Digger, Digger, Digger, you bloody little ANZAC! Tasked with catching The Crowd in the final round of the season, Digger pulled another perfect round from his sleeve and didn’t just catch The Crowd, he beat them outright!

And obviously, by association, it means that The Crowd has been beaten in 2016 by the Experts. Didn’t we tell you this was a first-past-the-post competition? I’m sure I did, you’ve probably just forgotten.

Never mind, you gave it a red-hot go, and we thank you all for your involvement through the season and in the weekly discussion. We’re going to keep going through the Finals, but we can understand if your heart’s not in it any more. It must’ve been hard to take, choking like you did and fading out over the final weeks…

Digger will lead us off triumphantly for the first week of the finals, and it’s my Big Question this week.

Last week: Digger 9, The Crowd 7, and like scratchy form in finals week, everything else that happened last week is irrelevant.

Diggercane: “In the end, I have decided on the four Kiwi sides to get through. Admittedly there is a touch of parochial bias in my tips, but here are my reasons why.

“I have felt the Brumbies have been decidedly lethargic in the last few weeks and while you are only one game away from finding form, I do not see how they can against this Highlanders side. The Blues’ performance was obviously not their best, but I felt there was a real lack of bounce back against the Force. The attack is predictable and at times stagnant, the depth employed in recent weeks will be cannon fodder for a committed Highlanders team. On paper, the Brumbies possess a talented squad but I cannot see them getting past the quarter-final, even at home.

“The Sharks are a team that the Hurricanes have traditionally struggled with, particularly up front and they will fancy their chances in Wellington and I am quite surprised at the long odds provided by the TAB. Their build up for this match however has been pedestrian in my view, they have not been thoroughly tested in recent weeks and there should be no risk of ambush after the Sharks comfortably defeated the Hurricanes earlier in the season. I expect it will be a scrap but I feel the harder route into the finals for the Hurricanes provides them with a key edge and along with playing at home will see them pull away in the final quarter.

“From Suva to Brisbane to Dunedin and now Cape Town, the Chiefs have certainly endured a heavy travel schedule recently and one has to wonder when it would eventually take its toll. The Stormers certainly have a forward pack which can cause any team all sorts of problems and the Chiefs’ discipline is also an area of concern. In saying that, the Chiefs are a team that can live off scraps and their support play and ability to keep play continuous will stand them in good stead. The major issue I have with the Stormers is their attack. To beat the Chiefs, you need to score tries and I have my doubts about them in this regard and I am unsure how they will manage playing an up-tempo game and again, a recent romp against the Kings is not ideal preparation for knock-out rugby.

“The Crusaders match I am finding the most difficult to settle on. The Lions have been fantastic this season and I would not be surprised if they did win this match but a first finals appearance in many moons brings its own pressure for the home side and I remain unconvinced of the strategies employed by the Lions coaching staff even if the theory is logical. In my view, the Lions should have been building for this match, travel be damned and ensuring they are a cohesive and confident outfit heading into this match and I am unsure this will be the case. I am also aware that the Crusaders were incredibly disappointed in their last performance, especially considering the personnel changes that will be made for next season and I imagine this squad will be highly motivated for this match and look to put last week’s effort squarely in the rear view mirror.”

Tips: Highlanders, Hurricanes, Crusaders, Chiefs.

Harry Jones: “My attempt to reel Digger in looked like Michael Cheika’s too-predictable game plan against Eddie Jones. Digger did say thank you, each time my team lost. He’s a polite winner.

“So, now I have to be correct on all my tips, to catch him in the Grand Final. Mathematically, I have a chance.

“There are eight good teams in the playoffs. I predict only the two “H” teams from New Zealand will be in the semi-finals, the two “C” teams will fall in South Africa.

“The Sharks have already beaten the Hurricanes, but that was in Durban. So, I’ll go with the TJP-BBBBB combination at the Cake Tin over the still-Lambie-less Sharks, but I don’t see this a romp at all. I figure this will be a tough boxing fight in a phone booth until the last quarter.

