This was the twelfth weekend of the 2008 season of the Super 14 Rugby tournament, which is now well into the second half of the competition. In fact there are only 2 more weekends of the tournament and then it is into the semi finals. These are the results of the matches played on the twelfth weekend, of the Super 14 Rugby Tournament, 2008.

The first match of the weekend, played on Friday morning, was between the Crusaders and the Sharks, in Christchurch. Although I was rooting for the Sharks, I thought the Crusaders, at home, would be a hard nut to crack. The Crusaders beat the Sharks by 18 – 10, after a halftime lead of 13 – 10. The Crusaders failed to grab the bonus point, by scoring only 2 tries to one by the Sharks.

The second match, early on Friday afternoon, was the Reds and the Blues, in Brisbane. The Blues were up 20 – 7 at the break and won the match by 35 – 22. The Blues scored 4 tries for the bonus point, while the Reds scored 3 tries.

The third match, on Friday evening, was the game between the Cheetahs and the Highlanders, played in Bloemfontein. The Highlanders pulled out the stops in the second half to claim victory by 31 – 28, after having been behind 11 – 14 at the break. The Highlanders scored 3 tries, but the Cheetahs picked up 2 bonus points for 4 tries and losing by less than 7 points.

The next match, on Saturday morning, saw the Hurricanes face the Lions, in Wellington. The Hurricanes were considered too strong for the Lions, but at halftime led by a whopping 26 – 7. The Lions never fought back enough in the second half and the Hurricanes won by 38 – 12. The Hurricanes claimed a bonus point for their 5 tries, while the Lions scored only 2 tries.

The next Saturday match was between the Force and the Chiefs, in Perth. I must be honest – I thought the Chiefs, who have been motoring lately, would crush the Force, but on the day, that never happened. The Force must be very pleased to have beaten the Chiefs by a slim 22 – 21, although they had a far bigger lead of 14 – 3 at the break. The Force scored 3 tries and the Chiefs scored 2.

The next Saturday match, that afternoon, was between the Bulls and the Waratahs. The venue was Pretoria. Although the Bulls were trailing 6 – 7 at the break, they fought back to win the match by 16 – 13. Both teams scored 1 try each.

Next up, the last game of the weekend, early on Saturday evening, was the Stormers and the Brumbies, in Cape Town. The Stormers were up 20 – 0 at halftime and although the Brumbies fought back, it was not enough. The Stormers won by 20 – 10. Both teams scored 2 tries.

There were no byes this weekend.

So, after the twelfth week of the competition, there are only 2 weeks left before the semi finals are played. At present, the log looks like this. This is only the second time that the log shows all teams having played the same number of matches. See how close it is near the top? Total points, followed by games played.
 
Crusaders 47/12, Waratahs 37/12, Hurricanes 36/12, Stormers 35/12, Chiefs 33/12, Sharks 32/12, Blues 31/12, Brumbies 28/12, Force 28/12, Bulls 19/12, Reds 16/12, Highlanders 15/12, Cheetahs 13/12, Lions 8/12.

Time now to make those predictions! This is the first time that I remember it being so close. Several teams are in the running and it is all going to boil down to a mere point or two.

Two weeks ago, I stuck my neck out, by saying that the top 6 teams and those that will have to fight it out for the playoffs are going to be: Crusaders 57, Hurricanes 43, Stormers 43, Chiefs 42, Sharks 41, and Waratahs 41, but it is going to be a very close finish.  Apart from the Crusaders who are miles ahead, the next 6 teams are all within 6 points of each other, with another 2 games and a potential 10 points to go.

I reckon the next 2 weeks will see the Crusaders adding 9 points to their tally, The Hurricanes, Stormers and Sharks all gaining another 8 points, the Waratahs, Blues, Brumbies, Chiefs and Bulls each getting another 5, the Force 4, the Reds and Cheetahs 2, and the Highlanders and Lions only managing another 1 point each.

This would yield the following results: Crusaders 56, Hurricanes 44, Stormers 43, Waratahs 42, Sharks 40, Chiefs 38, Blues 36, Brumbies 33, Force 32, Bulls 24, Reds 18, Highlanders 16, Cheetahs 15 and Lions 9. Very close to my earlier predictions, hey! But anything can happen, so we will have to wait and see if there are any upsets. 

Free Downloads
As with previous rugby fixtures and the World Cup, we have a downloadable fixture list and scoresheet for you. One has all the matches and spaces for you to fill in the results and the other is a log summary, which you can update each week. They are both in PDF format. Use these links. Save to your computer and then print them out.

http://www.dersalsites.com/freebies/super14fixtures.pdf

http://www.dersalsites.com/freebies/logsummary.pdf
Derek Robson is a South African Internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by finding solutions to the many obstacles facing them. He is a syndicated article writer. He and his wife Sally, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For daily postings and articles, on Internet marketing, South African online business, list building, affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, seo, the law of attraction, rugby and other general topics, visit Derek at: http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness/  

Bookmark to: