Well we've done it...what next?

I think the tahs will score early, but the crusaders will mow them down

what do you guys think?

The Waratahs will not even come close. The two teams meet each other at contrasting points in their season. Canterbury are in absolutely sensational form, while the Waratahs have struggled to recapture the form they showed in the early rounds of the season. Canterbury have a wealth of finals experience, whereas the Waratahs have very little. In all fairness to the Hurricances, the Crusdaers should have won by a further 20+ points on Friday night, whereas the Waratahs had a bit of luck in beating the Bulls.

Certainly not the certainty of the Millenium, be it a final and everything, but the Waratahs are nowhere near their optimum at the moment, and even that might not be good enough.

Waratahs by 8. Wishful thinking I know!

But:

GO THE WARATAHS

"The two teams meet each other at contrasting points in their season."

Totally disagree. The tahs have just been playing a very different gameplan than what they played earlier on.

"Canterbury are in absolutely sensational form"

Sensational is overrating them. Their counter attack is deadly like always (hello rico gear), but the hurricanes attack made their D look good. Canterbury has had awful defense all year and has been relying on shootouts. They shouldn't have even topped the table. They scored around 3pts for every 2pts they conceeded, where as the tahs were nearly 2 to 1. Tahs have been the team to beat all year, forget these silly shootouts the crusaders have won.

"Canterbury have a wealth of finals experience, whereas the Waratahs have very little."

I don't think this will be important. tahs have handled the pressure so far with so much expected of them. There will also be less pressure on them since they're in christchurch (ie nobody gies them much of a chance).

"In all fairness to the Hurricances, the Crusdaers should have won by a further 20+ points on Friday night,"

No. It just seems this way because they were all over the canes in the first 20. The difference between the 2 teams was turnovers and attack. Canes weren't even close to being strong enough at the breakdown, and they're attack was flatfooted and made the crusaders D look much better than it really was.

"whereas the Waratahs had a bit of luck in beating the Bulls."

??? I was actually at the game, and we were all over them. Sure Habanna missed the easiest try in history, but that wouldn't have mattered. The tahs had a gameplan and stuck to it and it worked. The 2nd half was all about playing defensively and they did that perfectly.

"but the Waratahs are nowhere near their optimum at the moment, and even that might not be good enough."

Their optimum is better than the crusaders. They don't quite have the same counterattacking power, but better defence. The crusaders were a little lucky in sydney, and the tahs were a bit flat thanks to a long 6 weeks.

Tah's will be able to dictate the pace and style of the game better than the crusaders. First of all, our defence is much better than say the hurricanes. This will slow the crusaders down and make the match more of a grind than what they are used to. NSW are suited better for this because of their better defensive capability and superior lineout (really affects crusaders ability to play field position).

I'm confident that we'll put up a good enough fight that I'm flying over to kiwiland for the match. Ok, the crusaders might win by 20, but if this match was played over and over dozens of times, I think it'll be MUCH closer than what people would expect. 'tahs have a good chance, god I hope they take it (I'm probally gonna die over there anyway, better if I go out a winner )

Long time no read Mr J.

Heh. Well I had to get in when you were all bagging the 'tahs

I'm not bagging them. They've just got no hope, that's all.

Seriously though, I backed the Crusaders at $4.00 pre-season and normally I would now have a saver on NSW to guarantee a profit. I will probably end up doing that, but I honestly don't think I have to.

G'day Mr J,

An interesting game coming up come Saturday. If the Tahs play as they did against the Bulls they are going to get done. The game against the Bulls was quite disjointed and in fairness to both teams their GP's was non existant. If the Tahs are going to play defensively as they did against the Bulls then they are in for a long night.

In trying to analize the teams over the comp I would suggest the Tahs have left their form behind in previous games whereas Robbie Deans being the crafty ole coach that he is has only been flogging his players just enough to get them to the business end of the competition when the going gets tough....this was evident mid-way through the second half against the Canes when he started to sub his better players. If you've followed S12 for some years you would know this appears to be a Deans trait, slow starters hard finishers.

Great to see your coming to the land of milk, honey and rugby players....shame that gods not going to help you though. Hope the Chch crowd look after ya an fill ya fulla Kiwi grog.

Cheers.

"If the Tahs are going to play defensively"

If I was the coach I wouldn't be looking to try and outscore the crusaders in a shootout.

The crusaders definately deserve to be faves, just don't think it will be as easy as most people seem to think. I think if any team can give the crusaders a run for their money in christchurch then it's NSW.

"shame that gods not going to help you though."

If we win? Yeh probally not. If they just got that damn bonus point vs the blues we wouldn't be in this mess. Or if we didn't blow an 8pt or whatever lead vs the crusaders earlier in the season. Or if the ladder system judged for and against fairly.

"an fill ya fulla Kiwi grog."

Gonna need a drink or dozen win or lose.

This is what we aussies do though. We love being the underdogs against you guys and then against all odds crash over the line in the dying stages.

Just looking forward to being in the middle of all the kiwis when we score. Yeh we might lose, but we're expected to lose