Kiwi Kids Books

Well it is the 11th of February 2008 and we all know what that means. To the romantic amongst us it means that in a few days the world will celebrate Valentines Day. It may surprise a lot of you that I am a fan of ‘the day of love’. You see at heart I am a true romantic. I am a rare gem amongst the normal hard hearted man – a swimmer against the tide of mediocre love. Despite the price of flowers suddenly tripling and the Warehouse suddenly displaying 1000’s of heart decorated satin boxer shorts this time of year is one of my favourites.

While most New Zealand males see this time of year as an encroachment on their personalities, I see it as a time of possibility. A time to affirm your feelings for the one you love, a time to show your romantic side and a time to give and appreciate important people in your life. But most importantly it is a time to realise that the Super 14 begins on the 15th of February.

Many men sadly miss this perfectly timed day of love and fail to understand its importance with the approaching rugby season. Valentines Day is not a burden it is the perfectly timed day of ground work for the approaching rugby season. A bunch of flowers on the 14th goes a long way to a successful rugby season.

With the approaching rugby season we also have the importance of the Telecom Virtual Super 14. For those amongst you unfamiliar with this game it is a highly technical prediction game. Each player has to pick the weekly Super 14 results with a team earning points for the accuracy of their predictions.
As you could guess this is a game for me. In fact this is one of the few subjects that I can speak with authority and clarity on. In last seasons game I was actually leading the entire competition after two rounds. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. Out of the 94,586 people taking part, yours truly was sitting pretty at the top of the pile. RedBlackRed was riding shotgun in the world of prediction games and the world was in my wake. The fame did bring its burden with radio interviews and intrusive promotional work so it was a relief when I failed miserably in Week 3 and ended up finishing in 89,381 place wedged between Tom’s Townies and DancewiththeBlues.

The secret to a successful virtual Super 14 team comes down to a small number of basic principles.

The first basic principle is to think with your head and not your heart. Many a virtual team score has been decimated due to the manager being loyal to their own team. For a success Virtual Super 14 player you can’t have a favourite team. Take New Zealand teams for instant. Sure the Blues are a good side, especially when playing at home. However, they couldn’t win in a game of rugby in South Africa for all the tea in China. Likewise the Chiefs are useless overseas and the Highlanders are just plan useless. So if you do support a New Zealand team make sure it is the Crusaders because they seem to win everything

The second rule is equally as simple; never try to predict the Hurricanes. Without doubt the most frustrating team in the competition is the Hurricanes. One week they could lose to the local school for the bind and then the following week beat the Crusaders after being down by 20 points at half time. The best idea when picking a game with the Hurricanes is to do it with your eyes closed.

As time is ticking by I will finish off with a couple more important things to remember and think about with you make your picks
1. South African teams are useless in New Zealand.
2. Most New Zealand teams lose in South Africa
3. Australian teams are just plan useless, except for the Waratahs
4. Home teams victories will be high this year.

So this year when you sign up remember my advice and I wish you luck in your endeavor. For me the next few days will be spent analyzing the form of the teams, the referees, star players and the players missing through injury. However, at some point I will need to wrap my wife’s box of Roses Chocolates for the 14th. In true romantic style I bought an extra box in the Boxing Day sales earlier this year to avoid the annoying Valentines Day price increase.