Last week I posted a kind of doom and gloom article that captured my mood after three rounds of Super 14 rugby. Yet one week down the line, and a great deal more positives to come out of the Super 14 - from a South African point of view.

One win on the road, another near win (but heck it is still a defeat) with the no name Cheetah’s surprising all by coming within a whisker of upsetting the Chiefs in New Zealand, and of course a sublime near defeat (but heck its still a win) by the Sharks over the red hot favourite Blues team. And then of course the local derby between the Lions and what is fast becoming the dirtiest side in the competition, and the Bulls.

More spear tackles in Pretoria, more dirty play but at least the flash of a red card brought some measure of justice. As a non Blue Bull supporter who has been seduced in recent times by the quality of the Bulls, their style of play, their enterprise and their downright Bullish rugby approach, they are fast turning into a boorish team of cheap shots and lacklustre rugby.

Clearly the Heyneke Meyer hallmark blue print is fading from this team. The discipline installed by the master coach over the last few seasons has seemingly disappeared along with the coach himself.

Ok, they beat the hapless Lions on Saturday but again won no friends outside of Pretoria in doing so.

In contrast, the Cheetahs now in New Zealand, carried on from where they left off in Bloemfontein by producing another show of positive running rugby against the more fancied Chiefs from Waikato. With minutes to go and holding onto a one point lead, it looked as though the Cheetahs may get their just rewards for being the most enterprising although weakest of South Africa’s franchise.

It must have been painful for the Free Staters to watch their third game of the season being snatched away, again in the dying minutes, by yet another last minute penalty. I know it was for me.

As much as I could shower them with Kudu’s for another brave performance, they have only themselves to blame. First of all for squandering a 17 point lead.

Like the Sharks in a later game, who enjoyed a 19 point lead over the Blues, our South African side’s with such a strong advantage on the scoreboard, need to learn how to go for the jugular and shut the opposition down. Instead we have a tendency to allow the opposition back into the game. New Zealand’s are not nearly as generous when they get their noses so far in front and are ruthless in putting away their opponents.

Some years ago, I remember the Cats team surrendering something like a 35-0 score line against what should have been a dead and buried Crusaders side at Ellis Park, only to lose in the end by something like 37-35 (Going on memory but close enough).

Last year our Baby Boks gave up a 17-0 lead over the Wallabies in Australia, only to lose the match. Our teams need to develop more of a killer instinct.

Going back to the Cheetahs/Chiefs match, a game of rugby was produced that would have enthralled supporters from both sides of the fence. Both sides at times produced stunning running rugby that gave strong arguments for those pro ELV’s lobbyist's. In the end, the Cheetahs ran out of puff and criminally squandered possession inside their own half and allowed the Chiefs to run back at them with only minutes to go.

When Masaga broke down the touchline, he was away for a certain try. Suddenly a head high and very dangerous tackle by Fredericks blasted that move out of the water and the try for the mean time had been stopped. I was intrigued by the call of the commentators for a penalty try and will admit to being uncertain as how the law applies in this particular instance.

The argument was based on the fact that because Masaga was floored by a high and dangerous tackle on the way to scoring a certain try, thus as the tackle that prevented the try was illegal, a penalty try was therefore warranted.

The question I asked was, if Fredericks could stop him with an illegal tackle, surely he could well have stopped him with a legal and legitimate tackle. As a penalty try is awarded only when there is utter certainty that the try would have been scored without the infringement, in the Fredericks/ Masaga case one could ask whether Fredericks could have still prevented the try had he taken Masaga around the waist or legs instead of his head.

I will leave that debate to the Fern purists.

Not from a purist - (the penalty try is a sanction for when a try would probably have been scored, not definitely, this was amended a few years ago now.

Also, the person who commits the penalisable offence is removed from the equation when deciding the probability of the try being scored. So if he was the last defender and committed the foul then ref should make the decision based on the new situation where there are no defenders. This is because you cannot argue that the defender could have made a legitimate tackle, because the facts are that he didn't, which seems to suggest that he couldn't, and if he could then the foul was deliberate which would not only reinforce the referee's thinking but would also bring into question the displaying of a red card in the defender's direction.

I didn't see the game or the incident, but from your description the commentators were right and the ref would have a hard time explaining why the penalty try wasn't given. It wasn't Goddard was it, because that would be the explanation in itself...) - but from Phooey!!

Anyway the net result was a penalty kick from Donald from the near touchline and a return of small hope for the Cheetahs, that after a woeful day with the boot, Donald who had missed much easier kicks at goal, would fluff this more difficult shot from the touchline. As the ball sailed through the uprights, I felt for the Cheetahs after a spirited performance. Yet another last minute defeat by a last minute penalty although the penalty itself was well deserved. In fact, I felt that the high tackle was such a shocker, Fredericks may have qualified himself for a red card. Given the yellow card received by Sivivatu earlier on in the game for a rudderless 'spear tackle' on JW Jonkers, at least we got consistency.

