The Wrap: Full moon fever engulfs Super Rugby

It’s usually easy enough to tell when there’s a full moon. My cat Tiggy, the one who runs like Mitchell Johnson, turns from a placid homebody into a rebellious teenager, staying out on all night benders.

She eventually signals her arrival home, and the end of the full moon, by triumphantly dragging trophies through the cat-flap, in the form of unfortunate local rats, mice and baby possums.

So imagine how confused I was this weekend with the cat snug and sleepy inside, yet some of the action so bizarrely left-field that the only possible explanation was that a full moon had descended on Super Rugby.

First cab off the rank was Ma’a Nonu, enjoying his best super rugby season for many years, but who somehow conspired to gift a try to Crusaders’ powerhouse Nemani Nadolo, to seal the Hurricanes’ fate in Nelson.

Nonu seemed to have plenty of time to cover a Dan Carter cross-kick, even sensing that Nadolo was charging towards him in chase. However, instead of making a positive play at the ball, he made a late decision to provide a block, to allow Nehe Milner-Skudder to provide the clean up instead.

Trouble was, he didn’t tell Milner-Skudder, and even if he had, this was not a block in the form of subtle obstruction we see every week, but a full blown, attempted shoulder into Nadolo.

It is hard to comprehend what Nonu was thinking. Even if he had succeeded, he was odds on for conceding a penalty try, with a yellow card to boot.

Nadolo meanwhile was having none of the nonsense, and breezed by an embarrassed Nonu to claim the try. Junior rugby coaches everywhere should use this footage as a prime example for young players to show the benefit of always playing the ball and not the man.

A few hours later, sitting through a long night of oscillating between enjoying the audacious strokeplay of the New Zealand batsmen in the second Test against England, and then cursing their rash stupidity, I stumbled into the Rebels v Sharks game from Durban.

This was an eminently winnable match for the Rebels, with the Sharks outpointing the Auckland Blues as rank underachievers this season and, once again in this match, failing to convince as a side capable of sustained, cohesive attack.

But in the 29th minute, the game was effectively decided when Jannie Du Plessis decided to give his opposite, Rebels’ prop Laurie Weeks, a cuff across the head, as the pigs trundled downfield after a kick.

That Weeks was upset at receiving such a whack in open play was understandable enough. But his reaction wasn’t – as though he had been overcome with full moon fever he slipped a solid right cross into Du Plessis and then, encouraged by this success, threw in a couple more scoring punches to the head for good measure.

Referee Jaco van Heerden kept an impressive clear head throughout the TMO proceedings, and calmly made the correct call – a yellow card for Du Plessis as instigator, and a red card for Weeks for continuous punching.

Weeks seemed genuinely astonished at his fate. Perhaps he had been watching a tape of Buck Shelford in the 1987 Rugby World Cup semi-final, thinking that it was still ok for players to deliver on-field justice?

But really, he was more like Ivan Milat being shocked at being found guilty of the backpacker murders. You can act as innocent as you like, but sometimes the facts simply speak for themselves.

The true folly of his brain snap was revealed a few minutes later at the next scrum, with Sean McMahon making way on the field for a required front rower. McMahon was just the type of player to take the game up to the Sharks, and he and coach Tony McGahan would have been seething that he effectively became the player sent off, wasting his next 50 minutes riding the pine.

On the positive side, captain Scott Higginbotham manfully did his best to make up for the man short, scoring two powerhouse tries, and busting out wide to set up a thrilling late try for Bryce Hegarty. He still gave away too many penalties for comfort, but in this sort of consistent form, is a must for Michael Cheika’s 2015 Wallabies.

Was there a full moon too in Perth, where the Force succumbed to a Queensland Reds side who, according to skipper James “Scoop” Slipper, “came here wanting to get a victory?”

That would imply that the Force only play so ineptly once a month. So no, this was merely a side with consistently poor attack this week dropping the level of their defence down to match it.

Finally, as if to show full moon fever isn’t the exclusive domain of Super Rugby players, Newcastle Knight Tariq Sims stepped up to the plate with a bizarre cameo, immediately following their 20-24 loss to the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland.

With Warriors captain Simon Mannering conducting an on-field interview, Sims wandered into shot behind Mannering’s shoulder and then, realizing he was on camera, decided to milk his 15 seconds of fame in a manner more usually associated with immature young kids.

Perhaps Sims is a funny guy in person, although Brisbane’s Justin Hodges would likely beg to differ, following a Sims shoulder charge to his head last year which earned Sims a five match suspension and a premature end to his North Queensland Cowboys career.

Knights fans would surely expect their players to be showing more hurt immediately following a loss, and this is the point. What Sims might see as funny on an end of season footy trip, or after a victory, merely marks him as a tool in this context.

Interestingly, Sims’ 2015 suspension was punctuated by a Twitter attack on the NRL by his partner Ashleigh Sudholz who, in the best Tania Hird tradition, accused the NRL of corruption. On the evidence, it wouldn’t shock me to find that every week is a full moon in this household.