The match of the day, without any doubt, will be the gladiatorial contest between Pingvin and bottom of the table Grf. Who will win this titanic battle? The warriors from the South or the battlers from the West. It will be a close encounter and could well have been decided by the red card shown to a battler last week. Both teams will be suffering from some high anxiety and will probably be feeling a bit rocky. Over the season the warriors have shown that they can play some exiting rugby and mix it well between the forwards and backs. Grf on the other hand have been a shadow of their former sides and have consistently leaked tries. A lot will also depend on the referee, let's hope he has a good match, but we take Pingvin to escape the automatic drop and fight to retain their Elite status in the play offs.
Hammarby, the league leaders, and congratulations to them for winning the Elite, will be entertaining Enkoping. With a changed kick off time to 1pm, presumably in order that the spectators may enjoy two exciting matches for the price of one, this will be another classic encounter. ERK enjoyed a romp in the sun last time out and will be full of confidence, whilst Hammarby will also be full of it. Rumours aplenty abound about injuries to key players, especially in the Hammarby squad, but one thing is for certain, both teams will be wanting to put on a show and finish the league with a bang. This one is a close call but we take a resurgent Enkoping to nick it.
Finally according to yet more rumours, Stockholm Exiles B side will be running out to face Spartacus at Arsta. Exiles are the team that is bang in form and are playing some fantastic rugby, as befits a team that can afford Armani suits and helicopters. Spartacus on the other hand have run into a lack of form and have a number of long term injuries, this, so we are informed has depleted their squad and with the Swedish equivalent of 'Bird Flu' doing the rounds in the West, they have been struggling to field enough players. However we expect them to show up for this game and try to gain something from it. Although exactly what, we do not know. Exiles to finish the league season with a flourish and send the visitors home to lick their wounds.
Whatever happens tomorrow, we have enjoyed watching this Elite series of Swedish Rugby and look forward to the semi-final. Good luck to all the squads tomorrow, may the best teams win.
I have just come back from watching the big 4 team play. I don't think anything can come out of today's games. When I saw the Hammarby team the rumour must have been true and they ran their B team out today. There was only two players in the backs that played against exiles and their forwards were missing quite a few. Enkoping didn't look like they had very many players on the bench and a lot revolves around their number 10.
ReplyDeleteExiles looked dangerous when they ran the ball wide because Spartacus had forwards playing in the backline. Their hooker today played number 10 and some of the other players also looked too big to be backs. Spartacus took exiles on in the forwards and competed quite well but once they made a mistake exiles threw the ball wide and spartacus couldn't match them for pace.
The games next week will be interesting especially the Enkoping/Exiles game. It could come down to which team has the best number 10 and on today's games it looks like exiles 10 was good until he came off. Enkoping will have to bring their best game to beat exiles, but they have the players to do it.
As for Hammarby/Spartacus, it depends which team the Hammarby coach decides to run onto the field. They definitely have the players to go all the way to the gold but their coach has been rotating his players quite a lot.
Makes for a great week of finals.