No complaints from me.

If the Cheetahs game ended in heartache, the Stormers result against the Reds must have had the likes of PB and other die hard supporters from our fairest Cape grinning from ear to ear. The Stormers produced some deft touches and slick running, albeit against woeful opposition in serious post match disarray. But that should not detract from the step up the Stormers have taken from their games in the Republic. A bonus point win on the road against any Super 14 outfit is always valuable. Schalk Britz breakout from the 22 that set Luke Watson in under the sticks for a seven pointer will go down in my books as one of the tries of this years Super 14 season. This result has buoyed the talented Stormers outfit to confidently state they are looking for an unbeaten run on the road. Very tough talk when you consider they still have to face the Blues on Kiwi turf. The Chiefs next week, despite their near loss against the Cheetahs are unlikely to gift them a 17 point start as they did the Cheetahs. But it doesn't hurt to back yourselves and too publicly say so (unless you are the Blues in SOuth AFrica this season, right Mr Flavell - BartMan).

The match of the weekend for me was the classic crunch in Durban between the Blues and the Sharks, a game which I attended with my seven year old son who was one of the mini Shark boys that formed a tunnel for the players run on entrance onto the field.

When I lead my son to the kiddies rugby academy behind the poles before the match, the Blues players were practising not too far away from us. I got a real close up view of Troy Flavell and the boys and I have to say that some of these guys had legs as large as tree trunks. My first thought when looking at these monster thighs was pity the Shark boys.

The atmosphere in the ABSA stadium was electrical and no sooner had the Blues kicked off, and there was Keegan Daniels racing down the other end of the field. I had a direct from behind tunnel view of that move from the opposite poles and could see the try was imminent. It was a perfect start that turned up the atmosphere in the stadium 10 notches as he crashed over the line. The roar in the stadium for a dream start was deafening.

We all knew that the Sharks were going to have to raise there game just to live with the red hot Blues let alone beat them. And this they did. After moving to a seat on the halfway line, I enjoyed the best field view of a game which turned out to be another thriller. The big hits could be felt in the stadium, the crunching tackles almost jolted us from our seats, and most of all the rugby was of high calibre. Since the inception of Super 12 rugby, a Sharks/ Blues clash has always been a mouth watering event on any Super 12/14 season, whether home or away. Remember those titanic battles between the star studded teams of the 90s, the contests between Jonah Lomu and James Small, Carlos Spencer and Henry Honniball. Saturday was no different.

A turning point for me in this match was a penalty miss by Nick Evans after the Blues had been hitting at the Sharks in the danger zone. By then the Blues were catching up on the scoreboard and there was a sense that if Evans had potted the goal, the Blues would get too close to the lead for comfort and eventually overtake the Sharks.

That Evans miss not only allowed the Sharks to maintain their cushion over the Blues but it also released the pressure as the Sharks were able to restart play, and grab a three pointer of their own. It not only released the pressure on the Sharks, it released the pressure in the stadium.

Brad Barrit and Waylon Murray although not flourishing on attack, were enormous in locking out the Blues dangerous midfielders. Rory Kockott is looking more and more like Bok material. Kawanski and Keegan Daniels are a refreshing change from the traditional over beefed loose forwards that Jake White so heavily believed in. But as some Ferners correctly point out, the loss this early in the comp will do the Blues more good than harm. The Sharks still have a five match foreign travel schedule which include the Crusaders. The Blues leave South Africa four points short of a full house. Well done to them and congrats to them for their part in a thrilling game for all of us in Durban.

As they say, it takes two to tango.

Lastly, the Western Force are showing the benefits of solid coaching and are not the pushovers that they were in their maiden Super 14 season. The thriller in Perth and the near upset over the Crusaders, no longer comes as a surprise as The Force are fast moving toward Australia’s top team in my opinion and if they are not there yet, they soon will be.

They are the most settled of all the Ozzie franchises, they enjoy their fair share of talent and of course they posses one of the better coaches around in John Mitchell. And all this shows on the field. In Perth, they are quite formidable.  They are also very formidable off it too...!

Sunday mornings match was another cracker and a thriller for a neutral. It must have been all that more nail biting for the Force/Crusader fans.

Didn't see the two local derbies in Australia and New Zealand, but based on the results, I must ask whether New Zealanders consider the Highlanders the weakest of all their teams.

On the face of it, not only a more positive weekend for SA rugby teams but for those lobbying for the ELV’s. Roll on round 5.