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It’s clear now and has been for a while, the Rebels, Kings, Force and Highlanders are playing out the string in Super Rugby.
It’s taken a bit longer than usual for the Super Rugby ladder to shape itself as an organised hierarchy this year but now there are a few sides who can’t hope to challenge for the title.
The Hurricanes, Stormers and Sharks are done as well, but while there’s still a ray of mathematical hope for the fans to cling to I’ll leave them alone.
Rebels
The Rebels need to find out whether they can keep Kurtley Beale – it’s looking less likely that’s going to be possible with his indiscretions mounting.
If not, they must cement the position of James O’Connor so he can display his prodigious talent and become the talisman for the team.
Another massive area of concern is finding a Super Rugby front row to take into the next season. Ged Robinson has been the only consistently good starter in the front row this year, and he’s on his way out.
There are young front row players in the squad and they need to see some game time for there to be an assessment of the team’s strength in those positions, so they can better determine which players they need to enter the market for.
Force
Out west, the Force must assess who they can to rely on going forward. They have a solid base of hard workers, but there needs to be some turnover to make room for the high level Super Rugby talent needed to take the side to the next level.
For instance: can Matt Hodgson, Chris Alcock, Richard Brown and Ben McCalman be prominent in the same side? They are all hard-working players but there needs to be an explosive element in a really good back row. They can’t all be there going forward.
A smart option for the club would be to try and find spots for young backline players in the ITM cup. They’ll get lots of game time throughout the rest of 2013 and need to develop quickly to allow the Force to take another step forward.
Kings
For the rest of the year the Southern Kings have a few pressing needs.
First and foremost they need to build a squad that can both repel the challenge to their place in Super Rugby and give good scope for even more growth in the next few years. This is a tough challenge; they’ll need to strike a balance between giving young players a go and relying on safer, older hands to prevent a late season slide.
Another area to focus on is building a home fan-base. Their opening matches at Mandela Bay Stadium drew very large crowds that have tailed off a little.
There are three more home games for them and they don’t travel out of South Africa either. They should look to put in really strong performances at home and blood new talent on the shorter intra-conference away trips.
Highlanders
Last but not least (actually, the least) we have the Highlanders. This may be the hardest side to look at for the rest of the year.
They haven’t been appalling in one single area; more guilty of small bouts of unfocused play in a lot of areas.
Much of their remaining 2013 performances should revolve around building a strong forward platform for the reams of attacking wealth standing around outside them. This year their men in tight have simply failed in retaining possession.
I’m not sure they’ve shown much improvement all year. That has to change if they don’t want 2014 to be a groundhog year.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.