The Cheetahs are going to be good this year and 7 other predictions for the Super Rugby season

While we wait for Super Rugby season to kick off on Thursday (yes, Thursday) night, Jamie Wall takes a stab at some predictions for the months ahead.

A year ago, I looked ahead at the upcoming 2016 Super Rugby season and wrote: "The Hurricanes’ will put on a show, before having their hopes and dreams crushed in brutal fashion." Ah. Whoops. With that barely credible introduction, here are some predictions for 2017:

1. Rounds 2, 3 and 4 will be huge. The New Zealand Conference has been the most competitive and entertaining part of Super Rugby for the last few years, and all the teams will be involved in local derbies over these three weeks – a must-watch set of games.

2. Handre Pollard will make the Bulls worth watching. The difference Pollard is set to make to the former champions will be immeasurable. The Bulls first-five, who missed all of last season with injury, is the closest thing anyone has to Beauden Barrett right now (apart from Jordie Barrett, who also belongs to the Hurricanes).

3. The Kiwi teams will get distracted by their fixtures against the Lions. No, not the Lions they play every year. All five New Zealand sides play The British & Irish Lions on their June tour, and all five will want to win. In fact, NZ Rugby will release the All Blacks to play in the Blues and Crusaders matches, which shows the importance of the fixtures. This also means that just before the tour, there will be some potential banana-skin games for the Blues against the Reds, the Hurricanes against the Force and the Chiefs against the Waratahs. Meanwhile the Crusaders and Highlanders will be bashing each other up.

4. The Australians can’t do any worse. 2016 was the year it became rather popular to decry the state of South African rugby, but at least one of their teams made the final and played some great rugby in doing so. The same can’t really be said of any of the Aussies. Going by what they brought to the table at the Brisbane Tens (a tournament they got to play on home turf), it could be more of the same this time around – especially considering they seem to be knocking on retirement door homes to fill their squads.

5. The Cheetahs won’t be the worst. Hear me out here. While the Cheetahs have become synonymous with turning shying off tackles into a form of performance art, there is one key reason why 2017 might finally be their year: the last five winners of the Currie Cup have seen their respective Super Rugby teams go on to top the South African standings, and last year the Free State Cheetahs lifted the trophy.

6. Other teams will try (and probably fail) to match Los Jaguares in the mascot stakes. Jaguardo had quite a year in 2016, which is more than one can say about the team he represents. At the momentArgentina is streets ahead in the mascot game with Japan a close second.

7. The Sunwolves will be disappointed with Invercargill. It’s just under 10,000km from Tokyo to Invercargill, but it might as well be in another galaxy in terms of things to do in your downtime. The Sunwolves play the Highlanders there in April, however it’s doubtful they’ll be as frank about their thoughts on the town as the Rolling Stones once were.

8. Refs will prove that there’s more to life after rugby than being a commentator. Former players Jamie Nutbrown, Nic Berry, Glen Jackson and Egon Seconds have all played Super Rugby, and will now all control games at the same level. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll always get it right, though.