What a mixed bag of results in Round 5. An upset in Auckland territory, an upset in Brisbane, a thumping by the top team over the bottom and a caning for the Brumbies in Canberra. I asked the question last year what would become of the Brumbies without their famous and most successful half back pairing of Gregan and Larkham.

After the Blues loss to the Force at home and the Hurricanes win in what is always a difficult venue for visiting teams, the question needs to be asked. Are the Force turning into Australia’s best team and are the Hurricanes replacing the Blues as New Zealand's second best side.

I only watched the second half of the Blues/ Force game and I thought that the Blues looked very flat. Have the flashy Blues bottomed out after such a flying start to the competition? Or are the Force better than the credit they receive? Was the outcome of this match altered drastically when the Blues lost Nick Evans?

For the second week in a row, the Force looked very enterprising and their backs seem capable of breaching any defence. Mind you they have some solid looking ball runners in their makeup with Mitchell, Staniforth, and Giteau. Their number 13 (forgotten his name again) looks a bright and dangerous livewire in midfield. I watched him last week put in some telling breaks against the Crusaders and again on Saturday against the Blues.

Seldom have I seen John Mitchell with such a broad smile!

Our South African sides…what can we say….two huge thrashings on the road eased by the unpredictable Stormers win over the Chiefs in New Zealand. And of course, a hard fought win by the Sharks over the gutsy Lions in Johannesburg.

In Brisbane the Bulls literally embarrassed South Africa with the most inept, appalling display of rugby, particular from a side brimming with talent. World class players like Bryan Habana, Fourie du Preez and Bakkies Botha in their ranks to go alongside a host of other talent like Wikus van Heerden, Danie Russouw, Guthro Steenkamp, Wynand Olivier, Ndugane …. All world cup Springboks. And this gutless, disorganised performance is the best they can deliver against a struggling Reds team.

Reds fans will probably accuse me of not paying due credit to a Reds outfit that raised their game after a hellish week of criticism. And for that I apologise.  Bouncing back they way they did and the manner in the way they did it, undoubtedly deserves enormous credit. I agree with Lee Grant, that their coach deserves the credit for making the bold, sweeping changes and getting it right. For all the money, the Reds came out looking determined to shut those up who have been blasting their ineptitude.

A week is a long time in sport.

For now at least, the Reds can enjoy at least a weeks respite from the nasty comments and cruel jokes. On the field, the underdogs ruthlessly decimated a champion team boasting champion players.

But back to the Bulls and for that shocking show of crap they tried to disguise as rugby, someone in their camp aught to be led into the back yard and shot. I don’t know if that person should be their incompetent coach who looks set on trying to extend his previous run of 22 defeats on the trot (with the Cats), or whether it should be the idiots at Loftus who appointed him.

I mean, c'mon…you have got a team of talented rugby players with 8 or so Springboks in there, to go alongside other talent in the squad. There are unions out there that would kill for players like Habana and du Preex. At least give this talented lot a half decent coach, for crying out loud. I still cant get over that drivel I sat through. Any honest Bull fan would want to stick their head in the sand after that one and not come up for air. Who could blame them?

Commiserations Blue, BlueBull2007 and other Bull supporters on the Fern!

Their performance was rudderless, it was directionless, they were disjointed, badly disorganised. They clearly looked under prepared and definitely poorly coached. The Bulls respect for possession was even less than a transvestite in a church yard would expect from parishioners. Gifting possession back to the Reds the way they did, over and over, with their aimless kicks, turnovers, knock-ons and ball handling by so called professionals. In a nutshell, it was the most shocking, dismal and appalling display from any defending champion in super rugby history. The bad news for Bulls supporters is that I predict that worse is still to come.

After that show, they should return their champion trophy to the SANZAR committee and ask them to hold onto it until a new champion is crowned later this year.

Can anyone believe that this is not far off the same side that thrashed the Reds 92-3 the last time these sides met.

Some of the SAFFA fernsters called it correctly last week when they shouted down the move of Morne Steyn to fullback to compensate for the suspension of one of their spear tackling regulars. He was an abject failure in the last line of defence and to top that, their brainless coach made no substitute provision on his bench or from the bench. Bryan Habana looked so uncertain for most of the evening and didn't look anything like his confident self. 

I wont talk too much about the gift try he handed the Reds with another typical Bulls bumbling error inches from the Reds line and let me not go into detail about JP Nel and his selfish search for glory. With a two man overlap and a certain try on the cards, Nel inexplicably fluffs the try by hogging the ball when it was screaming to be passed. Speaking of Nel, this midfielder is fast proving to be more of a liability to his team with his on field decision making, ball hogging, foul plays and spear tackles.

I cant believe a few seasons I actually suggested him as a possible candidate for the Bok midfield in place of de Wet Barry.

