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Super Rugby took on a new angle this week, lounging in the Billiard Room at Raffles Hotel in the fine company of Diggercane and Rugby Tragic, sliding down a Singapore Sling before heading to the National Stadium to watch the Sunwolves host the Stormers.
There was no trouble finding a good seat alongside the player’s tunnel; the impressive 55,000-seat stadium ‘officially’ hosting 7,142 fans for the match, which seemed a rather generous assessment.
The Sunwolves were bold and audacious from the get go. After five minutes, winger Shota Emi nailing the prize for the season’s worst try butchering, although a nice cutback and try by Derek Carpenter a couple of phases later spared him some embarrassment.
Only five minutes later Stormers winger Bjorn Basson took the title off him, courtesy of a loose, one-handed put down in the in-goal area. A classic coach killer.
The highlight of the match came after 25 minutes, the tall timber Sam Wykes and Atu Moli combining for a thrilling running try that I’d venture neither of them will ever forget.
If a half-time lead to the Sunwolves wasn’t enough disbelief for fans, things got even more interesting when their backline made great use of space to send Carpenter in for his second try, and a 31-20 advantage.
This was the signal for the Stormers, so enterprising in the opening two rounds, to narrow their game plan; halfback Dewaldt Duvenage kicking to the corners and the pack taking the direct, physical route.
Despite the Sunwolves picking off three lineout steals in the second half, none were to advantage and the Stormers choked the life out of the Sunwolves and the match, completely dominating the final 30 minutes.
It was ugly but effective. Disappointing for the locals, but coach Robbie Fleck will be pleased with the way his side was able to switch to a plan B and show they have more than one way to win.
The Sunwolves were great value for their four tries, their backline alignment and speed of ball movement and accuracy of their passing, markedly superior to all five Australian franchises. If there’s not a lesson in that for Australian rugby about coaching, intent and execution, there should be.
It was another game of two halves in Melbourne, the enterprising Rebels well worth their 25-6 half-time lead. How refreshing to see Reece Hodge putting on a step in midfield and racing 40 metres for a try, as it was Jack Debreczini carving through the middle and executing the final pass for a cracking try to Tom English.
But all indicators headed south after half-time. Possession 65-35 to the Waratahs, 39 missed tackles and, the most telling of all, 26 unanswered points, the two match-winning tries coming in a landslide final three minutes.
This may prove to be a season-defining half for the Waratahs with confidence and fluidity visibly returning to their play. Bernard Foley’s return was telling and, whatever Nick Phipps’ limitations at Test level, he’s a potent weapon to have coming off the bench against a tiring Super Rugby side.
Winger Reece Robinson was good value too; he hasn’t always looked assured since switching from rugby league, but he comfortably had the measure of fellow code-hopper, Marika Koroibete.
While the Rebels were hammered in the first two rounds, this loss will sting far more. There was bad luck. After regaining the ball in the 79th minute, inside the Waratahs’ half, the excellent Michael Hooper disrupted their possession from what appeared to be an offside position. Instead of potentially kicking for goal for the win, they were powerless as the Waratahs methodically worked the ball down to the line for David Horwitz to finish them off.
But they were also the authors of their own misfortune; like last week against the Chiefs, their set piece failed them at crucial times, which meant they were unable to retain possession and build any pressure in the Waratahs’ red zone.
Encouragingly for the Wallabies, Hodge enjoyed his best game of the season, although time does seem to stand still when he kicks the ball; being charged down on a clearing kick by Will Skelton takes some doing, and also on a conversion attempt.
The Crusaders tried something new this week, taking an early lead against the Force and playing from in front for a predictable 45-17 win. The biggest talking point was an unusual try to lock Luke Romano, where referee Rohan Hoffman and TMO Shane McDermott ruled a distinction between the defenders having hands on the ball in goal and actually forcing the ball with downwards pressure.
The Force might feel hard done by but the lesson there is not to get too cute behind your own goal-line.
The New Zealand franchise domination over Australia continued unchecked in Canberra, the Highlanders grinding out an 18-13 win against a home side who were good value when they did something unpredictable – a smart try to Chris Alcock off a lineout variation – and poor value when they reverted to the predictable, unimaginative attack that has marked their game for some time now.
