Back the rugby and footy boys in black

out of New Zealand, where this morning Tasman is hosting Canterbury. The hosts have looked the business this year, but the returning All Black players may tip this one the way of the visitors.

The other Premiership game is Auckland playing Wellington, which can go either way. The hosts deserve this win after the season they have endured, but The Lions may be stronger with their All Blacks returning.

In the Championship, it’s Waikato versus Northland. Waikato should put a couple tries past their visitors, as they have one foot in the door to promotion. The other game is Otago playing Hawkes Bay, where I see the visitors getting up in a close game.

Moving right along to the local football, where we have some tasty Telkom Knockout action this weekend. In some classic match ups, we have Baroka versus Golden Arrows, which could very likely be a stalemate situation with extra time.

Then Sundowns play hosts to Celtic, where the visitors won’t lie down. Given the team strengths, the venue and a knockout, I’d bank on Sundowns doing the business here. Then locally we have Maritzburg taking on Highlands, where you can bank on the capital team to gain promotion.

There is also Pirates playing Chippa, in a game that will give some drama. You can back the boys in black to come through. Then on Sunday Chiefs play Black Leopards, where the home team should win but beware of the visitors, who potentially could cause an upset.

In the English Premiership, it’s a weekend full of intriguing football. Kicking it all off is Chelsea hosting Manchester United.

This will be an interesting game with all the controversy surrounding the visitors and a manager under the pump. Chelsea is flying high and should be confident of winning this game. The bookies have Chelsea as odds on favourites and Man U at a ridiculous price of almost 4/1.

In other games Bournemouth play Southampton and Spurs visit West Ham, in a London derby. Look for goals at both ends in both fixtures with Bournemouth and Spurs being the likely winners.

Lastly the NBA is back! It’s hard to go against Golden State Warriors doing a 3-peat this year, but let us see if King James and his new Lakers team can shake it up.

Sangoma Out!