Super Rugby tipping Round 15: Plus the team of the June internationals

Super Rugby’s back and so is the tipping panel. Where necessary, any and all results of the last three weeks of rugby have been wiped from memories, and we return fresh from our break back to do what we do best.

Overwhelmingly sucking at tipping.

By virtue of taking out the June internationals tipping, Digger will kick us off for the resumption of Super Rugby, while the Big Question will enjoy another week on the sideline.

In its place, Digger, Harry, and I put our heads together, figuratively speaking, and selected our June internationals team of the… month? Our team of the June internationals; yeah, that makes more sense.

Diggercane: “How does this go again? Yes, I remember, Canes by plenty.

“Difficult after the break to get a reading on anybody at the moment but here goes…

“Coin toss. I dunno, but I am going to say the Chiefs, they have more to play for right now and will be highly motivated to see the Suva experiment a success and I feel the Crusaders will miss Ryan Crotty in midfield.

“The Brumbies should be too strong for the Reds at home, while the Waratahs should win in a canter; but maybe not so easy with a number involved in the recent Test series and having to travel as well. I’m expecting to see a scrappy sort of affair. I’ll back the Stormers away because again they have more to play for at this stage of the season, but I expect it to be tight.

“The Cheetahs should have too many points in them against a Force side that has struggled offensively and, I have to back the Lions at home though the Sharks would make me nervous.

“The Clan should get it done easily, while I cannot tip the Jaguares after their lack of any consistency this season. So the Bulls – maybe, probably, I dunno. They have hardly inspired away from home. Yeah, nah… OK, Bulls.

“I do know the Canes will win.”

Tips: Chiefs, Brumbies, Waratahs, Hurricanes, Stormers, Cheetahs, Lions, Highlanders, Bulls.

Harry Jones: “I’ve done best when I tip first, so here goes:

“The Chiefs should be hosting the Crusaders in Hamilton, but they are both travelling to play this match. I’ll take a wild guess and say Crusaders by a point or two. The Reds go to Canberra, and this one will also be close, but still, I’ll take the home team. The Sunwolves should get bowled over by the bodyline Waratahs.

“The Blues will play their best game of the season in Wellington, and yet, I’ll go with the impressive Canes, because at this stage the best teams just don’t slip much. Schalk Burger will lead the Stormers to a narrow win over the Rebels in Melbourne, but have I ever tipped ‘dirty’ against my boys?

“The Cheetahs and Force will play a messy match in Bloemfontein, but I think the score will be too high for the Force. The Lions versus the Sharks with everything to play for is maybe one of the top three matches of the round (with the Chiefs-Crusaders and Jags-Bulls in there).

“We might see Pat Lambie return to try to prove that Elton Jantjies is just a pretender for the Bok No.10 jersey, too. I will tip the Sharks in a mini-upset.

“The Kings will lose heavily to the Highlanders in Port Elizabeth, and the Bulls will go to Argentina, where they (a poor touring team) will run up against the PMC (Pumas Minus Cubelli or Pumas Minus Coach) and the score will be in the low teens and I guess, I think, I prognosticate, a narrow win for the home team.

“I suppose.”

Tips: Crusaders, Brumbies, Waratahs, Hurricanes, Stormers, Cheetahs, Sharks, Highlanders, and Jaguares.

Paddy Effeney: “Stephen Donald is starting for the Chiefs this week. Having watched that guy since he starred at the Under-21s World Cup, I think things have come full circle, and he’s finally getting the respect he deserves…

“The Brumbies should thrash the Reds, as should the Tahs the Sunwolves. I’m going the Canes, though not with heaps of confidence, and I need to jag back some points, so I’ll go the Rebels over the Stormers. The Force are no good, and neither are the Jaguares. Lions versus Sharks looms as the game of the round, but my South African home team policy rings true.

“I didn’t quite finish that Stephen Donald train of thought. Basically, it’s madness. Crusaders.”

Tips: Crusaders, Brumbies, Waratahs, Hurricanes, Rebels, Cheetahs, Highlanders, Lions, and Bulls.

Brett McKay: This can go one of two ways. I can either fail spectacularly like Prince of Pencup in the fourth at Gundagai last weekend, or I can come home with a wetter sail than Bonecrusher in the 1986 Cox Plate (watch and learn, kids…).

The Chiefs are banking on Stephen Donald emotion again, but someday soon – surely – this bubble is going to burst. I think the Crusaders have more players in better form, and they probably travel better than any other team.

