Week Eight and more of the same for the Blues as they gift the Sharks a couple of interception tries to make it easy for them and go down 23-29. The other Friday game was a home loss as the Force could not cope with the Waratahs power and pace late on to lose a tight contest 18-23. First up Saturday was the mega clash with the Crusaders hosting the unbeaten Stormers. 18,000 were treated to a slugfiest as both sides cancelled each other out and we did not see a lot of running rugby. The game had it all power defence, subtle skills and brute force. It was the Crusaders who came out on top, just. How important will this result be later in the season. 31-24 to the Crusaders. next up was tha Aussie clash and the Rebels fancied their chances at the stuttering Brumbies. It was the Brumbies who started better and right from the off they were on the score sheet. This one then turned into a bit of a one sided affair as the Rebels lack of defence resurfaced and they took a drubbing final score 37-6 to the Brumbies. The last two games of the weekend were played out in South Africa, first up the Cheetahs hosted the Chiefs, this proved to be an exciting clash that was nip and tuck right to the final whistle though the Chiefs were worth the win with the score of Cheetahs 33-39 Chiefs. The last game of the weekend was a convincing win for the Bulls in the Lions den. Lions 18-32 Bulls.
The results mean the Stormers move off the top of the table and are replaced by the Chiefs, whilst there is no change at the bottom with the Blues on 11 one point ahead of the Lions. We called them all this week, can we do it again for next week?
Results Week 8
Blues 23-29 Sharks Eden Park, Auckland
W Force 18-23 Waratahs NIB Stadium, Perth
Crusaders 31-24 Stormers Rugby League Park, Christchurch
Brumbies 37-6 Rebels Canberra Stadium, Canberra
Cheetahs 33-39 Chiefs Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
Lions 18-32 Bulls Coca-Cola Park, Johannesburg
BYES: Highlanders, Hurricanes, Reds
Week Nine Fixtures and our picks in bold as usual. Three byes again this week, for the Cheetahs, Western Force and Lions :
Fixtures Week 9
Fri 20 Apr 19:35 08:35GMT Highlanders v Blues Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin
Fri 20 Apr 19:40 10:40GMT Reds v Stormers Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Sat 21 Apr 19:35 08:35GMT Hurricanes v Crusaders Westpac Stadium, Wellington (SkySports 4 UK)
Sat 21 Apr 19:40 10:40GMT Waratahs v Rebels Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney (SkySports 4 UK)
Sat 21 Apr 17:05 16:05GMT Sharks v Chiefs Kings Park, Durban (SkySports 4 UK)
Sat 21 Apr 19:10 18:10GMT Bulls v Brumbies Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria (SkySports 4 UK)
BYES: Cheetahs, W Force, Lions
Also selected games on skysports.com/xtra