A few weeks ago I floated the idea of the Australian Rugby Championship being decided on the outcome of the Australian teams’ home and away games played as part of the Super Rugby regular season.
At that time, with only the final round to go, the Brumbies had the ARC sewn up with only the minor placings and the destination of the wooden spoon to be decided.
So once again, congratulations to the Brumbies on a comprehensive championship victory. While they end up only a net half game better than the Reds, their success in claiming bonus points against their Australian rivals is a major point of difference between them and all other Australian teams.
The tries for and against columns reinforce how important these performances have been to the Brumbies’ final position on the Super Rugby ladder.
The Reds secured second place over the Waratahs in a game that actually had me watching more cricket than rugby.
But well done to them in beating the Tahs at home without Genia and Horwill.
The really interesting point to be decided on the weekend, especially for this Rebels supporter, was the destination of the wooden spoon.
With the final round played over the weekend the final championship table looks like this:
The 2013 Australian Rugby Championship
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
+/- |
BP |
PTS |
|
|
Brumbies |
8 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
225 |
117 |
108 |
7 |
29 |
|
Reds |
8 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
143 |
135 |
8 |
2 |
22 |
|
Waratahs |
8 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
167 |
178 |
-11 |
2 |
18 |
|
Rebels |
8 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
173 |
224 |
-51 |
1 |
13 |
|
Force |
8 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
136 |
190 |
-54 |
3 |
13 |
With the Rebels having completed all their ARC games before the Lions break, the Force could only avoid the wooden spoon in the highly unlikely scenario of them beating the Brumbies by a 10-pont margin or with a bonus point.
Well this game kept my hands away from the remote. While I was wrong about the 10-point margin (see below) the Force came up just short of the fourth try that was needed, but they certainly gave it a good shake.
The Force played really well against a Brumbies team that once again had a final game fade out. While the consequences this year are not so immediate, I suspect this game will still come back to bite them.
The Stormers beating the Bulls was always on the cards, and the Brumbies should have been looking to put added pressure on the Bulls with a good win.
Now, if they get through next week they will be off to the high veldt for the semis. (A Bulls-Crusaders final for mine).
With the Force win we get to look at how these tied situations are decided in the Australian Rugby Championship. The current Super Rugby rules are:
If two or more teams are equal on points the following steps will determine their ranking:
• Most wins from all matches
• Highest aggregate points difference from all matches
• Most tries from all matches
• Highest aggregate difference in tries for and against from all matches
• Coin toss (this will only be used to determine finalists)
The order of these criteria has varied over the years – especially the first two, leading to my confusion about what the Force required to prevail – but this sequence appears to have been in place for a couple of years.
We’ll adopt these rules for the ARC also (except the last one as ours is a true ‘championship’ with none of this finals nonsense).
Under these rules the Rebels manage to avoid the ‘spoon’, having won one more game than the Force.
And in case anyone is concerned that I am picking the rules to favour my own team, we would need to get down to the fourth criteria before the Force would be ranked higher than the Rebels. Whew!
I note with disapproval that despite my strong suggestion in the previous article, Mr Pulver was not on hand in Perth on Saturday night to present the Australian Rugby Championship trophy to the Brumbies (and the wooden spoon to the Force – sorry).
No doubt the ARU’s abject failure to secure a sponsor for this esteemed competition has put a bit of a squeeze on his travel budget.
Next year, Mr Pulver, we want to see the ARU step up to the plate with a trophy and a naming rights sponsor – just in time for the Rebels’ inaugural ARC win.
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