Five takeaways from a full Super Rugby first round

We are back! They are playing real games that matter and it’s great.

The first week of Super Rugby yielded a mix of rugby, a lot of points and plenty of tries. That’s a win for us viewers.

I’ve got five quick takeaways from Round 1.

Rugby is fun – so much rugby is even more fun
There are significant issues with the Super Rugby competition with the way it is set up. The imbalance of it and confusing alignment of some teams are real issues. However, one benefit of how this happens is the amount of rugby on.

With 18 teams and the new addition of teams in Japan and Argentina the effect is like an avalanche of rugby. The schedulers were creative and skilful this week – providing us with three games on Friday night and a back-to-back-to-back etc run on Saturday that rivals Michael Jordan’s Bulls championships for continuity.

Unlike Brett, I didn’t sit on the couch for 13 hours straight because unfortunately I had family and friends to attend to. But the option of doing so is fantastic, and I was definitely paying far too much attention all weekend.

For rugby lovers out there the new set up is definitely a win. The strange competition certainly took a back seat to the pleasure of having more games than you could poke a stick at this weekend. Maybe the odd alignments or confusing seeding will raise its head further down the track.

Jaguares won!
Speaking of new teams, the Argentina side notched up a win in their first outing. What an achievement.

In terms of rugby quality, the Jaguares left a bit to be desired. They were on the wrong end of a number of cards and penalties and could have been more harshly dealt with. A player has already been suspended for a week.

Raul Perez will have a lot to think about and try to improve after scraping through against the Cheetahs, but winning away in Super Rugby is always tough and to do so in the first game of a club’s existence is a fantastic achievement.

So strong is this Jaguares squad, which is full of Argentina national team players and Rugby World Cup stars, it’s not out of question they could sneak into the playoffs. The Africa 2 Conference is guaranteed an entry into the playoffs. They are up against the Sharks, Lions and Southern Kings – not a group of death by any means.

Apart from winning their conference, what should be a good home ground advantage and some other weak South African sides means there is a clear path to at least seven wins in their debut season.

The team to beat is probably the Sharks, who are coming off a poor Super Rugby year. They flogged the Kings 43-8 on the weekend, but that fixture is more like an extra pre-season battle than a Super Rugby match.

All this means the Round 2 clash in Durban is important for the Jaguares. Is it too early to call it a double points game?

Hurricanes aren’t that good
Last week I predicted the Hurricanes were going to act like a buzzsaw and chew through this Super Rugby competition for a second season in a row. I went as far as to say they might be better than last year’s team. That’s obviously not the case.

The Hurricanes of last year weren’t unbeatable, but they certainly weren’t going to lose 52-10 against anyone, let alone in a statement game against another early-season favourite.

After the first round, my impression is the New Zealand conference is close again this year. I’ll stand by my thoughts that the Hurricanes, Highlanders and Chiefs will separate themselves eventually, but it’s going to be something like a peloton for a while.

Brumbies are the front runners
A few people didn’t agree with my assessment last week that the Brumbies were the team to beat in Australia, preferring to back the Waratahs in.

Their first game against the Hurricanes was certainly enough to put that to bed surely. The Brumbies are the February Favourites and have stolen an early-March march.

What was particularly enjoyable about their demolition effort in Canberra was the speed with which they went about their work. There was an intent and familiarity about their performance, something not all that common in week one.

Which brings me to the other side of the equation – if the Waratahs were to be early-season favourites they should have beaten the Reds by at least 40 on Saturday night. The Reds were penalising themselves into the ground all night and generally allowing the Waratahs to run whatever they wanted.

It wasn’t a poor performance by the Waratahs, but the second half showed a lot of rust to be worked through.

Rebels, don’t get too excited too early
Last year the Rebels were everyone’s darling side and they improved on previous seasons’ results. Some of that gloss rubbed off into how people viewed them at the start of this season as well, as something of a dark horse.

A 25-19 win against the Force is job done, but wasn’t too much to be excited about. The game was a bit of a typical mid-season Aussie derby; everyone tried but it wasn’t the stuff of rugby dreams.

Nic Stirzaker has been, somewhat prematurely, talked up as a star. He has been given the captaincy and missed the first game and is likely to miss Round 2 as well. Mike Harris and Colby Fainga’a have come home instead of going to South Africa as well.

While they are a young team trying to take the next step up, the Rebels aren’t on as solid footing as some might want to believe. Having potential is nice, but Super Rugby doesn’t play nice.

It’s still going to be a long year for the Rebels if the first couple of weeks are anything to go by. Any small improvement, even without making the finals, is a good result for them in this very tough competition.