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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - They may have ended second overall, going into the Vodacom Super Rugby finals series, but the Stormers are firm favourites to win the title.
WIN Newlands Super Rugby semi-final tickets
That is at least according to Sport24 readers, who have given them a massive vote of confidence in our poll this week.
In response to our simple question ahead of the playoffs stage, “Who will be crowned champions?”, well over 3 500 respondents leaned surprisingly forcefully toward the Stormers: they’d hogged some 1800 votes (51%) at the time of writing.
Presumably readers fancy that the rest weekend for Schalk Burger’s troops, and then the advantage of a home semi-final a week later, will quickly power them to within 80 minutes of glory, wherever the showpiece is eventually staged.
The SA conference winners are bidding to go one better than last year, when they were runners-up to the Bulls in the Soweto final.
As for the Reds, who pipped the Stormers by three points to top spot on the overall log and thus the prospect of a Brisbane final, South African confidence in them runs at only 423 votes, or a flimsy 12%.
Some readers may have noted that the Queenslanders have lost a bit of their spark in recent weeks, and also been badly hit by injuries.
Both the Crusaders (663 votes, 19%) and Sharks (632 votes, 18%) eclipse the Reds, in the eyes of Sport24 pundits – the closeness of the poll in terms of these two may be a pointer to a desperately close “quarter-final” battle between them in Nelson this Saturday (09:35 SA time).
The Blues and Waratahs meet in the other “QF” in Auckland on Friday, but our readers barely rate either for the silverware – the Blues have earned just 24 votes and the Waratahs 13!
Cape Town - They may have ended second overall, going into the Vodacom Super Rugby finals series, but the Stormers are firm favourites to win the title.
WIN Newlands Super Rugby semi-final tickets
That is at least according to Sport24 readers, who have given them a massive vote of confidence in our poll this week.
In response to our simple question ahead of the playoffs stage, “Who will be crowned champions?”, well over 3 500 respondents leaned surprisingly forcefully toward the Stormers: they’d hogged some 1800 votes (51%) at the time of writing.
Presumably readers fancy that the rest weekend for Schalk Burger’s troops, and then the advantage of a home semi-final a week later, will quickly power them to within 80 minutes of glory, wherever the showpiece is eventually staged.
The SA conference winners are bidding to go one better than last year, when they were runners-up to the Bulls in the Soweto final.
As for the Reds, who pipped the Stormers by three points to top spot on the overall log and thus the prospect of a Brisbane final, South African confidence in them runs at only 423 votes, or a flimsy 12%.
Some readers may have noted that the Queenslanders have lost a bit of their spark in recent weeks, and also been badly hit by injuries.
Both the Crusaders (663 votes, 19%) and Sharks (632 votes, 18%) eclipse the Reds, in the eyes of Sport24 pundits – the closeness of the poll in terms of these two may be a pointer to a desperately close “quarter-final” battle between them in Nelson this Saturday (09:35 SA time).
The Blues and Waratahs meet in the other “QF” in Auckland on Friday, but our readers barely rate either for the silverware – the Blues have earned just 24 votes and the Waratahs 13!
