Author: Steve Timms

Nothing like a chance to smash the poms at the cabbage patch, so there was some high hopes for this match. Given the poor showing from the Wallabies in Cardiff, up front anyway, there was naturally a lot of talk about how they would hold up to the might of the English scrum. Would the return of Stephen Moore cure all, would we get smashed off the field and see a repeat of the 2007 WC Quarter final? Only the next 80 minutes would tell. The wallabies elected to kick from after receiving the kick off, signalling intent to keep…

Well, winning two in a row isn’t a bad thing for this team, the more we can string together, the better. But it is a mark of the increase in expectations we have on the team, that a solid win has the feeling of not being enough. A three try to one defeat over a member of the six nations should be nothing to scoff at, but that would be glossing over the obvious issues up front. It is clear that, as mentioned on the podcast, our front row is needing to use this tour to play into some form.…

With the End Of Year Tours on, it would be remiss of us to not allow you an outlet to tell the world how you think things will go down. With that in mind, don’t forget to join the official Green and Gold Rugby tipping comp, it is NOT too late. Those that have, this is your top ten:

“the purpose of the scrum is to restart play quickly, safely and fairly after a minor infringement or a stoppage.” (Law 20). There is no doubt that one of the features of our game is the forward play, and the pinnacle of this is the dominant scrum. Much is to be said of the physical and mental advantage that can be gained over your opponents when the scrum is “on”. There is also no doubt that there has been a bit of chatter of late about the mess that scrums have become.  Referee decisions baffling punters and players alike, dominant…

For a test between no. 1 and 2, there wasn’t much hype in the lead up. Yet, this was still a Bledisloe, and with the Aussies staring down the barrel of an eleventh straight loss, there was something to watch for… From the kick off it seemed there may have been something going on, the ref pinged sir ritchie, albeit for something he DIDN’T do. Kurtley failed to convert though. When Ma’a infringed not long later, there was another chance, but KB failed to convert again. Australia stole a line out and threatened the line, but a missed Quade around…

The Tri-nations are done and dusted for the year, and you all know that can only mean one thing. The Tipping is done too… Sure the All Blacks cleaned up, and enough has been said about that, but the really exciting thing is we get to name the winner of the comp. I was going to give everyone heaps with a brilliant walk of shame, but since we were about 2 points short of that, the Leaderboard:

As the Mandela Challenge Plate is the last cup still available to the Wallabies before the end of the Tri-Nations and the start of the Spring Tour, it was all there. The series on the line standing at 1 game a piece. Of added importance to the Men of Gold is Drewster the Rooster and Squeaky getting their 50th caps. So, which way was it set to go? According to the prophecy it should be a click, or is it a boom… I don’t know, I can’t keep up…

With both the Tri-nations and the Bledisloe decided, the Wallabies turned their attention to the Republic and the return of the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate to its rightful home. Having won the match in Brisbane, They only needed to win this game to at least have a trophy of note in the cabinet before  the End of Year Tours kick off. This match, held at altitude in Pretoria against a wounded Bokke outfit was always going to be a tough ask, however the Wallabies, buoyed by the return of the Quade train, were confident of their chances against the home…

Believe it or not, despite all the talk about the quade train, and the All Blacks only needing a bonus point to secure the Tri-nations this year, there is still actually some rugby left to play in this tournament. The Blackwash so far has actually been a bit of a tipping minefield for some, a lot doubting they could be that good for this long. fingers crossed the run is coming to and end. The current tipping table stands as:

When I sat down to write these, I made a conscious decision to approach them more positively than Lance Free did last week. As the game wore on, that proved very difficult. All in all in was another wallaby performance that was well below were it should be.

The Tri-nations tipping comp has been running since the start, unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the Springboks or the Wallabies. Now that everyone has played everyone, it is time for an update on how the comp is going.  The leader board for this week stands as:

The surface, the cheating, the running, the lack of kicking was all we could talk about in the lead up to this match. Of course the fact the good guys hadn’t beaten the blacks for 7 games in a row was brought up a couple of times, but after the kick off, none of it mattered.

Congratulations go to Jimbo, winner of the Winter tours tipping comp. Jimbo appeared to take the view that a slow, well timed rise to the summit was the way to do it (shadowing the Wallabies???), moving from 34th after the first round, he hit his straps going to 6th, then 3rd before taking out the whole comp. Nice work, now as the prize for topping this comp was bragging rights, please use the comments section below to get your brag on. The final leaderboard is:

A terrible week for Wallaby fans, but the tipping rolls on. This weeks tips have seen another top ten shake up and there is now only two and a half points separating the top 10, no one is safe, in fact anyone in the top 30 could win this, mathematically speaking. This is also the last week of the comp (see below for new comp…), so it is now or never. The leader board this week is:

All the talk in the lead up to this test was about whether the Wallabies front row have learnt anything and parity, or better, would be achieved or would we be in for more of the same? Well, the stage was set, 5 minutes in and we have the first scrum set. It is a wallabies feed, the tension is palpable. Crouch… Touch… Pause… … … ENGAGE… The wallabies are pinged for an early engagement. Not looking good, but the Poms go for the scrum and something strange happened, the good guys wheeled the scrum, another one is set and…

The comp has opened up a little with 4 games to tip last week. Drewboy had a corker, picking all 4 results and tipping the margin for the Wallabies v England game as well as getting margin points in the Argentina v Scotland game. #1 Tah relinquished the lead by only dropping one game such is the closeness of the competition With less than two points separating the top 10, this is by no means a won race. The leaderboard this week is:

A nice soft start to this short tipping comp, with only two games to worry about. The only way to get yourself into an early lead with this one, was margins. Cheezel did the job with the Wallabies vs Fiji, picking the 46 point margin, and #1 Tah cleaned up the Saffa vs Wales game, a close one with only 3 points in it. Bonus points made the difference for the others. Nice picking guys. With so little to pick with, Margins are going to be key to this one. So, after week one, the leader board looks like this:

The opening test of the season is always an exciting time. The unknown. The whole season is in front of us and we could win them all! The Tri-nations, the Bledisloe back where it belongs, flog the Poms, clean up the oirish, and it all starts with this Fijian entree. If this first match of the season is anything to go by, it is going to be a corker of a season… However as I sit here writing this, I have Sam Stosur flying the Aussie flag in the tennis on the TV and the way things are going for…

In order to make use of the time between the end of the Super 14 and the tri-nations go a little more smoothly, we will be running a tipping comp for the inbound winter test season. Here’s how to join: 1 – go to Superbru 2 – register / login 3 – select the G&GR pool with the pool code reinbyes 4 – make tips Better get in quick, the first game is this weekend. The full schedule is: