Wellington: Well, that’s not gone well. Even though we knew it was possible, I don’t know that too many Australian fans seriously entertained the thought of an all-New Zealand Super Rugby final next Saturday.
If it’s fair to say the Brumbies weren’t envisaging a 20-point semi-final thumping, then it’s fair to say the Waratahs were expecting an 18-point loss at home even less.
But here were are, with the Hurricanes set to host the Highlanders, an eighth overall Super Rugby champion assured, and only head-scratching on the western side of the ditch.
When both the Brumbies and Waratahs get around to reviewing their semi-final losses – ‘if’, in the players’ case – they will ultimately conclude that the games were won and lost in one area.
Defence.
Yeah, yeah. Defence wins big games. Always has, always will. It’s an idiom old enough to fall into cliché.
However, for all the talk of the attacking ability of the four semi-finalists, and their various preferred methods of constructing tries, it felt this week coming into the games like defence had been bumped down the priority list.
The stats sheets tell the story for both Australian teams.
The Brumbies missed 32 of 160 tackles for the match. The Waratahs missed 24 of 123 tackles and conceded 15 turnovers to 11.
If you’re missing one tackle in every five attempts, you’re going to lose more games than you win. And pretty much every knockout match you play.
Upfront, let me declare that I still haven’t seen the first half of the Waratahs-Highlanders game, and that I may or may not have been at the bar when the 57th minute penalty try was awarded. But the number of texts and tweets I received thereafter tell me it’s going to be a major talking point.
And that would be a touch misguided in my humble opinion. Because by that stage of the game, even trailing by only three points, the Tahs seemed more intent on the niggle. Whether it was a deliberate tactic or whatever, the Highlanders were the team to galvanise the best – and quickest – from the various skirmishes.
If they’re honest with themselves, the Waratahs will see they really didn’t play a lot of rugby in the last half an hour, and that they were forced into exactly the type of mistakes they hoped their physicality would draw out of the Highlanders.
The Brumbies’ issues were a bit more widespread than that.
Missing 20 per cent of tackles for a match isn’t brilliant, but it’s even worse when broken down to reveal that they missed just six of 73 in the second half. If you’re doing the backward maths, you’ve already worked out that they missed 26 of 87 tackles in the first forty. It was also nine Hurricanes clean breaks to one at half-time.
And that’s why Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd conceded that his side “left plenty of points out there” in the first half. Even if it was only half of the five or six tries hypothesised by the press conference question, that’s still upwards of 20 points.
Brumbies captain Stephen Moore could only agree post-match that the Hurricanes’ defence was just outstanding.
“I think a lot was said about their attack, and rightly so, but I thought their defence was terrific,” he said.
“They covered the field well and put us under pressure there, particularly early on. We had some good ball there at the end of the first half and they held us out. And you do need good defence like that to win the competition, there’s no doubt. That will hold them in good stead next week.
“We spoke before the game about the importance of first-up tackles, and they carry the ball really well and it is difficult. They’re hard to bring down – certainly harder than what we were up against last week.
“We knew it was going to be tough and it was. They stick to a really rigid sort of attacking structure, where they play the middle of the field and then try to expose you on the edges, and that leads to those one-on-ones which they took full advantage of. It was difficult to defend.”
And that’s a pretty fair assessment.
What was interesting post-match was to then hear Conrad Smith talk of how the Hurricanes wanted to post early points so they could get into the defensive plan that they thought would win them the game.
“The type of team the Brumbies are, if they get a lead, they can really strangle the game,” Smith said.
“Whereas we thought that if we could get points on the board and they had to chase the game, that it could work in our favour as they try to play a game that they probably don’t like to play as much.
“I thought we defended very well. We just didn’t give them a lot of opportunity. They’re a team who like to get a lot of territory and put you under pressure, but we got out of exits zones really well.
“I felt like we were always able to take the initiative.”
Bang on the money.
It would be easy to look at two trans-Tasman Super Rugby semis, and look forward to the now all-New Zealand final, and conclude that the Wallabies will have issues going forward to the World Cup.
But it should also be the opportunity to recognise that for all the talk of backline combinations and x-factor and all that, that at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, etc, etc, preventing points in the biggest games is far more important than scoring them yourself.
And that’s something for Australian rugby to think about on our sudden week off.
ThugbyFan
Guest
Kearns is so bad that even the Pom and Welsh commentators in the EOYT that we had to suffer sound like balanced fonts of knowledge. Many Tahs games were on radio so one could watch TV and listen to the radio, although there is a 23 second delay.
ThugbyFan
Guest
Never Highlander, even if its 0-100 I stay to the end. I was sitting there laughing as the kiwi boys n girls in the crowd served it up to a couple of aussies up the front. The biggest laugh was when a couple of blokes in the next stand started showing Hurricane scarves at the Highlander mob saying "we're waiting for you next week". All in good fun, was quite comical. Am quite excited at the final as two damn good teams will contest for the trophy though sadly one isn't the Tahs. My sneaking suspicion is the Canes will "do it for Jerry". OK Digger, send the cheque now mate! :)
Highlander
Guest
I was siting there too Thugby - I trust you weren't one of the thousands of Tahs supporters who left early
Brett McKay
Expert
Thugby, I did wonder if it might have been a changing lanes scenario at the time, but I think it all happened so quickly and rapidly that it amplified the effect - or the illusion, even. By the time Savea went over, it was five 'Canes bound onto just Pocock. It was genuinely one of the fastest-moving mauls I think I've ever seen..
