for 4th place Northampton Saints and 5th place Quins who both had a realistic chance of making the play-offs. The top six qualified for Europe. Barf, Wasps, Sale and Brissle all had a realistic chance of qualifying but the permutations are mind boggling. It depends not only on results from the premiership but also on results from the French and PRO14 leagues and there could be an extra place so a premiership 6th and 7th place would then qualify. Barf needed 2 points from their Leicester game to secure qualification but could have lost and still qualified! You can see what happened in the premiership plus the Super Rugby results here....

It was super Saturday with all the premiership teams playing but SKY NZ didn't screen the Barf game because it conflicted with the FA cup despite listing it in their programmes. The Bastards.

Barf went to Welford Road with a certain amount of confidence given they Tiggers poor form but approaching half time were 26-12 down with Max Lahiff in the bin.
Unlike the traditional Barf way they decided to fight back in the 2nd half to 31-25 and were the better side. With a few of minutes of play remaining Tigers had a 4 try bonus point and Barf had scored 3 tries so it looked like we would lose both the game and playing in Europe next season.
Unchacteristically Barf didn't give up and prop Jacques van Rooyen went over for the bonus point try in the 67th minute making the score 31-30 but we needed the conversion to gain the lead. No pressure then on Priestland who kicked the ball through the posts then held on to give Barf the bonus point win they needed for Europe.
Tod Blackadder was very proud of his boys!

Another crunch game was for Sale at the A J Bell against a 2nd XV Gloucester side who fought like billio. There were tries galore with the lead swapping throughout the game which Sale pipped 46-41 but was not good enough to overhaul Barf so are in 7th place. If La Rochelle beat Bordeaux next weekend to finish in the French top six it will release an extra place for the 7th place premiership team as Sarries won the European cup. Confused? Join the club.

The fight for the last place in the premiership play-offs was decided at the Ricoh when Quins missed a penalty goal which would have won them the game. Instead they lost to Wasps 27-25 with Joe Simpson scoring a brace of tries in his farewell game after 10 years Wasps service. He joins Glaws next season.
Saints lost to Executer down at Sandy Park 40-21 but Quins had to win to qualify so Saints will return to the same ground for the semi-final against the Chiefs.

Brissle had an outside chance to qualify for Europe and they did beat the relegated Falcons 12-19 but 'twas not enough and they must be content with having come up from the championship and staying up, ending up in 9th place with 51 points in the closest finish since the league began.
A 2nd XV Sarries lost to a spirited Worcester attack 21-29 putting the Warriors just behind Brissle on 46.

We can now look forward to Sarries v Glaws at Allianz Park and Exeter Chiefs v Saints at Sandy Park next Saturday 26th May. My prediction remains a Sarries v Chiefs final and Sarries to do the double.

Super Rugby Week 14

The weekend began in Windy Wellington with the Hurricanes playing the Jaguares who beat them well on their home ground 20-28 courtesy of a consolation late try as they were 8-21 up at the break. Jordie Barrett managed to deliberately knock the ball over the dead ball line to save a try thus giving away a penalty try! They Argies were all over the Canes like a rash for most of the game who finished with nil point just like the British Eurovision song! The Jags are the first non-New Zealand team to beat the Canes at home since 2015 and the win put them at the top of the SA conference until the next result.

The Jaguares play in the South African conference and another Jarpie team played the Rebels in Melbourne. It was the Bulls who were soundly beaten last week by the Crusaders in their home town Pretoria but away from home they gave the Convicts a hiding 17-32 overtaking the Jaguares at the top table.

Next day was the headline game at Eden Park, the local derby between the Blues and the Chiefs and it broke some records because the Blues beat the Chiefs 23-8. This was the first time they had done this since 2011 and the first win against a home side in 18 games! They were the only Kiwi side to win a game this weekend.

The Highlanders were beaten in Jo'berg by the Lions 38-29 while the Crusaders only managed to draw with the Stormers in Cape Town 19-19.
The only other game was between the Reds and the Waratahs in Brisbane which the Tahs won 32-40.

The Crusaders remain at the top of the table but the Bulls displace the Brumbies in 2nd. The Jaguares move up to 5th, the Rebels are knocked out of the top 8, the Sharks and Highlanders dropping to 7th and 8th.

