We have reached the last round of this shortened competition and we have a title decider and wooden spoon fight. Here are my predictions.
First here is a link to my review of the Round 2 action.
How did your round 2 predictions go?
2 from 2, so I’m 100% so far in this competition!
Australia v New Zealand
The Wallabies have had plenty of distractions this past week. Hooper’s reaction to getting pulled back got him a 1 game suspension. But now both SANZAR and Hooper are appealing. It’s going to be a real test of Cheika’s management to keep the squad focused. This is a game that the Wallabies really could go with winning for their confidence. Them drew last year and their last two wins over the All Blacks were at home.
For the All Blacks the result doesn’t matter so much. Winning The Rugby Championship would be nice but the Rugby World Cup is the goal. I’m expecting there to be rotation as combinations are tried and players are rested. Don’t think that the players will let up though, there are only two games until the Rugby World Cup so it’s last chance saloon.
With the All Blacks rotation and the Wallabies greater need to win, I’m backing a slim home victory.
Australia by 3
South Africa v Argentina
The Boks showed some good attacking play against the All Blacks. They have unearthed a good center partnership even if there were some missed tackles. When you add that kind of running to the forward platform that the Boks produce it’s very dangerous. I feel they would have win if it was for uncontested scrums. There still remain questions over their kicking and they do have a lot of inexperienced players.
Argentina have been disappointing with some poor defending. Also their pack has not been its normal dominant self. The accusations of diving and play acting also will mount some pressure. But this is from the English speaking press so I don’t know how much of that they read. They were hard done by with the ref though as Australia should have received more cards.
At the end of the day South Africa are starting to look good even though they have lost a couple of games. Argentina look to have gone backwards so I’m expecting a big loss.
South Africa by 20
Prediction Leagues
Join in the predicting fun, I’m running leagues for the Currie Cup, ITM Cup and NRC. Also enjoy the excitement of the up coming Rugby World Cup by joining the August Internationals and Rugby World Cup leagues as well.
