Agreed. He will be a good fit for Auckland too – a hint of the maverick, a revolving-tackle technique and kicks going askew when you least need them. Its just that the Blues had to dig a bit further south for this one, not like the coupla hours on a bus needed to snare a 17yr old King Carlos from Horowhenua.

Brett will do well and the greater exposure in Auckland as it approaches the RWC will help him carve his own niche. Eden Park expects.

zzzzzz and then you wake up!

Will be van den Heever doing the scoring! for the bulls!

he is faster than habana that is fact, they raced at training!

The problem appears to be that he’s TOO talented. Which means that he ends up being a Jack of All Trades but a Master of None. He’s a lovely flyhalf with ball in hand but then his inconsistent goalkicking tends to affect his confidence and he can be prone to errors. He’s most certainly not a FB, unfair to expect him to tactically excel there and he doesnt.

He still looks like a 9 playing 10, but you cant blame him for looking elsewhere with FdP entrenched at 9 (and the reason why Nick Evans left in DCs shadow, as have Brett and Slade and McIntyre at Canterbury).

And now with Hernandez surely guaranteed the 10 jersey at Natal, well it could be a make or break year for Pienaar-Woods. Thing is, he looks like an honourable sort of bloke albeit born with the rugby-silver spoon in his mouth.

Im very excited by Maitland. Last 2yrs have been wrecked by hammy/back problems. Returned to full fitness for NPC and has been big, strong, fast and motivated ! Look for a big S14 from him, and with Guildford on the other wing there will also be lots of competition in-house at the Crusaders.

the scary thing is the depth. No wonder they could let go of Brett. The Saders was always built around a great pack. This year the pack was wet behind the ears, but the experience of guys like Whitelock (George), Reid, and Waldrom will tell in years to come.

I am most excited about Guilford on the wing. Maitland, Slade and Guilford will cause the defences some trouble.

You have been witnessing the slow disintegration of Pienaar-Woods as a quality rugby player.

He’s a 9 squeezed in to 10.

Then, he was a 10 manhandled in to 15.

There has been talk of him being better suited to 12, God forbid.

And now looking at the Bok bench for France, it looks like he’s covering 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15.

Terrible place to be for a young player. You dont turn down a jersey, but…

Yip, Carter does make a difference to the ABs and Saders and Jack will make a difference to Saders too. Yes with out McCaw for some of the games Saders never played well. The worst game was that 6/zip against Highlanders. Never seen Saders play that bad. They will be back next year with a bang. Blues looking good with those players.

Bulls still look the best at the moment. Only lost Habs but they will fill that space. Also Bulls have a great draw.

My team Sharks have lost Steyn and we need centres BAD. Also we have a terrible draw for next year. So can only hope and see how they do. Should have done better this year with the players they had but never. It goes like that I suppose. Just hope we can do better next year but not so sure with our draw going to be a uphill battle all the way.

thanks

and i got the horses…

Alberts should do very well in this team!

Habana het by die see gaan aftree… what do you do when you retire? take it easy, dont get injured and still get picked for the boks, to play in the next work cup, plus make more money, for being a legend!