Sharks can only watch

The latter have lost two on the trot and after starting their tour so well against the Blues, they’re now under pressure.
Winning in Canberra against the Brumbies tomorrow morning will give them a two wins in four starts record for the tour, which would be good enough.

Defeat will leave it at one from four, and that would signify failure.
There’s no Flip van der Merwe in the Bulls’ pack but they do have an exciting backline lining up this week. Not that it will be that aspect of the game they will be banking on against a Brumbies team that, with Jesse Mogg absent, came second in the kicking game against the Stormers last Saturday.

The Bulls have a good kicking game so much may hinge on whether Mogg is fit for this week.
The Stormers must start as strong favourites against the Crusaders as the visitors will be without Dan Carter and Kieran Read. The concern though for the Stormers should be the changes that have been forced on them during the week in the front row.

HIGHLANDERS v REDS (Dunedin, Today 8.35am)
The Reds might end up feeling that they drew the short straw by having to be the team that travels to Dunedin this weekend. The Highlanders have been well below expectation this season, but there is too much talent in their team for them not to come right, and it felt like they might be starting to do that when they pushed the Chiefs in Hamilton last week. The Reds were fortunate to scrape through against the Bulls last time out and it may be that, like the Sharks, they are disadvantaged at this stage of the year by having to do all their training in humid conditions.

HURRICANES v SOUTHERN KINGS (Wellington, Tomorrow, 5.35am)
The Kings might be better off if they didn’t defend as well as they do. Does that sound ridiculous? Well, hear me out. Many of the bonus points the Lions picked up during their years of struggle in Super Rugby were attained in the final quarter of matches where the opposition, having won the game already, made changes and took their foot off the accelerator. The Kings put in such a big defensive effort that it must feel to opponents that they are still in a game even when they’re not. The Kings should have learned something about how to defend against teams that play with width last week and they have Andries Strauss back this time, but you would still expect the Hurricanes to win comfortably.

CHIEFS v BLUES (Hamilton, Tomorrow, 8.35am)
Given that these two teams are near neighbours, with not much more than an hour or two of motorway separating them, it becomes harder to predict a result. In the years where the Blues were the big team in the region, the Chiefs often pulled out something special and made games competitive when they weren’t expected to be. Now that the boot is on the other foot, it could well be the Blues’ turn to pull off a surprise. Not that it would be a complete shock, as the Blues were one of the form teams until they got knocked over by the Bulls a few weeks back. —SuperSport.