Spiro Zavos on Bulls

Spiro Zavos

Bulls' allegations raise question of fairness

Spiro Zavos SOME strange Super Rugby action, some of it good and some of it not so good, has been coming out of South Africa. The good could result in a South African team winning the tournament.

Spiro Zavos

Gouge claims leave Bulls open to scorn

Spiro Zavos dinkus

Spiro Zavos The ''Gougegate'' affair is becoming murky. There are too many unanswered questions relating to it that need to be resolved by SANZAR if public confidence in the new process is to be maintained.

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RUGBY

Win against Brumbies crucial to Tahs' finals chances

Spiro Zavos Last Saturday night at Allianz Stadium, Waratahs supporters stood up and yelled, applauded and roared their team on in the last few dramatic moments of the contest with the Stormers.

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Rugby

Hard-nosed packs give Kiwis a wake-up call

Spiro Zavos AFTER the sensational Highlanders - Chiefs match, the new backs coach of the Waratahs, Daryl Gibson, contacted his former Crusaders teammate Justin Marshall with the claim that the New Zealand...

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Rugby

When the music stops, McKenzie may go Irish

Spiro Zavos THERE is no doubt that by announcing the end of his association with the Queensland Reds at the end of the Super Rugby season, Ewen McKenzie is stating he wants to coach the Wallabies.

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Spiro Zavos

Boring footy tactics have been punted into touch

Spiro Zavos HERE are two NSW Waratahs talking about their exciting opening match of the 2013 Super Rugby tournament against the Queensland Reds. What is wrong with their statements?

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Spiro Zavos

McKenzie's blunder raises questions over his tactical nous

Spiro Zavos In the 20th minute of the engrossing qualifying final between the Reds and the Sharks, Ewen McKenzie made a fateful and wrong decision.

Spiro Zavos

Deans cruelled by Test scheduling and critics' short memories

Spiro Zavos WE were a miserable group, dripping wet, cold and shattered, coming back from Newcastle on the train after the agony of watching the Wallabies snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Scotland.

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Spiro Zavos

Race to the Super finals is reaching fever pitch

Spiro Zavos NOW, where were we, before the June Test series stopped this year's Super Rugby tournament in its tracks …

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A tale of wrong referees and unfair advantage

Spiro Zavos TOM Keneally, wordsmith, describes the hype before big matches as the foreplay. Not unexpectedly, the qualifying finals between the Crusaders and Bulls and the Reds and Sharks have generated intense...

Spiro Zavos

Conference format is a winner - and South Africans cannot be allowed to wreck it

Spiro Zavos THE Australian and New Zealand unions beware, the South Africans are coming to make a mess of the Super Rugby tournament.

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Spiro Zavos

In form Tahs getting a kick out of their game

Spiro Zavos WE start with a sad confession. For the first time since 1996, the year the Super Rugby tournament began, I have failed to make my annual fearless prediction that this season would be The Year, the...

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Spiro Zavos

The fine line between winners and losers

Spiro Zavos 'MOST ball games are lost, not won," Casey Stengel, the eccentric, folksy manager of New York's Yankees and Mets once told a gaggle of sports writers.

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Spiro Zavos

Waratahs prove winning smart beats winning ugly any day

Spiro Zavos THE greatest spectacle in rugby is the ensemble try, especially when it is scored to win the match. This is rugby as a great orchestra in full, soaring voice.

Spiro Zavos

Investment in youth sadly lacking with Australian franchises

Spiro Zavos SOME decades ago Evan Whitton (the ''onlie begetter'' of this rugby column) and myself were at Concord Oval watching the Australian Schoolboys play Ireland.

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Spiro Zavos

Personal agendas rear ugly heads up north

Spiro Zavos A month ago the Brumbies were at $13.25 to win the Australian conference of this year's Super Rugby tournament.

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Spiro Zavos

Hot air over depth of Australian conference neglects cold hard facts

Spiro Zavos PHIL KEARNS talked about it on the Rugby Club. John Plumtree, the New Zealand-born coach of the Sharks, says the same thing.

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Spiro Zavos

Reign of Foley has run its course as Horror-tahs fail to kick their habit of dispiriting fans

Spiro Zavos ROD Kafer is bringing down the house at rugby lunches with this barb: "I congratulate the Waratahs on being in their 16th year of their three-year plan to win the Super Rugby tournament."

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