Well well well… The season is beginning to wind down with only 2 rounds left before the playoffs start. Appears to be a 4 horse race for the title at the moment. ManBearPigs still at the top with Steven Hawkin, SuperMango20, and scrumblue close behind. SuperMango20 is especially hot, taking the honors for highest round score as well with 436 points. It’s a good time to catch a hot streak! Still 4 rounds left in total so the margins can be made up.
We keep our top league average ranking intact for another week as well. Helps with 4 members in the top 60 overall. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to make up any ground at all! Curses…. The final round is especially hard to make any upward movement in because everyone is picking from only the two remaining teams for their players. Unless you do something drastic and it plays out (like selecting all from one team) everyone seems to get very similar scores. So there may only be 3 weeks left to crash the party.
Let’s get to the recap. Sadly, few Aussies made the top of the list. Rare that members of the Reds aren’t involved, but the Brumbies took care of that. ‘Tahs, well, no thanks please. Well done to the Force for showing some cojones, but they didn’t quite make the list.
Blinders
- Adam Thomson, ‘Landers: Took it to the ‘Tahs in the muck and came out tops. Dotted down 2 tries off 16 runs while making 16 tackles. Hardly stopped moving all game.
- Ma’a Nonu, ‘Canes: Captain Sideshow perked up for the second time this season, and go figure, it was against the Chiefs. They’ve been playing defense like a pasta strainer lately (points would be the water, not the pasta). He saw a lot more ball and made a lot more breaks but I attribute this more to the opposition than anything.
- Juan Smith, Cheetahs: Has been immense since coming back from his bereavement leave. Almost get the feeling he’s playing for a whole other thing than winning. I suspect it will last through the season as long as he’s healthy.
- Jacque Fourie, Stormers: Scored 2 more tries in what has been a great year of attacking form. I find it interesting that he only has 45 tackles made against 15 tackles missed in what is a very strong defensive team. Nearly every other starting inside back has better defensive stats.
- Ben Alexander, Brumbies: Back to his rumbling best. Now has 6 tries which puts him behind only van der Heever and Rokocoko. Also as many linebreaks as Diggers with 7. Shock and horror….
Flops
To be honest, I couldn’t find much worth writing down here. Quade had a disappointing game behind a beaten pack and hasn’t been stellar for a few weeks now. Tom Carter ended up with a goose egg. Habana was annonymous. Blah blah blah….
