Bulls to bounce Stormers
22 Feb 2013
MARK KEOHANE is predicting a Bulls winning start to Super Rugby this season.
The supporter in me will always want a Bulls win, but the reporter in me says it will be a Bulls win when South Africa’s Super Rugby starts at Loftus on Friday evening.
The Stormers have been consistent over the last three years. Defensively no team has been better in the competition, but the attack has never matched the defence and in the last two seasons they’ve twice lost at home in a semi-final against two teams who beat them with superior attack.
Western Province, in the Currie Cup, played with greater enterprise and the hope among Stormers supporters is this will be translated to Super Rugby form. I am not as easily convinced and the greater experience of the Bulls, strengthened by the availability of all their Currie Cup players, gives them the edge in a home match.
The Stormers are confident they have the formula needed to beat the Bulls. They did so in 2012 and their players are taking a lot from demolishing the Bulls at Newlands in the Currie Cup. We will see again on Friday night that Currie Cup is not Super Rugby, just like Super Rugby is not Test rugby.
The Bulls have 13 players with Test experience and they have Victor Matfield’s expertise among the coaching staff. Matfield’s contribution and influence is going to be massive.
Morne Steyn’s boot is also going to be inspirational to a winning start.
I have the Bulls to win by 10-12 points, but I don’t have them finishing in the top four in my pre-season predictions. They will struggle on the road. I have the Sharks to win the South African Conference from the Stormers and the Sharks to finish top of the overall table and win the tournament. I also have the Stormers to finish in the overall top four.
On Friday night though the Cape Town-based franchise will only know pain.
Defeat won’t be a train smash as the nature of this competition means a team can lose up to six matches and still qualify for a top six play-off finish.
Those teams wanting to finish in the top two or head up their Conference can’t afford to lose more than four matches.
The Sharks will comfortably beat the Cheetahs in their opener and I have the Kings to start with a win against the Force in Port Elizabeth. If they can do that they will have already had a successful season.
For the anti Kings brigade, who now double as a pro Lions bunch of cheerleaders, please be reminded the Lions went 17 matches without a win in the competition and since splitting from the Cats to be the Lions again won 15 out of 90 Super Rugby matches.
The Kings, who will do well to win more than one game, won’t be a bigger embarrassment than the Lions so often were. For those who think they will be just think of those 17 successive Lions defeats.
Until the Kings lose 18 in succession they can’t be a greater liability or embarrassment.
And by the looks of things the Kings won’t be in Super Rugby in 2014 to be in a position to lose 18 in succession.
The Force are the weakest of the Australian teams so Saturday’s historic opener does represent the best chance for Luke Watson’s pioneers to actually win.
391 Comments
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22 Feb 2013, 16:19 pm
@Tacitus-335:
well, truthfuly Tac i can tell you i nearly shat my pants the first time it happened to me and for the first few minutes of that experience i was completely overcome and a total wreck.
it took me a while to compose myself before i could apply my mind to how best to deal with the situation and i certainly improved towards the end of it. the second time however was a charm as well the instances i was held up at my car and while walking in the street.
22 Feb 2013, 16:22 pm
Petersen run out
22 Feb 2013, 16:23 pm
@Dawn-337:
hehehe
you are quite the cowboy, are’nt you.
@Dawn-339:
well, to be honest i was not absolutely sure whether any of my attackers were on drugs but i did have my suspicions they could be.
some of them seemed a bit doltish.
22 Feb 2013, 16:24 pm
Brumbiesboy
all just guess work in regards bru mate
22 Feb 2013, 16:25 pm
@the curse-350:
Really.
22 Feb 2013, 16:25 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-351: What sort of places do you frequent?
22 Feb 2013, 16:25 pm
Bail to Oscar.
22 Feb 2013, 16:26 pm
@the curse-349:
i gotta a ‘supporter’ right here for you….
*feverishly gesticulating towards crotch*
22 Feb 2013, 16:26 pm
so, Morne to show he was a one season wonder, Pierre wishing hed stayed in the fields picking posies and the bulls to lose today
22 Feb 2013, 16:26 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-353:
“Doltish” is not the word
Have you ever seen someone high on tik
22 Feb 2013, 16:27 pm
oskido going home.
22 Feb 2013, 16:27 pm
Thank dog he got bail
Now they can get onto business of the trial
22 Feb 2013, 16:28 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-358: admitting you have a problem is the first step
@stormersboy-357: seriously? tsk
22 Feb 2013, 16:30 pm
@the curse-363: I called it yesterday. I cannot see actions that show pre-meditation.
22 Feb 2013, 16:33 pm
@stormersboy-364: if you believe the “intruder” theory then I agree… not sure I agree with that angle though
22 Feb 2013, 16:33 pm
@stormersboy-356:
the holdup while walking was in a suburb at night and the car holdup was in the CBD.
normal stuff really and i’m surprised more people dont say the same.
usually however i find there’s a group of people who will have suffered all kinds of crime more than once and a group who so far not have not suffered any. i try to tell both groups that as much as the one’s experiences are real and mean something, so too is the others.
if you are in the group thats been fortunate never to have suffered from crime yet then you’re lucky imo.
the truly tragic cases are the ones like Tacs mentioned where there’s robbery with assault and intent to kill. it’s sensless but it must come from somewhere i guess.