Also predictable was coach Steve Larkham looking elsewhere after the game for someone or something to blame; an unfortunate self-denial trait that serves neither himself nor his players well. I mean, just whose fault is it when the boot of Scott Fardy is used as an exit strategy?
Elsewhere, the Blues started their weekend off well, Ihaia West taking to his new role as ‘finisher’ like a duck to water – 38-14 over the Bulls in Auckland.
The Lions had few problems with the Kings 42-19, and the Sharks denied the Cheetahs a bonus point, winning 38-30 in Bloemfontein.
Anyone like me, unable to watch the Reds lose to the Jaguares by 22-8, can obtain a summary of the game from Quade Cooper’s Twitter feed, where it seems referee Michael Fraser was the deciding influence. What isn’t clear is if Quade realises that he might be able to better influence the game from on the field, not working his thumbs sitting out a three-match suspension.
By all accounts this match was punctuated by a number of stoppages for TMO business, what is increasingly becoming the ‘third half’ of rugby.
In Singapore, the match was stopped several times, on two occasions for foul play reviews which resulted in yellow cards for Stormers players Rynhard Elsdtat and Caylib Oosthuizen, but on others for challenges that were merely incidental contact in the run of play.
Referee Federico Anselmi also awarded a second half try to centre EW Viljoen, but reviewed it on suspicion that Viljoen was ahead of Robert du Preez’s kick through. One look was enough to show everyone in the stadium that this was the case, yet Anselmi and TMO Minoru Fuji bumbled their way through repeated viewings before eventually agreeing to the bleeding obvious.
Counting the delay in getting the initial replay up in the first place, this whole process took a good 2.5 minutes. Throw in repeated delays for replacements coming on and off, one at a time and always it seems, to and from the far side of the field, the continuity of the game is being impacted to the detriment of fans, and also teams who want to play the game at pace.
Initiatives that help stamp out foul play and genuinely address player safety concerns are to be applauded, but rugby is in danger of being swallowed up by the use of technology for no good reason other than it is there.
Review technology works best in a sport like tennis because 1) the outcome is definitive, i.e. the ball is either in or out, no argument, and 2) because the application is instant, i.e. the flow of the game isn’t interrupted.
Neither of those things apply in rugby. Whatever the vision, the match officials are still required to deliver a subjective decision, just as they were before the technology existed.
In terms of speed, the technology is cumbersome, it takes too long to sort and project the right replays, and too often, there are communication difficulties between the referee and TMO, highlighted even more in this case when English is not the first language of either.
Referee protocols often result in the referee talking in jargon designed to streamline and provide consistency, but which often serves only to confuse himself and viewers, and leads to classic ‘forest for the trees’ scenarios.
Too frequently what is missing is instinct and feel for the game, and the application of common sense. Note how the best referees, Nigel Owen in particular, try to make quick decisions where they can, take responsibility, and fob off the TMO when the matter is obvious instead of taking the coward’s route of looking for positive reinforcement from the man upstairs.
When rugby is played like the Sunwolves played for 40 minutes in Singapore, or like the Crusaders and Highlanders so often do in Dunedin, it takes on a thrilling, magical quality, a key to which is the combination and contrast of physicality and movement into space, and the continuity of play.
Intensity is another key element to the best rugby, which goes out the window when play is stopped too many times.
Taking rugby down a path where it resembles gridiron destroys those vital elements, and the guardians of the game need to be very careful to ensure that a correct balance is struck between the desire to get on-field decisions correct, and retaining the essence of the game.
Super Rugby’s current woes are due to a number of factors; impotent administration delivering an unwieldy structure, penal travel demands, chronic domestic problems in South Africa, Argentina and Australia, and a tie to pay television which effectively shuts many old rugby people and potential new fans out of the loop. This to the extent where I’d guess that a high proportion of those who like to sink the boot into Super Rugby have never actually seen the Lions, Sunwolves or Jaguares play.
In that scenario, the last thing the game needs is to shoot itself in the foot. Watching referees watch themselves watch the big screen is not entertainment and it isn’t rugby.