Super rugby Friday games review round 5:

Highlanders vs Rebels:

The first game of the day between the Highlanders and the Rebels was a welcome upset and gave a bit of life to the Aussie conference. The Rebels came out of the blocks very quickly like they usually do, but this time they held on to that start and grinder out the win. The Highlanders did not start well at all and made a lot of errors and even though their scramble defense was quite good they did not do enough to make up for their earlier errors. The Highlanders did however fight back in the end of the first half to make the score look a bit better going into the break, but they were completely outplayed. Mat Tomua also finally came t the party in that game making line breaks and then being able to get the ball away to his centers running into the gaps. They young forwards also stood up and showed that if the Rebels are able to keep them for a few seasons they will become a very dangerous team all round. The Rebels won the game 28-22 and it was a deserved win on how they played today. There was a lot of handling errors like I predicted and it was a scruffy game but non the less he better team on the day came away with the win.

Waratahs vs Loins Review:

This was maybe not the biggest upset, but still a upset in my eyes. The Waratahs who was the 15th ranked team coming into this game played unbelievably good rugby. They started well by putting the lions under pressure making huge hits in defense and cutting the Lions of behind the gain line. When the Lions finally had go forward ball some how they were able to throw it away and loose the ball every time they got into the 22 of the Watratahs. I believe that this game will get the Waratahs season up and running and from now on forward they will be tough to beet. The Lions has only started their tour and losing the first game is not what they would have planned. They will definitely want to turn that around. It wont be easy with all their new players in the team and I think it is going to take a few years before they can compete again.