All tables updated at

https://www.thesilverfern.com/tipping/

and the new tipping sheet is online.

If you weren't scoring high 50s or more this week you were falling back as 13 people picked all 8 from 8. Best of the bunch were Hydro11 and Crucial with 64 with Langakali, Higgins, Tim and Buck also 60+. Early leader Stargazer has been hauled in and Langakali now leads by 4 from Higgins with Stargazer a point back and Fiamacho 10 back from him.

There is a gaggle of players behind who are within an outstanding week of being in contention so it's looking to be a close finish with 3 rounds to go.

The top 4 looks set now with Hawke's Bay winning the battle of the bays against a BOP team as woeful as the real team. With just the poor South Island to play, they need just a point to seal the play-offs. Northland lost their first game of the season to Wellington meaning the minor premiership is still up for grabs.

In the Cup, the semi-finals are between Crucial and Plastered Peni and Donsteppa and Tim.

Hydro11 64
Crucial 64
Langakali 61
Higgins 61
Tim 61
Buck 61
Winger 58
Plastered Peni 57
Donsteppa 56
Triple T 56
DK 56
Propsicle 56
Fiamacho 55
Dogmeat 54
Cactus Jack 54
Corkscrew 54
Stargazer 53
KP 53
Laurence 53
Waynes World 52
Victor 50
Richie 49
Hooroo 49
Gunner 48
Broughie 47
Justin77 46
Joan and Mary 46
Smudge 46
Virgil 46
Bay Imports 45
TR 43
FarNthHayden 43
Phooey 43
Hurrycanes 41
Stockcar86 41
Unite 41
Mikedogz 41
Paj 41
Sportboy 39
Antipodean 37
Trooa 36
Clara 31
ACT Crusader 31

canefan said:

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/24765398/tour-championship-brink-snapping-long-winless-streak-tiger-woods-handle-pressure

Tiger may have a nervous sleep tonight in anticipation of the final round of the Tour Championship, the so called 5th major. He has a three shot lead

I always thought the Players Championship was the "so called 5th major"? Or is that now the so called 6th major?

Anyway it could be a great last day with a 3 way battle between the old master and the next generation. Or it could be a fizzer ... it isn't a birdie fest which means a lot can still happen. Scoring so far today indicates Tiger could well win with a par round and anything under par will be decisive.

Most of the winners have been obvious so far this week but the margins haven't been easy to get. So while there are a lot of tippers still 6/6, nobody has picked more than 2 margins and so the scoring is relatively low.

Counties-Waikato 33 - 27 South Island
BOP 30 - 35 Hawke's Bay
Wairarapa Bush 40 - 39 Harbour-Auckland
Wellington 40 - 34 Northland

Crucial 44
DK 44
Langakali 44
Hydro11 44
Winger 43
Cactus Jack 42
Tim 41
Higgins 41
Buck 41
Waynes World 40

Crucial 44 v 41 Higgins
Donsteppa 36 v 36 Stargazer
Tim 41 v 38 KP
Joan and Mary 34 v 37 Plastered Peni

Langakali 288
Stargazer 283
Higgins 281
Fiamacho 273
Gunner 270
Hydro11 265
KP 264
Winger 263
Donsteppa 259
Victor 259

KiwiPie said:

I'm having a bad feeling about this game - didn't need some of the top performers out and putting players in for first starts in key positions.

But I'm naturally pessimistic.

I hate being spot on ..... semis not impossible with the direct competition still to play but starting to look like we'll need to win them all.

I'm having a bad feeling about this game - didn't need some of the top performers out and putting players in for first starts in key positions.

But I'm naturally pessimistic.

@chester-draws said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@booboo said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@chester-draws said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@akan004 cherry pick to make the sky fall?

how about looking at it like this. in 21 tests we are 17-1-3. In 13 of those tests we have hosed them.

We lost a game where we had 14 blokes for 3/4s of the game
We lost a dead rubber Bledisloe away.
We lost one of the best tests in years.

