At moments the rugby was sublime at others it bordered on the ridiculous but we were left in no doubt that the Super 14 was here!
You couldn't have had a better two sides to kick off the competition than for the Brumbies to be pitted against the Highlanders at home. These guys came out to play action rugby and the fans were sent on an emotional rollercoaster as the Highlanders went up 19-0 after 22 minutes only for the Brumbies (inspired by Stirling Mortlock pictured left) to come crashing back into the game.
The Brumbies eventually held on for a 33-31 victory which was incredible to watch!
After that the Blues held on for a 25-19 victory over the Western Force. Tight stuff indeed!
Then we turned to the debacle at Coca Cola Park as the Lions contrived to do everything possible to give the result to the Cheetahs.
Eventually drop goals from Andre Pretorius and Earl Rose pushed the Lions 6 points clear but the way the Lions simply stopped playing mid-way through the second half was absolutely bizarre.
What in the world would inspire you to start kicking the ball on Daniller, Demas (pictured right)
and Juries - who were looking full of running - when you still had a quarter of the game to play?! Pretorius with all his experience surely knew better...Demas I thought was brilliant!
Juan Smith was absolutely outstanding and at the end of the day, the two yellow cards on Heinrich Brussow and Meyer Bosman cost the Cheetahs 3 tries... I thought both yellows were justified.
The Lions are going to need to improve a lot to be competitive in this competition but it was great to see Ashwin Willemse playing really well.
I'm going to blog on the Lions tactics in the next post and some strengths and weaknesses I thought were obvious...
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