In "compromising" she has gradually given away all the leverage she had after the referendum. If you are interested in my views on this subject you can read more here...

The first mistake she made was to accept the EU negotiating strategy. They demanded that the UK negotiate a withdrawal agreement before they would discuss future trading arrangements thereby putting the cart before the horse. At that stage the PM should have refused the proposition and insisted that everything should be up for discussion together otherwise just call us when you want to discuss a trade deal. Instead she gave in and promised to pay £40 billion for the EU agreeing to us effectively staying as free trade members without any say for two years after we had "left". How barmy was that when the main beneficiaries were the EU who have a huge trade surplus!

It seemed to me obvious that if you examined her record in government she seemed incapable of running a piss-up in a brewery, let alone a "strong and stable" government, having failed to bring down immigration and failed to select a competent chairperson for The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which cast doubts on her judge of character. Her decision to call a general election and then run a presidential style campaign by running through a wheat field, it was no wonder she lost her majority in parliament and it cast further doubt on her choice of advisors and civil servants.

The EU then introduced the Irish backstop out of the blue effectively keeping the UK in the EU if the question of the Irish border could not be resolved. Alternatively Northern Ireland could remain within the single market and customs union as the rest of the UK left. It was well known in diplomatic circles that certain EU negotiators thought losing Northern Ireland was the price the UK had to pay for leaving the EU. The PM said that no British Prime Minister could accept that part of a sovereign country could be effectively annexed so negotiated a form of words that her own solicitor general said would still keep the UK in the EU in perpetuity.

Finally she gave up her best chance of getting an acceptable agreement with the EU by dropping her support for leaving the EU without a deal. As a businessman if I had to choose between losing £40 billion while at the same time alienating my third biggest export market, or sitting down to negotiate a trade deal with a valued customer I had been trading with for many years who already met all my standards, the choice would be easy.

The foregoing choice is the one the EU would have to make and still will if they really believed the UK would walk away without a deal but they don't of course as Mrs May has caved in to every demand. She would have been entitled to call those MP's who voted to stop a no deal Brexit as plonkers!

The solution to all this is for a new PM to take over who can negotiate, or who can appoint someone who can, who believes in Brexit and is advised by like minded civil servants if there are any. I am unsure who this might be, perhaps not BoJo, but they must have the courage to face up to the EU and call the shots rather than the opposite. Even if the EU persist in refusing to negotiate a new deal acceptable to the UK then as Mrs May often said "no deal is better than a bad deal" and it would be a WTO deal which is not a no deal and better than the current one.

According to The Institute for Government there is no doubt a determined PM can succeed in taking Britain out of the EU with or without a deal with the EU or a majority of MP's in parliament having any further say whatsoever unless there was a successful vote of no confidence in the new PM which Tory MP's are not liable to risk. In that event Corbine would have two weeks to form a goverment which is unlikely so there would then be a general election which, with the Brexit party competing, might be very interesting as many MP's on both sides of the house might lose their seats.

The semi-finals of the English rugby union premiership took place this weekend as did round 15 of Super Rugby and you can read the results here...

SKY NZ in their infinite wisdom only chose to screen the Sarries v Glaws game which was good to watch but entirely predictable. The first blood was to the Cherry and Whites when a series of moves from over half way left Morgan on his own who went over for a try which 36 converted.

That start had the shedheads delirious with joy and there seemed to be more noise coming from them that the local supporters. Sarries wasted no time at all the overtake that score and by half time were 23-7 up. Glaw did come back a bit in the second half but Sarries remained in charge and finished with a 44-19 win.

I seems a similar story took place down at Sandy Park as Executor beat the Saints 42-12 which means that it will be a Sarries v Exeter final at Twickers next weekend on 2nd June as predicted. I also predicted a win by Sarries and stick with that prediction.

Super Rugby Week 15

There were far too many games played thus weekend for me to watch. Here in the Godzone we began with the Waikato Chiefs versus the Queensland Reds. The Chiefs looked to have the game in the bag until the last 20 minutes when the Reds had fought their way back into the match to within 6 points. The Reds set up camp inside the Chiefs 22 and it looked as though they could not continue to hold out against such a determined onslaught but they did and it finished 19-13.