The Brumbies and Waratahs should then kick off what I hope will be a good weekend for the Australian teams, though I’m expecting maybe even the best performance from the Reds in 2016. The Hurricanes will get over the Blues, just, then the Rebels in face-saving mode at home will be too strong for the Stormers in face-saving mode on the road.

In arguably the upset of the month, I’m all-in on the return of Jono Lance to drive the Force to territory rarely seen – the opposition in-goal – since he last played for them. The Highlanders could’ve told the Kings to start playing as they boarded the plane in Dunedin and would still finish over the top of them.

The Lions will be without Warren Whiteley, but they’ve played the biggest, baddest and boldest card of all: Jaco Kriel will lead them out onto Ellis Park for a proper fish dinner.

And then the Jaguares. Because the Bulls.

Tips: Crusaders, Brumbies, Waratahs, Hurricanes, Rebels, Force, Highlanders, Lions, and Jaguares.

Team of the June Internationals
We need to put our hand up at this point and admit to general slackness in not really seeing enough of the Japan-Scotland series, or Argentina’s matches against Italy and France to have any level of meaningful debate around which players from these countries – if any – might be worthy of selection, and have just restricted ourselves to the games played on our own soil.

Nevertheless, we’ve rather surprisingly easily come up with what we agreed was a pretty strong team.

The XV
Mako Vunipola (England)
Dylan Hartley (England)
Dan Cole (England)
Maro Itoje (England)
Pieter-Steph Du Toit (South Africa)
Chris Robshaw (England)
James Haskell (England)
Kieran Read (c) (New Zealand)
Aaron Smith (New Zealand)
Beauden Barrett (New Zealand)
Dane Haylett-Petty (Australia)
Owen Farrell (England)
Jonathan Davies (Wales)
Liam Williams (Wales)
Israel Dagg (New Zealand)

Bench: Rory Best (IRE), Jack McGrath (IRE), Owen Franks (NZ), Devin Toner (IRE), Billy Vunipola (ENG), Conor Murray (IRE), Paddy Jackson (IRE), Ruan Combrinck (RSA).

Harry kicked us off and identified the key arguments: Vunipola versus McGrath at loosehead, Du Toit versus Toner at lock, Smith versus Murray versus Faf de Klerk (RSA) at scrumhalf, and Barrett versus Jackson at flyhalf.

Tendai Mtawarira, Damien de Allende, Ryan Crotty, Waisake Naholo, and Aaron Cruden were thrown up initially as well.

Digger added Ardie Savea and Rhys Webb into the mix, while in a desperate attempt to include even just a spattering of gold in there, I threw up Haylett-Petty, Sekope Kepu, and Michael Hooper.

“And that would be it.”

I surmised that: “Haylett-Petty is genuinely one Wallaby who I think got better over the three Tests, and the only one whose form is worth arguing a position for,” before adding on reflection, “Hooper definitely loses out to Billy Vunipola for the bench backrow spot, after consideration.”

The scrum pretty well picked itself, and Digger rightly pointed out about the bench props, “Franks was a cornerstone of the All Black scrum which was dominant against the Welsh.”

Come the backs, Barrett’s third Test performance edged him ahead of the impressive Jackson, but Digger decided there was no time for faffing about: “Faf was brilliant at times but too inconsistent compared to Murray.”

Paddy tried to throw in a late ‘hail Mary’ play, “I would say Taqele Naiyaravoro has the best minutes/try ratio. Left wing given,” before we all conceded my point:

“I get the concern about Haylett-Petty on the left wing, but then he’s a fullback playing on the right wing anyway, so I rationalised that another positional tweak wasn’t so bad.

“And I couldn’t really think of a left winger that stood out. I like that bench, too.”

Jones declared it: “I like that bench. It’s a benchmark.”

And thus, the team was carved into tablets and announced from the mountain…

The Summary

The votes are in… finally
The Crowd was definitive in some votes, not so much in others. This was the final tally:
67.1% Crusaders
89.1% Brumbies
91.5% Waratahs
88.6% Hurricanes
51.0% Stormers
82.3% Cheetahs
97.7% Highlanders
86.0% Lions
50.2% Jaguares

The Rebels-Stormers and Jaguares-Bulls were the closest votes of the season, with the Jaguares getting the nod by just one vote in the end over the Bulls, from well over 300 votes.

Thanks once again for having your say.