“The Stormers won’t easily be beaten at Newlands, even with no idea who their flyhalf will be (22-year old Robert du Preez in his first game back from major injury or 21-year old Brandon Thomson in his first start ever), because of the tight fives Robbie Fleck can field for the full eighty minutes, and the Chiefs’ injury problems in the midfield. Much has been made of the Cape side not having faced a Kiwi team this year, but can we also say that the Chiefs’ hookers have not thrown over Etzebeth, du Toit, and the Stormers’ fast-leaping loosies in the same lineout at the same time? Stormers by a few in what might look like a Test match, with Sam Cane and Brodie Retallick and Cruden going at it with Etzebeth, Schalk Burger, and Damian de Allende.

“The Lions players who went to Buenos Aires returned with a stomach bug. So, maybe Johan Ackermann’s gamble (which cost his club R10 million) wasn’t so foolish. Also, his Captain Courageous may return. This is going to be a wide-open running quarter-final, but I’ll take the Lions by a last-minute Ruan Combrinck or Jaco Kriel miracle, against a strong Crusader side which only arrives in Jozi on Tuesday night.

“The Brumbies host the Highlanders in the opener. I see the South Island boys as giving the tired Brumbies too much to do in defence, and I don’t know if the overplayed Brumbies starters can handle the onslaught at lineout and breakdown, even in their own patch. Jamie Joseph’s team in an ‘upset.’”

Tips: Highlanders, Hurricanes, Lions, Stormers. Which would set up, I believe, two derbies in the semis, and a Kiwi-Saffa grand final.

Paddy Effeney: “I’m going mostly on the home theory here. But I figure there’s a wildcard in there somewhere. In fact, two.

“The Brumbies are the first. Not because I think they’re a good show, but just because I would love to hope that an Australian team can do something good. Just once. It’s down to you Brumbies. Don’t let me down.

“The Canes now have the trophy in one hand. They’re a special to win this year. Getting it done against the Sharks should not be a problem.

“The Lions were daft to rest all their players last week. If they don’t win the title it will have been a failure. It certainly was a failure for the fans.

“And the Chiefs give me no reason to think they’ll win. But I’m tipping them anyway because that game against the Highlanders last week was so good.”

Tips: Brumbies, Hurricanes, Lions, Chiefs.

Brett McKay: I’m going to work this backwards, I think.

If the Chiefs could have held on and not conceded that late try last week, I may be thinking completely differently about them this week. But they look vulnerable for me this week, and even if the Stormers haven’t played any of the New Zealand sides in 2016, they’re still a decent team. It’s not their fault they didn’t play the Kiwi teams and they shouldn’t be completely discarded because of it. They’ve always been tough to beat at Newlands, and I expect that to be the case again.

Johan Ackermann, I should probably conclude, appears to be a genius. His first XV is fresh, and now he’s got a desperate Crusaders team coming to Johannesburg who will have to take risks to win this game. I think this might just play right into the Lions’ hands, and they can punish anyone on the counter now as good as anyone.

Hurricanes-Sharks? To quote a great man, ‘Canes by plenty.

And that brings me to Canberra. I wrote on Tuesday that I think the Highlanders are the favourites from here, and I’m genuinely looking forward to watching them play in the flesh. I’m not really looking forward to watching them play in the rain, mind you, given my vantage point. It’s probably a small price to pay, however.

And I still like the Highlanders from here, I really do. But, you know, Straya. So, Brumbies. And free pies.

Tips: Brumbies, Hurricanes, Lions, Stormers.

The Big Question: (from Brett) With the regular season done, who is your Super Rugby player of the year, and your player to have had a breakout season and push their game to the next level?

Diggercane: “In my mind, Beauden Barrett is the Super Rugby player of the year. While arguably his early season form was not outstanding, he has turned it around emphatically, in particular his goal kicking and if it was not for him, the Hurricanes would not have finished on top as they did. The other player I would nominate is Ben Smith, based purely on the consistency of his performance across the season.

“Many players’ stock has certainly risen this year. In Australia Dane Haylett-Petty and Sean McMahon immediately spring to mind while Malcolm Marx and Pieter Steph Du Toit continue to impress, any of those four players would be in the discussion. One player I would like to mention, although more in a rookie of the year category is Michael Fatialofa for the Hurricanes. After the departure of Jeremy Thrush and the ongoing concussion issues suffered by James Broadhurst, locks shaped as a significant area of concern for the Hurricanes this season. In his debut season at Super level, he has stood up to be counted and made the spot his own with consistent performances throughout the season and right when his team needed it the most.”

