The Six Pack is comprised of West Ghana’s Rugby Rain Man Junoir Blaber, England’s Knight of the Realm Jamie Loyd, East Midlands’ Machiavellian Rugger Nick Hall, the infamous Ireland National, Declan Yeats, the Irish-born, Castres-residing, lean(ish), mean(ish) writing machine, James Harrington and contrived Kiwi Co-Host, Johnathan Wicklow Barberie.
TOULOUSE, FRANCE – The final weekend of action has our Heineken Cup Six Pack “Experts” shaking their heads – for different reasons. There wasn’t a change in the standings but did the gap between first and last narrow? To see, let’s get to our Heineken Cup Picks Review.
Round 6 featured a bevy of games that the Six Pack agreed on, which meant there fewer games that would allow for a shake-up in the table. A couple of games and results that impacted the table were Northampton versus Castres and Saracens versus Connacht. These two games featured one lone wolf pundit, picking based on local ties. Leicester against Ulster and Scarlets taking on Harlequins were the ones that really had huge impact. With only 3 rounds and 7 games to go, this was a true make or break round.
Here is the revised picks spreadsheet with the results of the match-ups. Incorrect predictions are in red.
JWB: 55-17, with the bonus of getting the Pick of the Week right and taking his Pick of the Week record to 6-0. With only 1 wrong pick, the bespectacled one remains leader of the pack. He was the only one that saw Gloucester upsetting Perpignan. His selection of Harlequins over Scarlets which he was not alone in, was also huge.. His one wrong pick was selecting Cardiff over Exeter which brought the whole six-pack down. Montpellier, his Pick of the Week, didn’t cost him.
Hall: 52-20, with the shame of getting the Pick of the Week wrong and taking his Pick of the Week record to 3-3. Hall had a rough weekend. In the two tight picks, he guessed wrong and went with Leicester, but guessed right with Harlequins. His loyalty to English sides cost him big this weekend. He didn’t show loyalty to Exeter and Gloucester and that cost him. He supported Quins so much though, he even let it cost him the Pick of the Week.
Loyd: 51-21, with the shame of getting the Pick of the Week wrong and taking his Pick of the Week record to 3-3. The two Englishmen shared a brain this week. In a rare feat they picked the exact same picks. The two things they did differ on was their Picks of the Week. Loyd picked a big win by Toulouse and unfortunately shared the shame fate as Hall.
Yeats: 50-22, with the bonus of getting the Pick of the Week right and taking his Pick of the Week record to 5-1. Yeats’ all-Ireland selections ended with him going 3-1. The loss by Connacht was expected but considering their shock win at Toulouse earlier in the year, you can’t blame the guy. He did support the Ulstermen and that proved to be big as the Six Pack was split in that game. The Man from Leinster backed the men from Munster in his Pick of the Week, and they delivered.
Harrington: 49-23, with the bonus of getting the Pick of the Week right and taking his Pick of the Week record to 3-3. The Castres-residing writing machine was once again let down by his beloved Castres in their match against Leinster… He went against his Irish roots and didn’t go with Ulster in their fight against Leicester… His knowledge of French rugby didn’t help him as Perpignan collapsed at home. Clermont salvaged some of his savior-faire, though.
Blaber: 48-24, with the bonus of getting the Pick of the Week right and taking his Pick of the Week record to 6-0. Mssr. Blaber is slowly climbing his way back into a respectable position. However, it might be too little too late. The Perpignan game that took down 5/6 of the Six Pack and the upset win by Exeter, along with Scarlets – were the tight games he got wrong. His Pick of the Week record remains unblemished, as Toulouse won by just enough.
It is now time for the playoffs. Anything can happen, so we will see if any of the other members can deny JWB another title. Stay tuned, don’t blink and the RWU Six Pack will see you in February with 6 Nations picks and the Heineken Cup quarters start in April.
That’s it for now… feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @: RugbyWrapUp, Junoir Blaber, DJ Eberle, Nick Hall, James Harrington, Cody Kuxmann, Jaime Loyd and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And until the next time… stay low and keep pumping those legs.
