Table:
| Pos. | Team | P | W | B | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wellington | 6 | 6 | 6 | 30 |
| 2 | Hawke's Bay | 6 | 5 | 7 | 27 |
| 3 | Tasman | 5 | 5 | 3 | 23 |
| 4 | BoP | 6 | 4 | 6 | 22 |
| 5 | Taranaki | 5 | 4 | 4 | 20 |
| 6 | Waikato | 6 | 3 | 5 | 17 |
| 7 | Canterbury | 6 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| 8 | Otago | 6 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| 9 | Counties-Manukau | 6 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| 10 | North Harbour | 5 | 1 | 7 | 11 |
| 11 | Southland | 5 | 2 | 7 | 11 |
| 12 | Auckland | 5 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 13 | Northland | 6 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 14 | Manawatū | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Fixtures:
13/09:
- Southland v Canterbury
14/09:
- BoP v Taranaki
- North Harbour v Manawatū
- Waikato v Hawke's Bay
15/09:
- Counties-Manukau v Otago
- Tasman v Wellington
- Northland v Auckland
18/09:
- Manawatū v Southland
Predictions: Canterbury 9- BoP 5+ North Harbour 25+ Hawke's Bay 5- Otago 5- Wellington 3+ Auckland 9- Southland 5-
Notes: Well, after the absolute tragedy that befell Hawke's Bay in their Shield defense against the Mako, i'm hoping Wellington will visit Nelson and at least ensure that Tasman only get to celebrate for a week.
That should be a hell of a game with all of the squad ABs being released to play for their provinces and Wellington have been very good so far this season.
Last weekend saw a lot of movement in the bottom half of the table - with lots of drama as well. See if you can find clip of wet-ball-gate from the Battle of the Bridge. Absolute dastardly shithousery robbed North Harbour.
There's plenty of other good matches ahead this weekend too - BoP v Taranaki should settle who's in 4th place, and the mid-week home game for the Turbos could be their only chance of picking up a win this season.
I'm glad the tests are over for this weekend, hopefully the rugby pundits down here will pay some attention to the NPC in their shows. But likely it'll get a passing mention while they spend 45 minutes talking up the Wobblies and then at the end of the season they'll have another moan about how nobody cares about the NPC.
Some tasty match ups going on paper. Getting to a game yourself?
No home games for me this weekend with Hawke's Bay heading up to Hamilton - that's a 4 hr drive and now its spring i've got gardening to do! I'm on call next week so will miss our home game against Taranaki but the following weekend we have a 2pm kickoff against Auckland - afternoon footie is the best so hanging out for that one.
Actually speaking of tasty matchups - Southland v Canterbury wasn't one, but it was a pretty good match. Out of curiosity, does either All Blacks (NZR) or Sky TV YT channels allow international viewers to watch the highlight videos or is it all geo-blocked?
Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rr0B-S51Lw
ABs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KE06cr-DBk
geoblocked :(
That's bizarre; unless somehow NZR/Sky have sold the rights to show the NPC over in your neck of the woods (which sounds improbable).