As the semi-finals loom, Wellington and Canterbury will host upstarts Southland and Hawkes Bay to host the pundits dream final In fact, upstarts is probably a harsh term considering that both those teams finished in the top five for the 2008 regular season.
Southland had lost two games leading up into the finals but posted the most numerically comprehensive result of the quarter finals, travelling to enemy territory to smash the fourth placed finishing Bay of Plenty 45-11 to secure their place in the last four.
Hawkes Bay, the surprise packet of the season, hosted 2006 champions Waikato who had welcomed back a host of front line All Blacks to try and turn around what had been a poor season by the proud provinces high standards.
After they trailed the impressive men from the bay 28-0 at half time, the Waikato boys, led by All Blacks Sitiveni Sivivatu and Richard Kahui, scored 28 points in the second half. But a solitary penalty goal and impressive defence in the last ten minutes won the game for Bay of Plenty, who are rewarded with a trip to the most hellish of New Zealand road trips – a game against giants Canterbury at their fortress in Christchurch.
This brings us to the two top qualifiers for the 2008 season – the provincial giants Wellington and Canterbury.
The men from the Capital had been all but unbeatable this season, utilising a flamboyant attacking style which was to see them record a rare unbeaten season, before coming undone in their last game of the season losing to Otago 36-21.
With a team full of young mavericks, many of whom will earn All Black call ups for the end of year tour (namely fullback, Cory Jane, and winger, Hosea Gear), they play an offensive style that no team has been able to effectively shut down.
They defeated Taranaki 50-30 in their quarter final, but again their freewheeling style almost came undone when opposed against hardnosed grafting rugby.
They have conceded 66 points in their last two games, compared to 125 points in their first nine games of the year. However, they did wrest the historic Ranfurly Shield off Auckland in a 27-0 thumping and that will be tucked away in the Wellington trophy cabinet for the rest of the year.
Canterbury, the perennial overlord of New Zealand rugby, has come into form at the right time, righting a round one upset loss to Manawatu (ironically, their only win of the season) to come into the semi-finals on the back of a ten game winning streak.
Equally full of up-and-coming players, their trump card at this stage of the season has been the re-entry of the Test players, with All Black captain and arguably the world’s best player Richie McCaw likely to start for Canterbury in their run to the final.
They have exhibited the pragmatism and patience recently that has allowed them to dominate New Zealand rugby for some time.
Test coach Graham Henry made a comment some weeks ago that the standard of the Air New Zealand Cup was down from previous seasons, but the reality is that the competition has been of a consistent standard and crowds have averaged nearly 7,000 over the whole season.
But it has been the feats of Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty, Southland and the Tasman unions to make the top eight that has showcased the healthy spread of depth throughout the New Zealand unions.
Although the absence of stronger unions such as Otago, North Harbour and last year’s champion Auckland from the finals is a cause for concern, it shows that the consistent top level competition that the smaller teams have been exposed to is paying dividends and snapshots the wider global need for minnow teams to play powerhouses to strengthen their playing quality.
On paper, it points to a Wellington and Canterbury final.
But as the season has shown, no team is making up the numbers, and both Southland and Hawkes Bay respectively will be danger teams to their more fancied rivals.
Wellington captain and All Black halfback Piri Weepu remarked this week that Wellington will not change their ostentatious style and will continue to play the “entertainers” of the competition. This will be while Canterbury continue to graft and shut down teams, as they have been doing for many years.
The Wellington Lions will be mindful to look to the lessons of other fancied teams in various sports tournaments where the champions are always the teams that look to win by any means necessary, rather than trying to be the losing side that “looked entertaining.”
Weepu does not want to echo the comments of New Zealand captain McCaw after the All Blacks World Cup loss to France where he famously said “at least we played attractive rugby.”
Attractive rugby may be just that, but it does not always guarantee the desired result.
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