Archive
The Drawing Board (12/4/12)
Welcome to Who’s Playing Who?’s weekly rugby blog. Another week goes by and another round of action continues in this year’s Super Rugby competition. The shops may have been closed for Easter, but the rugby continued unabated. The general trend of this competition continued, with close matches and few genuine thrashings. Of concern is that the new conference system is not promoting the best teams into playoff contention. My concern is based on the fact that the best Australian side (the Brumbies on 19 points) would not be in the top 6 if it was done under the previous system. However, there is a long way to go in this competition and this may correct itself. It is still interesting to note though, that the Australian conference is not as strong as it was last year. Granted that the Brumbies, Reds and Waratahs are still right in the mix of things, they are failing to consistently beat South African and New Zealand sides. To back this up with some stats, they have lost 10 out of the 14 matches played against foreign teams. This will need to be addressed quickly by the Australian teams if they want to be in contention come playoff time. Read more…
The Drawing Board (5/4/12)
Welcome to Who’s Playing Who’s? weekly rugby blog. What a season this is turning out to be. It is so tight that a single win or loss can have a drastic impact on a team’s placing on the table. In saying that, there are several teams who really cannot afford to have another couple of bad games. We are in a bit of a weird situation where the third placed side (the Brumbies) are sitting on less points than the next two teams below them!! This shows how tight the table really is. However, the Australian teams are beginning to lag behind a bit, with only the Brumbies in the top 8. Although it is good to see the Force string together some wins over bigger and better teams. Read more…
The Drawing Board (28/03/2012)
Hello and welcome to Who’s Playing Who?’s weekly rugby blog. Week five of Super Rugby produced games went right down to the wire, only being decided in the last few minutes. There was only one game that was not decided by less than 7 points, and it was a big blow out. What started out as a somewhat rusty performance by a few teams has begun to turn around, with most teams starting to find there rhythm. Read more…
The Drawing Board (22/03/2012)
The Drawing Board
Hello and welcome to Who’s Playing Who?’s weekly rugby blog. So, we have now had a few weeks in this year’s Super Rugby season and already trends are beginning to develop. Some teams have been better than expected, and others have been surprisingly disappointing. This is an important phase of the competition coming up, as teams who have not had a great start look to close the gap on the leaders. Congratulations are in order for Wales, who won the Six Nations competition. This is a great achievement for a young side that showed so much promise at the Rugby World Cup.
The Drawing Board (15/03/12)
Hello and welcome to Who’s Playing Who?’s weekly rugby blog. This week has started off on a sad note here in New Zealand with the passing of Jock Hobbs (father of Michael Hobbs, the Blues first five). The former All Black captain was the man who saved NZ rugby and is the guy who brought RWC 2011 to NZ. Jock made a huge impression on New Zealanders, and was widely respected by everyone who he came in contact with. Read more…
The Drawing Board (8/3/12)
Hello and welcome to Who’s Playing Who?’s weekly rugby blog. Last week I mentioned that I was unhappy with the lack of tries being scored and the bore-fests that had dominated Round 1. Well it seems someone was reading my blog! Round 2 still contained the drama and tight finishes, with the major point of difference being there were far more tries this round. What is more impressive is the manner in which they were executed. Maybe it was rustiness that prevented this being shown in the opening round, but this is what we have been waiting for ever since the end of the World Cup. Read more…
The Drawing Board (1/3/12)
The four month wait ended on Saturday as we finally got to see our local teams go at each other – many have been counting the sleeps until the start of this year’s Super Rugby season. Read more…
The Drawing Board – Super Rugby 2012 Season Preview
Super Rugby is back! Check out David’s comprehensive preview of the upcoming season. Read more…
The Drawing Board – Rugby World Cup 2011 Preview (7/9/11)
Welcome to the Drawing Board, Who’s Playing Who?’s one stop rugby shop. The World Cup starts this Friday, with excitement reaching fever pitch. I’ll be doing a bit of a different Drawing Board this week and during the world cup. No News this week, but I will still do a brief ITM/Currie Cup wrap here. During the World Cup however, I will be doing a blog post almost every day to provide up to date and awesome analysis. Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay won the ITM Premiership and Championship finals respectively. This is Canterbury’s fourth consecutive title, whilst for Hawke’s Bay they earn promotion to the Premiership. The Lions, Sharks, Cheetahs and Western Provence all enjoyed victories in the Currie Cup. Read more…
The Drawing Board – Rugby World Cup Pool Preview (1/9/11)
Welcome to the Drawing Board, Who’s Playing Who?’s one stop rugby shop. Not long now until the rugby World Cup starts and already the first couple of teams have started to arrive. Fiji were the first to enter these shores, but their rugby chief will not be allowed into New Zealand due to political reasons. The English have also arrived and were greeted by a crowd of over 100 people. All teams that arrive are greeted with a traditional Maori welcome. Here is some news to get us started. Read more…
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