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It’s been viewed already as one of the harder rounds to tip in the season to date, and that’s a fair call with so many games featuring so many subplots across the weekend.
Already healthy leads in three of the four conferences can be extended, while New Zealand will undoubtedly deliver yet more quality.
And then, there’s maybe the hardest game to pick all season: the Sunwolves versus Jaguares in Tokyo. Sheesh, I’ve still got a headache thinking about it. Here’s the talking points for Round 9.
Anzac Weekend? What Anzac weekend…
We touched on this in the return of the Cheap Seats podcast this week, that it really does seem absurd than in a competition featuring five teams from New Zealand and five teams from Australia – and knowing the proud history of rugby being played by our respective defence forces over history – that there is only one trans-Tasman match scheduled on the weekend leading into Anzac Day.
The Brumbies will host the Crusaders in Canberra on Sunday afternoon with the full ceremonial regalia, and it will be very well done as it has been the last two seasons.
But why after this respective round in 2014 and 2015 both included three trans-Tasman matches which held the same commemorations are we back to just the one this season?
Instead, the Highlanders and Rebels host South African teams, the Reds are in the Republic themselves, the Blues have the bye, while the Force and Waratahs, and Chiefs and Hurricanes are locked in local derbies.
As I said in the podcast, I can only surmise that the complexity of the expanded draw made it too difficult to schedule a full round of the trans-Tasman fixtures, and that may or may not be the case, but you also have to wonder how hard the national unions fought for the fixtures initially.
I accept that building draws is no simple task, but I can’t escape the thought that a significant opportunity has been at best lost, and at worst, forgotten.
EVERY SUPER RUGBY GAME LIVE ON FOXTEL
Which teams are kicking themselves off the tee?
We all know how crucial goal-kicking is in this sport, yet after eight rounds, it’s interesting to note just how few of the top eight sides have kickers at or near the top pf the tree.
After eight rounds, the most accurate goal-kicking team in the competition is… the Western Force.
Between them, Jono Lance and Peter Grant have kicked 26 goals from 27 attempts. Lance didn’t miss any of his twelve shots prior to his injury, while Grant’s accuracy is probably not a surprise.
In terms of accuracy, of the top eight teams on the competition ladder, only the Stormers (Kurt Coleman with 14 from 16), Brumbies (Christian Lealiifano, 30/37), and the Highlanders (Lima Sopoaga, 25/31) have kickers hitting them at better than 80 per cent. If you add Jean-Luc du Plessis’ 13/18 to Coleman’s, the Stormers’ accuracy dips just below 80 per cent.
The Bulls’ Francois Brummer (19/24 – 79%) and the Lions’ Elton Jantjies (34/44 – 77%) are also just below that mark.
Of the leading teams, the Chiefs’ Damien McKenzie’s 38/48 (69%), the Hurricanes’ Beauden Barrett (28/43 – 65%), and the Crusaders’ Richie Mo’unga (26/42 – 62%) all come in well down the list.
It’s actually a scary thought how much better those last three teams’ records might be with even just a slight improvement off the tee!
The Bulls: it could be time to consider the possibility that there’s a chance that potentially I might be wr-wr-wr-wro-wron…
I jest, but it’s fair to say the Bulls have done more than enough in the last two weeks for me to rethink their prospects going forward.
I’ve maintained over the last month or so that they were a team that weren’t really enthusing me, and though that had won a few games at that stage, they just weren’t convincing me. They were lacklustre in the draw with the Sharks, and won against the Sunwolves and Cheetahs almost in spite of themselves. They were far from the kind of performance you’d expect from a team said to be a contender; their forwards weren’t really doing the job, and aside from Jesse Kriel, their backs were doing less.
Then they put six tries past the Kings, and I still wasn’t convinced. After all, everyone puts six past the Kings.
But that win seems to have sparked something, and they followed that up, putting another five past the Reds last weekend. There’s obviously been a change of focus; they’ve scored eleven tries in the last two games, after scoring 13 in the first five.
They appear to be playing on the ball more, and when they do win the turnover, there’s a more concerted effort to counter via Kriel and co out wide, and it’s noticeable that they’re now running more tries in, rather than crashing over or from the lineout drive. Their set piece is improving, and well and truly held steady against the vaunted Reds pack last weekend.