22 Feb 2013, 16:35 pm
@the curse-365: It’s not about what I believe to be honest. I am reserving my opinion until I see what the other stuff shows but on the basis of what the state has shown so far it would be hard to prove pre planning, not necessarily murder, which he may still be guilty of.
22 Feb 2013, 16:36 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-366: Glad you are Ok.
22 Feb 2013, 16:37 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-366:
Stop preaching
Have you ever seen anyone on tik
22 Feb 2013, 16:37 pm
@stormersboy-367:
How do you explain four gunshots?
22 Feb 2013, 16:40 pm
@Dawn-360:
well, no
i guess i dont know
but now that you mention it hehe there is a guy i work with who i am convinced is on it, or at least on something. he often does a wierd ‘enlarged, staring eyes and confused pattern of thought put to words’ thing when i speak to him, with a lot of blinking of the eyes too.
he’s got bags under his eyes some days and especially when there’s project deadlines he gets like this with me. i would be surprised if he was not high and this was rather some weird idiosyncrasy he has. my money’s on him being high.
22 Feb 2013, 16:41 pm
@Dawn-370: panic
22 Feb 2013, 16:43 pm
@stormersboy-367: hopefully the truth outs, not sure it ever truly will..
the layout of the room to me makes the whole defense smell…
22 Feb 2013, 16:45 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-371: did he “cheat” though?
with your studious analysis of rugby, Id be careful if I were you to not accuse him of such until you have “proof”
22 Feb 2013, 16:49 pm
@stormersboy-368:
yip.
@Dawn-369:
i think i have but it would just be speculation on my part.
i certainly have seen guys who were definitely drugged up but what they may have been on i couldn’t say with certainty.
personally, i draw the line at the devils lettuce, but only ever so often on a blue moon.
and i really mean once a blue moon. for the rest i wouldn’t know.
22 Feb 2013, 17:03 pm
So, speaking about holdups, which cities are relatively safest in SA and which cities (and their neighborhoods) – the most dangerous?
22 Feb 2013, 17:07 pm
@the curse-374:
no, i have learnt my lesson in that regard.
you cannot just say what’s on your mind to the people you work with or do things without thinking the ramifications through.
i have had one case of ‘verbal abuse’ (i just felt i needed to let someone know he made kaka and screwed a process up completely, for his benefit and mine in what i thought was a reasonable tone) however this went to the top of a HR disciplinary process and i was reprimanded for it.
there have been a few more ‘mistakes’ but i have learnt my lesson well.
22 Feb 2013, 17:08 pm
ok, i’m out for bit folks
cheers
22 Feb 2013, 17:15 pm
Boing, Boing…
22 Feb 2013, 17:15 pm
“And by the looks of things the Kings won’t be in Super Rugby in 2014 to be in a position to lose 18 in succession”
And why they won’t? “By the look of things” Kinks seem to be ripe to lose even to the sofar biggest embarrassers?
22 Feb 2013, 17:21 pm
Well I guess you never know , maybe the oke paranoid mal and telling the truth that just kak-bang of burglars – crazy stuff.
22 Feb 2013, 17:27 pm
Females gyrating all over the www at today’s court decision .
. Unfarkingbelievable! Reminds me of the Ted Bundy female groupies at his trial on the documentary i watched the other night on the ID channel.come to think of it,OP looks a bit like TB. 
22 Feb 2013, 17:30 pm
I found personally that being stabbed with a knife was over rated.
22 Feb 2013, 17:33 pm
@stormersboy-364: crime of passion?
22 Feb 2013, 17:35 pm
@Fern-383: what do you mean?
22 Feb 2013, 17:43 pm
@Tacitus-188:
Tacitus,
I’ve been in that situation twice, in 2007 and 2008. I was as cool as a cumcumber on both sides of the barrel.
And then in 2011 I fought two burglars bare-handed in my garden at night.
You are very, very aware of what is going on around you.
Granted, Pistorius may not be inclined that way, but he showed the common sense in his version to act enough of what you’d expect from a reasonable person to get him convicted for at least 15 years.
The commonsense things that Oscar did claim contradicts the insanity of other things he did or even neglect to do.
Forensics not back yet, and nothing confirmed with postmortem.
And then we have to deal with the fact that it’s highprofile and money changes hands quickly.
Eitherway, South Africa’s little “service” once again internationally exposed.
I hear what you say about precedent. But for the great scarcity of such a case to be found, it is BY FAR outweighed by the need to meet full justice in the merits on this one particular case.
And now we wait.
22 Feb 2013, 17:45 pm
komkommer, cumcumber, whatever
22 Feb 2013, 18:27 pm
Hmmmm, interesting Keo, here’s a couter argument to your’s.
http://t.co/yUv1gJEffv
22 Feb 2013, 19:45 pm
Where’s the team sheet, unless stormers got a lot of injuries, they should klap the bulls.
23 Feb 2013, 00:49 am
Keo, the Kings will always be a bigger embarrassment than the Lions, for the simple reason that they’re not even Currie Cup material, the union has been spectacularly unsuccessful throughout its history. They do not deserve Super Rugby status, never have. All about entitlement, has zippo to do with merit. That’s the issue, not the Lions’ poor Super Rugby record.
But hey, keep on spinning this nonsense for your client.
And, oh ja, go the Force…
23 Feb 2013, 07:50 am
A Stormers side that lose to the Bulls with Kirchner, Olivier, Steyn and Spies on the field has no chance in hell to reach the top 6 of this competition.
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