You know, now i think about it, we are 0-3 where we have scored less points than the opposition. That's not what you expect from a team with this much talent.

Try looking at it this way. We never, ever lose big. if it's a loss, it's by a bee's dick. We are balls deep in every game we play. That's a pretty sweet position to be in.

What you say is true, except the implication that somehow winning big a lot is good.

Say what? It's bad? Since when?

Winning isn't bad. Just that winning big isn't necessarily better than winning small.

Our recent massive victories over the Boks was not good preparation for the last game.

We have a game plan that I think tends to magnify our strengths and our weaknesses. When we play well we win by lots. But we equally come unstuck when it doesn't work.

I'd prefer a game plan that moved away from this emphasis on counter-attack, and assuming we wear our opposition down. I'd like to see us able to work on penetrating solid defences.

Because when we hit the 2019 RWC you can bet no-one, crazy Australians aside, will attempt to beat us playing open rugby.

But history has shown us that teams step up at the World Cup and a well organised, determined defence can be really hard to break down without taking a few risks. The All Blacks showed they could score 6 tries against such a defence without the defence every really crumbling.

Hansen's message to J Barrett and A Smith (for it was they who took the bad decisions that led to tries) is not don't take quick throw-ins or don't take tap penalties . It will be don't take quick throw-ins from a kick that left the whole Bok defensive line in your face and don't take tap penalties when there is no huge gap to exploit. The whole mantra of the ABs since Henry took over is to make decisions based on what you see - the mantra is not "put away the razzle-dazzle until you're desperate". There will be mistakes playing like that but by forcing the opposition defence to make tough decisions under pressure eventually the gap will appear and the tries will come.

@rancid-schnitzel said in Tennis:

@kiwipie said in Tennis:

@rancid-schnitzel said in Tennis:

@kiwipie said in Tennis:

No other sport decides prize money on the duration of the encounter - not sure why tennis should be any different. And eventually the grand slams will become 3 sets because TV will demand it ....

Really? What evidence is there to suggest that? Considering GFs have been broadcast on TV for 30-40 years why would this suddenly be demanded?

Evidence? This is the Fern. It's part of a trend to shorten sport and the uncertainty of schedules when a men's 5 set match can last anywhere from 90 minutes to 6 hours. So far the special nature of the 4 Grand Slams mean they get blanket coverage for 2 weeks but I can see the day when T.V. demands a final fits into a time slot and then it will be 3 sets, tiebreak at 6-6 in the 3rd set.

Why hasn't this happened yet and why would it suddenly happen in the future, particularly with more channels and means of watching? If there was any intention of doing this I'd imagine it would have been done in the US long ago.

It may never happen because the Grand Slams are so popular. But you can be sure TV wants it to happen so they can package up individual matches better. It happened in the doubles because nobody wanted long matches that nobody cares about.

@rancid-schnitzel said in Tennis:

@kiwipie said in Tennis:

No other sport decides prize money on the duration of the encounter - not sure why tennis should be any different. And eventually the grand slams will become 3 sets because TV will demand it ....

Really? What evidence is there to suggest that? Considering GFs have been broadcast on TV for 30-40 years why would this suddenly be demanded?

Evidence? This is the Fern. It's part of a trend to shorten sport and the uncertainty of schedules when a men's 5 set match can last anywhere from 90 minutes to 6 hours. So far the special nature of the 4 Grand Slams mean they get blanket coverage for 2 weeks but I can see the day when T.V. demands a final fits into a time slot and then it will be 3 sets, tiebreak at 6-6 in the 3rd set.

No other sport decides prize money on the duration of the encounter - not sure why tennis should be any different. And eventually the grand slams will become 3 sets because TV will demand it ....

Watched a bit of the Spurs game today - they look a shadow of last year's team. They just play slow, possession football quite badly as far as I can see. Their strength was the speed they played at making it hard for opposition teams to match them especially with the movement they had. I could hardly watch what I saw this morning, it was so dull.