It’s the last round of the first ‘period’ in the ARU Tipping Comp. That means the overall leader after this round wins a ‘yet to be disclosed’ prize! Better than that though, those of you who had one or two poor rounds so far are back in with a chance to win something in the next period in the tipping comp within the tipping comp! Bring it on!
Round 5
The round just gone was a tough one, with most of our top tippers dropping a couple of matches. This saw a bit of movement in the standings but tipper Denis O retained their spot at the top. It’s not as lonely a spot up there now though with The Rhumdoggs and Lindommer joining Denis O at the top of the ladder.
Keep Your Wits…
Smashing your tips in this week probably didn’t take you too long. Each game offers a somewhat obvious choice with the exception of one, maybe two fixtures. It seems like an easy week doesn’t it, until you try and select a joker game. Then you realise that each game has the potential to be a boil over. Back to square one.
There are two tough fixtures to tip this week in my opinion. The first one is the first game of the Round where the Hurricanes travel all the way down to Forsyth-Barr Stadium in Dunedin to take on the Highlanders. The Highlanders have started the season well, if you disregard their 1 from 3 record. They opened their account by beating the Blues and then narrowly lost away to the Chiefs and again at home to the Force; both losses by 2 points. They are not the easy beats their record of last season suggests.
The Canes had a tough start to the season with two away games vs Sth African opposition and then were beaten by the Brumbies at home before unleashing fury last week on the hapless Cheetahs. The 60 point flogging though probably speaks more about the hole the Cheetahs are in as opposed to the abilities of the Canes but nonetheless any lapse from the Highlanders will cost them points. A curious stat in this match up is that you have to go back to 2011 to find the one game from the last seven that the home side has won. The odds are stacked against the Highlanders but the punters still love them.
The second and probably the toughest game to tip, is the Lions vs the Reds in Johannesburg. As with the Blues clash, history counts for little when discussing the Lions. The 2014 version is a far superior beast to the Lions of recent years as the Blues found out (albeit controversially) last weekend. The Lions are 3 from 5 so far this season, losing both of their away games and winning 2/3 at home. When you look at how they score most of their points, it’s not hard to see why they go better at home.
The Lions flyhalf, Marnitz Boshoff, can kick goals from 60m out (at altitude) and is accurate, so any infringement even near the attacking half will likely cost the Reds 3 points. The Reds are the most penalised team in the competition, so discipline will be a massive factor in deciding this game. The Reds will need to score plenty of tries to overcome the Lions but their ability in attack has just dented by the withdrawal of Chris Feauai-Sautia. The Reds should still prove too strong but if you needed any further evidence, their season thus far has gone W-L-W-L so it’s obvious that a big W is coming this week. Lock it in!
The Joker
As I mentioned above, nearly every game this Round has the potential to cause an upset; and nothing is more upsetting than blowing your Joker on a dud tip. When you get into it though, there are three games I like for the Joker.
The Waratahs should be a relatively safe bet this week against the Rebels. Word coming out of Sydney is that Michael Chieka wasn’t satisfied with just ‘accidentally opening’ (read: smashing) the door to the coaches box in Canberra and has spent the week ‘accidentally opening’ the boys in blue at training all week. The Rebels will be looking to cause the upset but I just feel sorry for them – the Tahs are going to want to do some serious damage.
The Brumbies were sublime against the Waratahs last week and the Stormers have been struggling to hit their straps. The Stormers are on their third game of a tough tour and the Brumbies won’t make it any easier for them when they land in Canberra. Forget the mounting injury toll in Brumby land; they will be far too strong and will send the Stormers up to Brisbane, a team of broken men with Ben Alexander odds on to get another meat pie.
Lastly, always a safe pick for the Joker is the Chiefs even though they are travelling to Perth to play the in-form Western Force. The Force will learn the hard way this weekend that what goes up, must come down. They will miss their big go forward man, Ben McCalman and will succumb to the two time reigning Champions.
Who are you tipping?