I could write a catalogue of shockers for this game coming from the Bulls. Anyone see that classic picture of Ndugane and friends wishing Hougards drop kick over the crossbar. Why weren't they giving chase as all self respecting backs would do.

A 40-8 defeat sums it up. Poor Fourie didn't really know what to say in the post match interviews.

In Christchurch, no one from Cheetahland or Kiwiland ever realistically expected the Cheetahs to pull one over the Crusaders. But neither did I expect the Cheetahs to capitulate before they had run onto the field. I expected the Cheetahs to give a good account of themselves, to leave Christchurch winning newer friends and greater respect.

First of all the Cheetahs were in a fantastic position going into this game…simply coz they had absolutely nothing to lose. Nobody was expecting them to win. No one at home would have slated them for losing to the Crusaders. We all silently hoped for those little sporting miracles but never realistically expected one.

So this was a perfect match to just go out there and have an honest, full blooded go and take the game to the Crusaders. With the weight of expectation off their shoulders, they were free to go out there and enjoy themselves. With two flyers on the wing in Jonge Nokwe and Eddie Fredericks, and an emerging mid field talent in JW Jonkers, I felt the Cheetahs should have gone out there, played their natural game and given the ball plenty of air. Heck, even taken a good couple of  risks was worth a shot, a quick throw in here, a little enterprise there. What the heck did they have to loose.

But they played Bulls style rugby and went conservative.

The body language and team selection of the Cheetahs, which is so uncharacteristic of them, was not only a concession of defeat. They were beaten in their minds. They went out to lose. They employed a game plan of damage control. It looked to me like the Cheetahs task for this game was to keep the Crusaders score line as low as possible. In the end, they failed as the classy Crusaders put 50 over them and did so without moving out of first gear.

The Cheetahs over the years in both defeat and victory, usually have been South Africa’s most enterprising team and the Cheetahs brand of rugby is that of fast, free flow running rugby. Why didn't they just play their natural game against the Crusaders. They probably still would have conceded over 50 points, but they may well have scored 20 or so of their own as they did against the Blues in Bloemfontein.

It was not their loss that disappointed me. It was their inept and shoddy performance not far behind that of the Bulls in Brisbane. They conceded defeat well before the first whistle and ran out onto the field with a negative approach that did themselves as well the Crusaders, no justice. For crying out loud, with nothing to lose, with the pressure off your shoulders, go out and test yourselves against world class players.

Two very inept performances by SA teams on the road.

Thank goodness for the improving Stormers for saving us all from another week of blanket doom for our travelling teams. Far from the unhappy Bulls, the Stormers were full of enterprise and ideas.

Again PB must be delighted at some the slicks hands and classic runs. Tonderai Chavanga’s solo breakout from the halfway line to beat four or five Chief defenders on the way to his try was a beaut. Another storming performance from Luke Watson shows that SA fans should forgive his character flaws and try respect him more for his rugby talents. Conrad Jantjies is looking in mean form and I have to add that until recently, I never really rated the Stormers Fijian winger (still cant spell his name), but he is looking very dangerous on attack.

As for the penalty try, I will concede to being not 100% knowledgeable of the new laws and couldn't grasp the offence. Still it was a bonus point score which I thought the Chiefs had successfully halted. Aren’t the ELV’s supposed to simplify the game?

Overall, this was a an entertaining game and some of the non tries were some of the more spectacular scores, had those tiny little foot in touches not occurred. The Chiefs I felt were unfortunate to have their second last non try denied to them from the faintest foot in touch five minutes from the final hooter. It was a sweeping breakout from inside their half that just deserved points. A minute or so later, Chiefs winger Masaga was in on the other end, only to be called back for a forward pass. These scores could have easily altered the course of the game and the Stormers could well have joined the Bulls and Cheetahs in a gloomy Monday.

These tiny little infringements were massive let off’s for the Stormers who were under the kosh in those final eight minutes. Again, our SA sides show a tendency to let the opposition back into the game when they get themselves into a decent lead.

Finally, the Sharks showed in a rain drenched Johannesburg that they are definitely without doubt the leading SA team in the competition. But the Lions were not the pushovers some expected. Something like 5 tries were botched by the gutsy Lions, 5 very certain tries, but for last minute spills of the ball and other minor infringements. At this level of rugby, no team can afford not to take those chances when they get them.

The Sharks may well have felt the heat had the Lions converted their many opportunities to score. Francois Steyn is fast becoming “a good cop, bad cop” player. One minute he is a bungling bag of errors and the next he comes up with brilliant magic. His brilliant break when he looked in all sorts of trouble started a sweeping Sharks move that was a thrill to watch and earned his team their one and only try.

A very mixed weekend for SA teams. This competition is getting more and more interesting.