Who's Playing Who?

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…