Weekend Rugby

Two outta three ain’t bad. Leicester Tigers steamrollered Gloucester to win the Guinness Premiership title and the Sharks beat the Blues. Only hiccup was the Crusaders losing to the Bulls, to set up an all South African final.

Guinness Premiership Final, Gloucester v Leicester Tigers, Saturday 2pm

Tjhe best two teams of the year are quite rightly in the final, and the Tigers must be favourites. They have the strength in depth – and need it now Harry Ellis is crook. They also have the talent in the pack, and the backs and most of all have the experience of winning big games.

Gloucester have talent but a lot of it is young – Ryan Lamb, Antony Allen and so on. There is a bit of grunt up front, and in Andy Hazell they have a real worker at flanker, but overall it might be a year to early for them to beat the Tigers.

PRICES: Tigers 4/7 Gloucester 6/4

I think that is a great bet on Tigers outright. They need the pack to crunch forward and Andy Goode on form, but they have knowhow and the will for more silverware so I am punting straight up 2 POINTS on the Tigers.

Super 14 Semi-finals, Sharks v Blues, Bulls v Crusaders, Saturday

I have to say, I am hugely disappointed these matches are not live on Sky TV and are delayed feeds. We watch a whole season and then miss out on the big games at the end!!!! Ridiculous.

So this is a glance at the two matches and just a pick of who I think will win and there is proably little surprise that I feel Sharks and Crusaders will be in the final.

The Crusaders are the best side and with Dan Carter and Richie McCaw, and a legion of other top class names are they always to be favoured. The Sharks are the surprise package. For a few seasons they have been trying and failing in the final weeks but now they look stronger in most areas, more attuned to winning big matches, and in this semi-final have the huge advantage of home field.

This is their chance and they cannot blow it (well maybe they can!).

Odds are scarce at the moment but these are my projected finalists.