Harry: “Damien McKenzie was exciting, but he knocked on more than a drunken sailor holding cash in port, so I won’t give him the money. Ruan Combrinck punished anyone in his path, but his team didn’t rely on him more than Faf de Klerk or Warren Whiteley. However, Whiteley may be a better captain than player, and the amazing Faf wasn’t even an automatic starter for Johan Ackermann, he profited greatly from the speed of the Lions’ recycle, and he wasn’t a better scrumhalf than Aaron Smith. But it’s impossible for me to choose between the two surviving Smiths, so Nugget loses out.

“I would like to nominate the very polite Beauden Bok-Beating-Bastard Barrett, but he left about 70 points on the kicking tee and that’s not ‘valuable.’ Brett’s note: 72 points, actually, by my records…

“Kieran Read is not my favourite fellow, and he was excellent as a Crusading captain, but I think his team could have carried on okay without him. The Canes’ wing-forward Dane Coles is probably my pick from the NZ Conference. In the Australian Conference, it’s between Kerevi, Folau, and Dane Haylett-Petty. DHP is the best player in a struggling team, which is very difficult, but he pissed it all away in Bloemfontein. I’ll forgive him, of course, but he can’t win awards in the same year as he turned the blue carpet green. Kerevi also battled from the back foot, but without Israel Folau, where would the Waratahs have been? So, he’s probably my Aussie MVP.

“Coles versus Folau, so far. No Argentines or Japanese stood out, so we’ll look at the only other successful South African team: the lucky, disgracefully-coddled Stormers, who played nobody, beat no-one, and never scored tries.

“Take a bow, Eben Etzebeth. The son of a world champion wrestler, the nephew of a real enforcer and a bill collector on the wrong side of the tracks, and the scourge of all opposition lineouts, Etzebeth stole 16 lineouts, more than most teams. He missed three tackles all year, in making 97 percent of those he attempted, usually with great force and dominance. He won eight turnovers. There is no team in the playoffs who will rely more on one forward to fire than the Stormers. So, he’s my MVP. I am wearing body armour to field the attacks, which will contain the terms ‘one-eyed’ and ‘lost your mind’.

“My Most Improved Player is Sean McMahon. He takes the cake ahead of Elton Jantjies, who used to be the worst flyhalf in Stormers’ history and is now a decent playmaker at times, the Cheetahs’ underrated Francois Venter, the Kings go-to man John-Charles Astle, the big du Preez twins in Durban, the hyper-athletic Pieter-Steph du Toit from the Cape (oh, could we not go back in time and have him play at Twickenham instead of Victor Matfield?), Steven Luatua (who has been up and down and now up again), Blade Thomson, and Ardie Savea.

“Savea gives McMahon a tough contest in this category, but he was already considered excellent, while McMahon was controversially a Wallaby last season and thought more as a ‘poor man’s Hooper.’ McMahon beats defenders like a chef beats eggs, he tackles like there is no tomorrow, and logs a lot of minutes, as a mainstay loosie.”

Paddy: “My player of the year would be Ben Smith. Whenever I watch that guy I’m amazed at the poise he shows, and how he gets it right every time. Definitely the top guy for the Highlanders and the All Blacks.”

Brett: I’m going to do this without naming a thousand players, as seem to be the fashion this week. Maybe that’s just Capetonian indecision, but I’m not sure…

To me, the clear Super Rugby Player of the Year is Damien McKenzie. He’s been the most exciting player to watch since the first week of the round, scoring seven tries in the first six round, and he’ll end up pretty close to the leading pointscorer in the competition. Every time he had the ball in his hand, it just felt like something was going to happen.

He went a bit quiet mid-season, just as the All Blacks selection talk took hold, but he’s re-found that sparkling form in the last month and he’ll be a major factor if the Chiefs go deep in the Finals. There’s a lot of highly commended awards in this category, but McKenzie – if you’ll pardon the pun – is the runaway winner.

And though McKenzie could take out the breakout season too, I’m giving that to the aforementioned Dane Haylett-Petty. He thoroughly deserved his Wallabies selection, got better over the England series, and his form over the last three weeks has been so good, that I think we’re at the point where Israel Folau needs to play outside centre for Australia, because Haylett-Petty is a more complete fullback.

The Summary

The Crowd’s quarter-final tips:
The early trend remained throughout, and from more than 600 responses, The Crowd has picked…

87.4% Highlanders
95.7% Hurricanes
54.2% Lions
78.6% Chiefs