Southern Hemipshere watch: Julian Savea

Ouch... Jonah Lomu Mk II appears to have arrived.

Check out the ferocity of All Black Julian Savea - or, more specifically, the power of his dropped shoulder. All this occurred earlier this month when the Hurricanes edged out the Crusaders in the Super 15. It's enough to make the Lions thankful they'll be heading to Australia this summer, not New Zealand.

Israel Dagg's face at 2.00 is quite a picture.

Francois Louw exclusive - another Springbok on his way to the West Country

My ventures into the blogosphere have been curtailed of late due to a book deadline and an outbreak of technical incompetence. But in case you missed it, I had an exclusive on Springbok Francois Louw moving to Bath Rugby from Super 15 high-fliers the Stormers, see
The Bath Chronicle and SArugby.com.
This has been in the offing for some time too, see my earlier postings
Picture: Steve Haag, Backpage Sport

Super 15 makes summer rugby a hot proposition

I don't know if you saw any Super 15 rugby at the weekend. Luckily, I did. It was a treat.

On a bad day, the southern hemisphere competition can appear like a contest of headless chickens. On a good day, the skills on show leave you wishing you lived on the other side of the world.

Tha handling skills, in particular, are something else. The number of implausible off-loads, deft basketball-style lobs and dexterous inside pops over the weekend was a marvel.

The firm pitches help, of course – there are no mud baths for these chaps to contend with.

If ever there was an advert for summer rugby, this is it.