Seeing as I started a category for Rugby, so it would be negligent of me not to comment briefly on the first Super 14 matches last night.
First, it's exactly as we thought it would be to have teams minus their 'rested' All Blacks. NPC rugby is always a bit weird when you have teams missing touring players, and it's weirder still when they return - some manage to integrate back in well, others don't. Previously it was nice that Super rugby was immune to this. Those players will of course be back playing soon enough, but it just takes that little bit out of the Super series.
The new scrum rules are definately going to affect a lot of teams. It takes a lot out of the scrums, which is obviously going to help a lot of the front rowers with some longevity, however they have to be careful that they don't remove the ability to make the scrum an actual competition. If Union ends up having Rugby Leage esque scrums then they know they've screwed up, and that's how a couple of them looked tonight. Still, it's early days yet. The teams and fans will adjust.
The first match (Blues v Crusaders) was enjoyable to watch, with a decent amount of scoring and some good play going on. There were some obvious first game jitters going on, but all in all it was a great start to the season - especially if you're an Aucklander who loves seeing Canterbury lose :D
[EDIT] For those who play Virtual Super 14 Rugby, I'm playing again this season under the incredibly original name of 'Ross'. After the first round of play I'm ranked 13,661 out of 143,866 players. Not amazing, but still in the top 10%. I got screwed over by the Cheifs and the Hurricanes losing - who'd have picked the Reds (minus Latham) to beat the Hurricanes based on last years performance?
Tags:
NZ,
Rugby
About me
My name is Ross Hawkins and I'm a developer, consultant, business owner and writer based in Auckland,
New Zealand (pictured below!). My current work revolves around ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, Ajax,
SQL Server, and a mix of other Microsoft development technologies.
I also have about 15 years of experience with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and associated technologies. While Notes/Domino
is no longer my primary focus I still like to dabble and keep my skills up to date.
I own and run 2 businesses - Hawkins Consulting Services,
and Ignition Development.
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