There were 7 Super Rugby matches in Week 1 and if you add together the amount of rugby I watched over the course of the 7 matches you would not even get a full game.

Yes, this was one of those weekend’s where school sport dominated and I was hopping between Water Polo matches for my son and daughter at different venues.

There was a time a couple of years back where I would still have bet heavily on the games despite not being able to watch them, but I found this was actually ruining the experience of watching school sport. Every time there was a stoppage or a break in play I would be checking my phone to see the score and if things were not going my way betting wise it would have a negative effect of my enjoyment of the match I had come to watch.

I took a decision a couple of years back not to get heavily involved in games where I had other priorities that would distract me. This is certainly a policy I am going to stick to going forward. For that reason I bet less in this opening weekend of Super Rugby than I ever have before and given I often fly into the opening weekend only to come out wounded on the other side it was probably a good thing.

I did manage to see a bit of the Stormers game against the Hurricanes and my long term fancy at 25/1, the Stormers, has now shortened to 14/1 in the outright betting. There is a long way to go though.

It is no surprise that the Crusaders continue to dominate and are 7/4 after an impressive win against the Waratahs and if they beat the Chiefs away this weekend, they will probably shorten to around the 12/10 mark.

There are some cracking fixtures this weekend starting with the Highlanders at home to the Sharks with the Sharks (+6.5) on the Handicap. I don’t have any firm views on that or for that matter any of the other games priced up, the bookies appear to have done a good job.

Looking at the school calendar it looks like I have a quieter weekend ahead and will be doing some research between now and Friday with a view to nailing down some bets ahead of the weekend.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 6 February 2020.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register