Wal
Roar Guru
Hows your article going ZG?
ThugbyFan
Guest
Was sitting in Bay 18. You bloody noisy kiwis, no-one could hear me sobbing as the Tahs fell apart. LoL
ThugbyFan
Guest
My attitude is even if Joubert had not given that penalty try, which I did think at the ground was pretty soft but thats life, then the Highlanders only won 4 tries to 1 and 28-17. Wow, that will shake them up. LoL As for the final, its so difficult to bet against the Highlanders who have been making mugs of every team in the comp. However I believe the Canes just look too fast, too strong and will "want to win it for Jerry". Thus my early prediction, Canes 32, Highlanders 15.
ThugbyFan
Guest
Agreed with the general consensus about Phipps but Foley has been the form Australian 5/8 all SXV. How many MoM awards did he win? Half the reason why B.Foley had a poor game was he and the #12 were catching N.Phipps wild passes which effectively stopped their running, leaving them sitting ducks for the rush defence. I don't think you can play the Randwick style straight up attack if the half is spraying the ball everywhere. Phipps is a great open rugby player but his passing is what defines him as a halfback and lately he has been terrible and likely played himself out of the WB side. Add to that he has no kicking game. He seriously needs in-depth coaching to do something about his passing skills. W.Genia is too slow also, takes 2-3 steps before passing and slows attack down badly with his dithering at the base of rucks and scrums, thus losing all continuity. Go figure why the talented Queensland backs were crap all year. Even the matches where their forwards did get parity, Genia slowed everything down. So the alternative is N.White. You heard it here first, he of last year's Bledisloe loss in Brissie last year returneth.
ThugbyFan
Guest
Nice article Brett, commiserations to your Brumbies, heard the 1st half in the car on the ABC. Your article is right on the money. I would like to ask your opinion on one play though. It was the 3rd try by the Canes. A lineout near the Ponies' line develops into a maul which the Brumbles contest. However from what I saw on the highlights on TV tonight, the Cane's back 5 in the maul simply moved sideways while their front three pushed against the Brumbies. While the front was collapsing, the back pod of 5 were still going sideways from the try line, then they suddenly charged forward and over the line for a try. To me that was a penalty to the Brumbies as there was no way that they were a continuation of the forward maul. Am I wrong (again) or do you see that way also?
astro
Guest
And which team had Aaron Smith at halfback
soapit
Guest
and then is penalised for taking someone out without the ball.
Handles
Roar Guru
Horne scored his try, therefore a penalty try was not an option available to Joubert. The only part of Joubert's decision making you can question is whether the try was going to be scored, and that J-Pot stopped it. If you accept that, then he had to give a penalty try and a yellow card.
Handles
Roar Guru
I said this on the other thread too: If one team fails to secure their own lineouts and scrums, and kicks with inaccuracy, then the other team's coach is going to look good in most cases. Even the Reds would have looked good against last night's Waratahs. We could be sitting around here discussing Richard Graham's wonderful and tactically astute coaching.
michael steel
Guest
You are never wrong.
mace 22
Guest
Great clip. The heading should've been "how to destroy defences in rugby ".
ohtani's jacket
Guest
I assume you meant the Highlanders instead of the Canes in that reference to the Chiefs game. If you don't think the Australian packs were outplayed then I don't know what to tell you except for Brett wrote a piece from a particular angle and concentrated on that theme. It was a dozen times better than anything that will be written about the semis in the expert column these next few days. I've seen since Moore's comments in other newspapers articles, but not framed as well as Brett did.
Taylorman
Guest
Ha ha, most picked the Tahs to win that. I gave reasons the highlanders might win, eg playing tougher recent opposition, the Tahs bye etc but the reasons I picked the Tahs weren't realised. They weren't mentally stronger, they didn't cope with the big game temperament and were out thought by the Highlanders. Next week...? Dunno. One things for sure it's going to be one heck of a match with both side attacking like that.
AussieinNZ
Guest
I agree. Last night we saw the bulk of last years WBs and the same lack of impact. If you think some of the other tried and tired - Genia, Cooper, Giteau etc- will work on the rebound you've gotta be d........... Only real option is to blood some new players in the rugby championships and hope something pops up. Bugger, if only we had some newbies in the training squad!
Jibba Jabba
Guest
Skelton was a passenger from about the 15 minute mark ! he was 'lumbering' about after that and only got involved if the play came to him. His only energetic action after that was a failed attempted charge down of the successful drop goal.
Zero Gain
Guest
We have no hope with Phipps and Foley, we have a little hope with Genia and QC. A bigger risk but with the potential for a much bigger payoff.