After the weekend I'm thinking of swinging the way of the Ponies. Really enjoyed the game and the chat from some Tah's fans I know sounding like they just have to show up to win is starting to annoy me.
Fuck said who? This week whenever I think about rugby, all I can see is George Speight being given too much room on the outside and scorching past Horne (in 45% of these nightmatres it ends up with Horne hitting him in the midsection, mind) to score the winning try in the corner.
I found myself nodding along to Jeff Wilson's article about the Crusaders being favourites at this point, though his precise reasoning didn't cover 100% of my concerns (he said its all about the All Blacks in the team and basically assumed the Waratahs and Crusaders would play in Sydney). I personally think its a bit more than that.
I'm not taking it as a foregone conclusion that it will be in Sydney. The press have been wanking on about teams outside the top 2 not being able to win it, but this time around the Brumbies haven't had the punishing travel and the Crusaders are building nicely.
The Tahs beat a poor Reds side as preparation for this, but at least learned some lessons about the set piece to ensure there is no slacking.
But my sphincter won't relax even a nanometre from this point until the final whistle on Saturday night, win or lose.