There was a bullfight in Canberra with the matador Brumbies who comprehensively beat the Bulls 22-10. This had the effect of pushing the Bulls down the table from second place and consolodating the Brumbies position at the top of the Orstralian conference

In Tokyo the next day the Sunwolves were slaughtered by the Melbourne Rebels 7-52 putting them back among the finalists while in Christchurch we were treated to a local derby between the Crusaders and the Auckland Blues who had not beaten them since 2004.
First Five Richie Mo'unga was the star who kicked 5 out of his six shots at goal and by my reckoning will be giving the Blessed Beauden a run for his money in this world cup for that All-Black position.

The Blues put up a spirited defence but made too many mistakes and and on a cold and slippery Christchurch night did not spend enough time in the Crusaders half. When they did they usually lost the ball and it finished 19-11. Why they persevere with that fly half Plummer who couldn't kick the skin off a rice pudding I am at a loss to understand!

In Sydney the Waratahs met the Jaguares and for the third time in a row the Jags beat them 15-23. Does the dreaded curse of Israel Folau have someting to do with the Tahs poor performance of late? At any rate this loss put them back to 13th place in the overall standings and propels the Jags up to 3rd on points but 2nd as finalists as they are top of the Jarpie conference.

The Highlanders could not hold the Stormers in Cape Town who stormed to a 34-22 win so the Landers dropped out of the top eight. Meanwhile the Sharks bit the Lions in Durban 27-17. So the Lions dropped out of the top eight and the Stormers took their place. As you can see from the table above, apart from the Crusaders those below them are all quite close to each other so with three more weeks before the finals it is wide open.

Oh no not more rugby!

Those of you who have no interest can avoid this bit but it is the final of the English Premiership and approaching a crucial phase in Super Rugby so for informed comment and all the results click here...

The English premiership final at Twickers in front of about 80,000 fans was between European Champions Saracens and Premiership table toppers Exeter and I expected Sarries to win. They did win but it was hard fought and Executer had them on the back foot for most of the game. The Chiefs were well supported and you could hear they Red Indian chants going for most of the game. They did get a consolation try at the end of the game but it was much too late and Sarries won deservedly 31-37, the highest score in a final ever to become champions in the English and European games for the second time, no mean achievement.

We were at Twickers for the same game a year ago which was poor but this was a proper game of rugby and a great spectacle.

Over in Melbourne the Waratah's beat the Rebels on their home turf 15-20 while over in Tokyo the Brumbies tanked the Sunwolves 19-42.

Our Chiefs and the Crusaders went over to Fiji to play. I don't blame them as we are now getting into winter here but it was really hot and humid in Suva which took it out of the players. Just the same, 20,000 spectators were treated to one of the best games of rugby you could wish to see but after 20 minutes the Crusaders were 20 points up. Our Chiefs looked down and out having been turned over ten times and you thought it was going to be a hard day at the office for them against the champions.

Ten minutes later the Chiefs scored a try quickly followed by two more and at half time they all went in half knackered with only a point between them on 19-20.

Two minutes into the second half the Crusaders went over for a try and you thought the champions would then continue as they began but our Chiefs had other ideas and roared back to score three more tries to win the game 40-27 while the Crusaders failed to score another point. So a famous victory for our Chiefs pushing them up to third in the Kiwi Conference and now a realistic chance of making the play-offs if they can beat the Rebels in Melbourne in a fortnights time, the only game they have left in the regular season.

In Brisbane the Jaguares took a bite out of the Reds winning 23-34 but the main Kiwi interest was over in Durban where the Hurricanes met the Sharks. The Canes beat them convincingly 17-30 as did the Lions against the Stormers in Jo'burg 41-22 so you can see in the table above how these results have changed the top eight. Don't forget that each team will have played 16 games after week 18 and the Crusaders only have one more game to play in next week at home against the Rebels so the Canes could still catch them if you believe pigs might fly!

The Jags displace the Brumbies to go into 2nd place and the Lions move back into the top 8 displacing the Stormers. Three of the four South African teams are now in the final eight with the fourth not far behind. Could this be a foretaste of the potential Boks performance in this years world cup I wonder?