Wrap Round 7...


Rounds have been flying past us quicker than Christian Cullen on the outside channel of a drifting centre. Not even a Women’s Day hangover was going to prevent sides from upping the ante and forcing themselves into final four contention.

The knock out stages are just two rounds away, leaving some sides with only two or one game left before closeting the Copa’s for another season. For the sides that do make the final four they are in with some heavy challenges as the sides that have already cemented a place are looking mighty daunting to knock over.

In the A-League the Nadoes have sewn up the log like Sri Lanka did the Test Series. Ie: With emphatic purpose. They steamrolled a valiant Marquard side last night 40-17 to notch up their 6th scalp this season and to retain the Sobhar Shield for the second, of what could be many, weeks. The Cobras had to be a Nadoe notch last week but came back to winning ways in Round 7 with a sterling effort to beat Ubumbo 14-0. In the other game the Barbarians took on Rochester and were 69 for nought at the end of the days play, lucky for Rochester it wasn’t a five-day game.

Actually the Rhinos are getting rather devious in defeat, they are employing the Australian tactic of delaying kick off so as to shorten the game time and therefore the amount of time they have to spend watching the opponents take conversion. Pretty sneaky if you ask me. Jake White is looking into it...

Last nights events leave Ubumbo, the Barbarians and Soco Thoco all hovering around mid-table seeking to secure the remaining two play off spots. Ubumbo are certainly at the disadvantage of having 1, as opposed to the others having 2, games left but knowing the nature of the League anything can happen.


The B-League is similar to the A-League except 3 sides have pretty much sewn up the play off berths and only one is on auction to the general public. Wildboys recorded another victory, this time over Hidding winning 20-3, and stay unbeaten at the top of the table. The Panthers then fought out a hard victory to take the Sobhar Shield away from the Shebeen Boys and the second spot on the log.

The race for the remaining position is between Hidding Hall and Smuts although the Turtles put themselves in with an outside chance after their first career win last night against College in a 10-8 nail-biter. Spanners and College have less hope of a play off spot than Rochester do at a free case of beer at the Sobhar Bar, or at scraping together 15 guys for that matter but they’ll still turn out for a jol.

Team of the Week: The Turtles squeezed out their first victory and for that they deserve a case. The imbalance in regard to strength in the B League is worse than the Genie Coefficient of South Africa so to hand out a beating after 6 unsuccessful attempts is laudable. However beating College doesn’t deserve a case. However, swallowing your pride deep enough to run around a field for 60 minutes in a bright red jersey with the Ninja Turtle insignia on your skinny gun and a half shell on your back takes balls. Congrats…err… Turtles.

Try of the Week: There were long rang efforts, there were tight five push overs, there were solo magic tries and there were killer angle great support tries. However there was no ‘try’ better than the 6 Rochester team member who, for the second week in a row, tried their level best to stay in res. And they succeeded…

Hit of the Week: This is one for the record books. As stated last week this award is very rare but for the same person to get it in two consecutive weeks is borderline hot Carinus girl aka unheard of. The hit was executed by, you guessed it, Dan Watson on the hapless Cobra left wing who looks like a dark haired Peter Crouch. Ol Crouchy shepherded the big rig into touch and then fell on top of him in the mud, and for his troubles got a steroid fuelled rage hit to the nose. Not quite the sporting behaviour we expect on the green mile…