That all said, they’ve still not beaten a top eight team yet; indeed, the Stormers are the only top eight team they’ve played, and that was in Round 1.
After the bye this weekend, the Bulls face a testing month: the Brumbies and Waratahs in Australia, and then consecutive matches at Loftus against the Stormers and Lions.
If they win three of the next four, then I’ll definitely have to finish that five-letter ‘w’ word.
I don’t think the Waratahs are done yet. But they’re close
On the weekend of Anzac Day in 2014, a team was clutching onto the final wildcard spot by points differential only, with four losses to their name. They couldn’t string wins together; they alternated losses and wins for seven straight weeks to that point, and questions were being asked.
From that weekend, the team didn’t lose another game, and come the first weekend in August – albeit by just a point – they were holding up the Super Rugby cup.
The Waratahs are currently sitting in 13th place on the table, with two wins and four losses, and plenty of people have decided they’re done for the year. Given they’re nine points behind the Brumbies atop the Australian conference, and eleven points behind the Highlanders in the last trans-Tasman wildcard spot, it’s easy to see where that decision is coming from.
But, with both byes now behind them, the Waratahs have plenty of opportunity to accrue points over their remaining nine games. That said, they really can’t afford many more losses. To be any chance of playing finals, they’ll have to go on a similar run to that of 2014.
The form of the New Zealand teams means that the Waratahs – and the Rebels for that matter – can’t be giving up losses like they currently are. The Kiwis taking points off each other over the second half of the season will help to a degree, but only if the ‘Tahs are winning themselves.
They weren’t terrible last weekend in the loss to the Brumbies, but they won’t win games by playing well in bits and parts. They really need to win both games in Perth and Cape Town on tour just to square the ledger, and from there, they would be a chance of staying in touch.
But if they lost both games – and they have lost their last two in Perth, and three of the last four in Cape Town (they won their last game there, in 2014) – then I think I’d be joining those that have already put the line through them.
The Bold and the Brumbies: Episode 37
Oh, man, this is seriously getting soap opera-ish now. I’m not going to attempt to walk you through ACT Supreme Court Justice Richard Refshauge’s judgement from yesterday morning, but this is loosely what happened.
Michael Jones had his injunction to protect his job as Brumbies CEO upheld until further notice, meaning he essentially won and can keep doing his job.
However, the Brumbies Board also essentially won, in that they can still terminate Jones’ employment in writing with five working days’ notice. Which they may yet do.
Then, attention moved to the Emergency General Meeting called by the seven ACT clubs, who wanted to find out exactly why Jones was originally stood down, and from which a motion to dissolve the current board was to be considered.
If the Board wanted to get rid of Jones, they essentially had to make up their mind and write the termination letter before the meeting, for fear of the meeting resulting in a whole new board being appointed.
But then it emerged that only three of the clubs – Easts, Wests, and Royals – turned up to the EGM at Brumbies HQ at the University of Canberra. Three of the remaining clubs – Tuggeranong, Gungahlin, and Uni-Norths – instead met down in Tuggeranong separately.
The EGM was then dissolved when the minimum quorum could not be reached, and the Brumbies board members then headed to Tuggeranong to brief the clubs. Queanbeyan by now had also arrived.
Royals later made their way south to hear the briefing too, despite earlier saying they wouldn’t be part of what was becoming a rebel meeting with the board.
At the end of it all, at around 8:15pm last night, Brumbies Chairman Robert Kennedy emerged and outlined that no motions were tabled, that nothing had been resolved at what was now being referred to as an information session for the clubs, and that discussions with Jones will now take place today. Kennedy said that he hoped ‘we can reach a quick and amicable solution.’
Given this is now into its fifth week, that would make for a nice change.
The whole situation is now miles beyond ridiculous, best summarised by my ABC Grandstand colleague Tim Gavel, who has been keeping (or attempting to keep) track of proceedings:
To say this whole episode with the Brumbies and the clubs has developed into high farce is an understatement.
— Tim Gavel (@TimGavel) April 21, 2016
It really is. Good thing there isn’t an important game on anytime soon…