Competition leader Ollie Ritchie has stuck his neck out this week, in a desperate bid to re-assert his authority atop the Newshub Super Rugby tipping table.
The upstart watched his five-point lead reduced to just a solitary point last week, when crafty veteran John Day and rookie Kristina Eddy took maximum points and closed the field right up.
Day swept past sports presenter Andrew Gourdie and rugby guru Ross Karl into second place, while Eddy is now just nine points off the lead herself, after trailing by 17.
Ritchie's feeling the heat and has responded with this week's biggest call - Blues by 13 points or more over the Highlanders at Dunedin. Everyone else has gone Highlanders, 12 or under.
The Blues have confounded our experts his season - Karl lost his lead two weeks ago, when he backed them to win big over the Waratahs.
All our punters like the Chiefs to beat Lions narrowly at Hamilton, but they can't agree on the Hurricanes' margin of victory over the Sunwolves in Japan.
The rules are simple:
Pick the winner and margin of any Super Rugby game involving a New Zealand franchise, with points awarded in the following manner:
Pick the winners and margin (13-plus or 12-under) = three points.
Pick the winners only = one point.
Pick all results correctly, including margin = five bonus points.
Super Rugby week nine:
Chiefs v Lions, Hurricanes v Sunwolves, Highlanders v Blues
*Margin is based on the classic 12-under or 13-plus format.
Newshub.
