It's probably close enough to start discussing the play-offs and the various permutations that can happen.
As it stands the log looks like this:
and the top 8 are set in stone.
The main permutations are:
Lions can jump the Crusaders if the Crusaders lose to the Hurricanes (somewhat likely, I'd say 40% chance).
Stormers and Brumbies can swap between 3 and 4 - Not very likely in my opinion as the Stormers play the Wolves and the Brumbies play the Highlanders.
Hurricanes and Chiefs can swap 5th and 6th.
Crusaders are favourites and Hurricanes can also win it fairly easily.
I'd say Lions can win if they finish top OR if someone does them a favour and knocks out the Crusaders in the Semi final or Quarters, Lions are pretty monstrous at Ellis Park.
I'd give the Chiefs and Highlanders a low but possible chance and Sharks and Stormers have a minuscule chance.
As a Stormers fan I'm just happy we seem to be moving in the right direction as a team, and although a quarter final finish is as far as we got last year I'd be happy with that again based on our growth (and hopefully putting up more of a fight than last year in the quarter. At the very least we got a handful of NZ scalps at home and seem to be playing better rugby in general.
I may be writing off the Sharks and it wouldn't surprise me if they manage to win a play-off or two, but history has shown that you simply cannot win three away games on the trot when it comes to play-offs.
Should be interesting, the NZ teams are all somewhat close so it's going to be pretty dependent on who peaks at the right time.
As it stands the log looks like this:
and the top 8 are set in stone.
The main permutations are:
Lions can jump the Crusaders if the Crusaders lose to the Hurricanes (somewhat likely, I'd say 40% chance).
Stormers and Brumbies can swap between 3 and 4 - Not very likely in my opinion as the Stormers play the Wolves and the Brumbies play the Highlanders.
Hurricanes and Chiefs can swap 5th and 6th.
Crusaders are favourites and Hurricanes can also win it fairly easily.
I'd say Lions can win if they finish top OR if someone does them a favour and knocks out the Crusaders in the Semi final or Quarters, Lions are pretty monstrous at Ellis Park.
I'd give the Chiefs and Highlanders a low but possible chance and Sharks and Stormers have a minuscule chance.
As a Stormers fan I'm just happy we seem to be moving in the right direction as a team, and although a quarter final finish is as far as we got last year I'd be happy with that again based on our growth (and hopefully putting up more of a fight than last year in the quarter. At the very least we got a handful of NZ scalps at home and seem to be playing better rugby in general.
I may be writing off the Sharks and it wouldn't surprise me if they manage to win a play-off or two, but history has shown that you simply cannot win three away games on the trot when it comes to play-offs.
Should be interesting, the NZ teams are all somewhat close so it's going to be pretty dependent on who peaks at the right time.