A great round for Force and Waratahs

 
Spiro Zavos Columnist

By , 27 Apr 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

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David Pocock of the Western Force faces his opponent, Gerhard Mostert of the Lions in their Super 14s match at Subiaco Oval, Perth, Australia, Friday April 24, 2009. (AP Photo)

David Pocock of the Western Force faces his opponent, Gerhard Mostert of the Lions in their Super 14s match at Subiaco Oval, Perth, Australia, Friday April 24, 2009. (AP Photo)

The contention that this has been the most even Super Rugby ever was given added weight with the startling wins by the two bottom teams, the Queensland Reds giving the blues to the Blues’ finals hopes and the Cheetahs probably stopping the Crusaders run to the finals, as well.

The Blues have been a flakey team all year. They’ve lost 5 matches out of 10, some of them in blowouts. It was in character with their erratic form that they were easily beaten by a side that had lost 20 away matches in a row before their upset victory.

But the Blues are fifth on the table with 30 points (above the Western Force and NSW Waratahs 28, and the Crusaders and Brumbies on 27 points).

This high position on the table by the Blues is due entirely to their penchant for scoring tries. For despite their losses they have scored four tries or more on six occasions. The Waratahs, by way of comparison, have done the four-try trick on two occasions.

Two aspects of the match at Albany against the Reds worked to the disadvantage of the Blues. First, the Albany stadium is the headquarters of the North Harbour union. Players and officials from North Harbour and Auckland have never got on well with each other.

The teams have played ferocious derby contests. So putting them together in one franchise was a mistake that has not worked out. The players and officials from the two unions have not come together as a new entity, the Blues, as, say, the Hurricanes have with their franchise.

When the lights went out at Albany it was odds on that the team that would be affected would be the Blues. Ever since Graham Henry, the only successful Super Rugby coach the Blues have had (using mainly Auckland players, too), left to coach Wales the Blues have not delivered on the promise of the talented players in their squad. This year is no exception.

The moment of truth for the Blues comes on Saturday when they play the Hurricanes at Wellington. From the way the Hurricanes took the ACT Brumbies apart, you’d have to think that the Hurricanes would defeat the Blues.

The team that wins will probably be one of the New Zealand sides through to the finals. However, the way this vibrant tournament has run so far it is best to make conjectures rather than predictions, and then only on a week to week basis.

What happened to the Brumbies?

The headline press release from the Brumbies media staff tells the story: CA Brumbies handed a horror caning in Wellington.

The 8 tries to one, 56 – 7 victory for the Hurricanes was the Brumbies biggest defeat in Super Rugby. It was also the most number of points conceded by the Brumbies in any match. Ironically, the Brumbies scored first and then conceded an avalanche of tries.

The Brumbies had eight players out. Stirling Mortlock is getting injured a lot in general play with the game stopped at one stage when it looked as if he’d been badly concussed. George Smith was beaten to the rucks and mauls. The emotions of Shawn Mackay’s death are beginning to play out. The team is down physically, emotionally (I’d guess) and in playing numbers. Although they have a theoretical chance of making the finals, it would be a brave bet to put money on this happening.

Even though they didn’t play, the round worked out well for the Waratahs. The Blues only got a couple of bonus points from a match they were expected to win. The Crusaders got only one bonus point, again from a match they expected to win.

Both the Blues and the Crusaders put key players on the bench for these matches. You can understand the reasoning behind this. These players had carried their sides through the first nine rounds and deserved a rest. But the better idea I would argue is go flat out to win the matches you expect to win and perhaps rest players in the more difficult matches.

And the Chiefs were kept to a bonus point only in their intriguing and exciting match at Pretoria. The Chiefs were a trifle unlucky in that the Bulls scored one try totally against the run of play when they were on attack and the halfback passed directly to Derrick Kunn, the Bulls mobile hooker, coming through on the burst to race away 60m for a 7-pointer.

The Bulls altitude game of great chasing on incessant kicks and strong surges inside the opposition 22 from their big forwards is extremely hard to defeat. The Chiefs were without their two dynamic wingers Sitiveni Sivivatu and Lelia Mesaga, and Brendon Leonard their brilliant running halfback.

They have another difficult match next weekend against the Stormers who found some form at Dunedin in monstering the game but limited Highlanders side. The Chiefs, though, have a poor record in South Africa winning on eight of 29 matches. If they can defeat the Stormers – a big if, admittedly -they would almost certainly be a finals side.

The most impressive Australian side over the weekend was the Western Force. They played beautifully to overwhelm the Lions, who it should be remembered easily defeated the Reds at Brisbane.

Long-time readers of The Roar will remember that after last year’s Hong Kong Sevens I wrote a piece suggesting that James O’Connor, the blond bombshell of a player, is ‘the next Tim Horan.’ Against the Waratahs and then against the Lions, O’Connor really looked the part on that prediction.

His dynamic and fearless play allows Matt Giteau to underplay his hand and strike at the most opportune moments. With O’Connor making the life of the fatties trying to block the middle of the field a total misery of clutching at an express will-of-the-whisp, the Force back line is a thing of terrible beauty.

The terrible part is the destruction it is causing the defending opposition: the beauty is the crisp passing and running into gaps and for the tryline. Rod Kafer suggested on The Rugby Club that the Western Force backline is the best amongst the Australian sides. This is right. It is now up there, too, with the Hurricanes as the best in the tournament.

The Force have two tough matches to play in South Africa against the Bulls and the Stormers. It will be fascinating to see if the fluent, brilliant backline can run the big Bulls off their feet, the way the great Crusaders sides used to. The Force finishes at home against the Highlanders, which on the face of it looks like being a relatively easy match for them (if any match in this tournament can be called easy).

It’s worth remembering that after the Hurricanes got a try after time to defeat the Western Force at home three rounds ago that Colin Cooper, the Hurricanes coach, predicted that the Force would make the finals.

At this time in the year momentum is a great thing for a side to have. The Hurricanes, on top of the table, have won their last three matches. The Force has had two wins in a row. The Bulls have a sequence of 1 win. The other 6 contending sides have lost their latest match.

David Pocock of the Western Force faces his opponent, Gerhard Mostert of the Lions in their Super 14s match at Subiaco Oval, Perth, Australia, Friday April 24, 2009. (AP Photo)

David Pocock of the Western Force faces his opponent, Gerhard Mostert of the Lions in their Super 14s match at Subiaco Oval, Perth, Australia, Friday April 24, 2009. (AP Photo)

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