Interesting news about Carter’s long rumoured move to the Blues.

Congrats to the Brumbies.

The Waratahs will win on Saturday night against the Force, the big loss to the Bulls will be the reality check they needed. Only an inspired Matt Giteau can prevent a 10 to 15 point winning margin.

It’s a pity the Force didn’t get the win last weekend, and it’s a pity that they don’t have a front row (note the two are linked because the Force lost a crucial scrum with 4 minutes to go when the Canes wheeled them). In my view they are the only Aussie side capable of pushing for a semi spot and winning a semi.

It’s a weird season when you’re a New South Welshman and would prefer to watch the Reds, Force and Brumbies…

Can you define what you mean by holding its own…. that sounds to me like last year we had X & this year we still have X… meaning going backwards as I see it.

Southern Queensland & Northern NSW is the fastest growing area in Australia. Further it is one of the nations wealthiest parts.

The story I hear is the exact opposite from what you hear … my sources are local Sydney park rugby players and administrators… anyway what they tell me is in the growth areas of Queensland RU does not present itself but RL/ Football & AFL are all pushing hard for parks / juniors / support…

They tell me if you measured the number of Queensland Players 15 years ago and then added on the general population growth RU comes a long way short of holding its own… but in established areas they are reasonably fine..

What my park people tell me is that with the Cowboys / Titians / Brisbane Roar/ Gold Coat United / Queensland Fury / New AFL team on the GC / plus at least 1 new RL team within four years years / Plus the appointment of Voss (local boy) to a excellently lead Brisbane Lions, means the Reds are up against it and receive little help from the ARU … hey all this may just be sideline beer talk for all I know but I find it hard to sit down and share a beer with some rusted on hard call RU folk and think they are telling me rubbish… where there is smoke there is fire … A gentle giant of a break away nick named Killer (45 years) told me in his opinion all the other teams I have mentioned above are better run than the Reds … again no idea but Westy makes some real sense in what he says.

MT your post when you said …”"” dark forces south of the border seduced the qld power brokers and it goes on to this day…”"” pay tell provide more .. it’ too teasing.

In a perverse way it shows the strength of the code in Queensland that it is still churning out the talent and has good roots despite the incredibly disappoinitng performance of the Reds this millenium.

Rather like Australian crickets mid-80′s slump post the Chappells, Marsh and Lillee was extended by 3 or 4 years longer than it should have been when the SA rebel tour took out a good chunk of talent and experience, so the Force continue to ensure Qld bounces along the bottom with no depth – just look at young Qld nurtured players Pocock, Brown, O’Conner, Mitchell and Hockings – all of whom I’m sure would make the current Qld 22.

As you say Westy, its no joy being a Queensland supporter these last 5 years. I posted on what happens in a typical Reds season last weekend and yes, its not pleasant and it doesn’t look like getting better. On day though it will!

As, realistically, is the referees. No real point in lamenting what has or will happen out of our control.

Regarding the Canes, completely disagree about being rattled. They actually have shown all this season, that they respond well to pressure, in 7 out of 8 games this season, they have dominated statistics, with the exception of lineouts.

Don’t know if stupid rugby is quite the term, as much as – as Ieremia stated this week – lack of patience.

But, I too am wondering about the coaching of Cooper.

As for the Cheetahs game against the Sharks, why were so many people surprised. With a bit of research, people could have found out that the Currie Cup Cheetahs (essentially the same team) were the last South African team to be the Sharks enroute to the Currie Cup premier title.

Spiro, this is exactly whay the ‘Canes will play like headless chooks this week and throw another game down the gurgler.

Having said that, they have an easier run to the semis than the Chiefs, Highlanders or Crusaders, who all have to play a South African leg.

The Sharks are currently first on the table and have all 4 remaining matches at home, so one would be silly not to bet on them being “minor premiers”.

The Bulls, who are third on the table, play in Canberra this weekend and then have 3 matches at home, before travelling to Durban for their final round-robin match (a prelude of the final?). Especially if the Bulls can beat the Brumbies this weekend, one would really expect them to finish in the top 2. Yes, the Bulls will be without Bakkies Botha, but counterbalancing this is the highly fractured week the Brumbies will be having due to the funeral of Shawn Mackay in Sydney.

So there is a high likelihood of semi-finals being held in Durban and/or Pretoria. Of course it is very hard to see any Australasian team winning a semi-final in either of these venues.

So while I agree that it’s an extremely tight competition this year, for me it is hard to see past either the Sharks or Bulls winning the title in a final played in South Africa.

Lastly, the Chiefs. They are without both of their dynamic wingers, Sivivatu and Masaga, and they have not won a match in South Africa since April 2005. Their match this weekend against the Cheetahs looked like a heaven-sent opportunity to reverse this trend, but last weekend’s win by the Cheetahs changed all that. So to back the Chiefs to go far in this competition requires a big act of faith at this stage.

At the time, given the result of the Force game being determined after the bell, I wondered if the the sloppy timekeeping had cost the Force the game.

Surely, someone is getting paid to do this job and if they concentrate, it should not be too hard to get it right. If the ref forgets to call time on, surely the clock should not just sit on hold. Similarly, the timekeeper should be concentrating to turn the clock on when play is restarted.

Two of the leading NZ teams playing South African teams have South African referees.