The Crusaders (Canterbury) take on the Vodacom Bulls in Durban while the Blues (Auckland) take on the Sharks in Pretoria for the first Super 14 rugby union semi-finals without an Australian team. Contrary to original plans, the games will both be played on Saturday May 12.
The Bulls did the impossible over the weekend to beat the Reds, 92-3, pushing themselves up from fourth to second, leaving the two New Zealand teams in third and fourth and forcing them to travel to South Africa for the semifinals. That was a great score, considering they were pushing their luck to get the 72 point lead needed to pull off the move to second place.
Here’s one of the TV ads from the Super 14 2006 season…
First match in the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup ended in a resounding win for the All Blacks - 32 All Blacks, 12 Wallabies. So much for the Channel Seven advertising, suggesting that the All Blacks are just fruit (Kiwis) that can be squashed. And so much for the Channel Seven advertisement portraying the All Blacks performing their haka with handbags on shoulders. The Wallabies were bagged tonight.
Queensland managed to win the second match in the State of Origin National Rugby League series, played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Score was 30 Queensland, 6 New South Wales.
At half time Queensland led at 14-0. Queensland tries were scored by Carl Webb, Justin Hodges (from an intercept), and Adam Mogg. NSW only scored their try in the last quarter (Timana Tahu).
Queensland Man of the match was captain Darren Lockyer.
This morning ABC Brisbane featured the story of Wally Lewis’ statue being painted in blue by some NSW-loyal prankster. I’m wondering if it was an inside job - designed to get Queenslanders more enthusiastic about the game. ABC commentators have been talking about the lack of rancour in the State of Origin series. Interestingly the Queensland players have been quite relaxed about it all.
