The Wrap: It’s Super Rugby’s fab four, and any of them can win

A repeat Super Rugby title is still a possibility for the Highlanders, although it was a very near thing in on a dirty Canberra Friday night.

Brumbies’ replacement winger Lausii Taliauli’s late effort strongly resembled Elliot Dixon’s famous score in last year’s final, except on one count – he didn’t quite finish the job off.

Phil Kearn’s “no doubt about that” call seemed to pay scant heed to all of the doubt, which would have been funny if the moment wasn’t so tense. TMO George Ayoub and referee Angus Gardner duly ruling that there was sufficient reason to deny Taliauli.

Ironically a photo emerged on Saturday of Brumbies’ champion, David Pocock, locked on to Taliauli, driving him to the line, but in a way that pushed him down into the ground rather than across the line. So near yet so far.

That the Brumbies were still in position to win the match was credit to their tenacity and a strip by Tomas Cubelli on a bullocking Patrick Osborne, after which the Highlanders were super-glued to their goal-line until the end.

Their scrum, decidedly shaky all night, did just enough to hang on, Pocock crucially losing control at the base twice, saving Gardner, if the ball had been kept in, from a very testing moment.

Ironic too that the Brumbies surest route to the try-line all season, their line-out maul, was ignored just when it was most needed. Credit there to the Highlanders for fighting lineout fire with fire and scaring the Brumbies off.

Lineout aside, this wasn’t a great night for the Highlanders. Coach Jamie Joseph will wonder if Luke Whitelock’s three lineout steals were worth a drop-off in scrum power, and Malakai Fekitoa had a poor match. But they remain one match away from another grand final, and nobody should believe they can’t win again.

After a month that has seen them play in Port Elizabeth, Buenos Aries, Dunedin and Canberra, they now travel to Johannesburg. Their ‘fab four’ Beatles song is thus The Long and Winding Road.

Stephen Moore’s after-match interview was smooth and polished. After all he’s been honing the same losing spiel for a couple of months now. There was genuine poignancy however as the realisation that this was his last match as a Brumby set in.

Brisbane-bound Moore is now at a fascinating crossroads. If he brings to the Reds the same type of influence over tactics and attitude towards referees then he will be of questionable value. Alternatively, if he concentrates on putting in solid shifts on the field, and helps develop Andrew Ready to the next level, he will leave a valuable legacy.

Of course that largely depends on who is announced as Reds coach, and Quade isn’t telling us who that is just yet.

Steven Larkham’s “I think we deserved that win tonight” sook can be partially excused by the heat of the moment, although I wonder if he still feels the same today, with the emotion subsided? He must know in his heart that if he had been the defending coach and Taliauli’s try been awarded, he would have been filthy.

Many Roar posters have attested to a victim mentality permeating through much of Australian rugby and this match served to reinforce this. I’ve lost count of the number of matches in which Moore has been told by the referee to stop querying every decision and, in the games where he wasn’t told off, he probably should have been.

Scott Fardy, another senior player who should know better, also spent good periods of the match appealing to sideline officials to intervene on one matter or another, instead of simply knuckling down to his work.

If it is true that a fish actually rots from the head, then Larkham’s comments make sense of his player’s actions. This is negativity that feeds into fans as well. For a small crowd of 8,500 they sure kept up a lot of booing – unless it was just those angry at missing out on a free pie.

One final observation from Canberra. As well as Cubelli played (and Larkham was right to keep him on the field), Joe Powell is currently ranked no.3 halfback in Australia. If he is deemed unworthy of a run, or too risky for some action in a match like this, then Australia’s depth at halfback really is dangerously thin.

Wellington’s Saturday evening weather made Canberra look like the Maldives; thus the Hurricane’ Beatles song can only be Yellow Submarine.

There was much to like in the way the Hurricanes balanced their ambition to play rugby with respect for the elements. In such conditions it is the halves who are required to steer the ship, vary play and execute a kicking game which places all the onus on the opposition to play rugby from weak field positions.

To that end, Beauden Barrett’s kicking game was superb, even extending to party tricks off the kicking tee. TJ Perenara’s explosive run back and selective soft pass for Jason Woodward’s try was a delight, and when he repeated the dose a couple of minutes later to send Vaea Fifita rampaging, the Cane’s faithful had found rugby nirvana.

By contrast, despite their loose forwards competing manfully, the Shark’s halves pairing of Michael Claassens and Garth April looked like boys sent to do a man’s job. And what about Willie Le Roux? It’s inconceivable that a player of his talent can be so lacking in confidence, he didn’t once genuinely try to beat a tackle running from the back.

A lesson too for the Brumbies, the Hurricanes showing exactly what to do with a strong scrum; not simply look to milk penalties, but to use it as a foundation to launch sharp, decisive, try-scoring attacks.

The only time the Lions looked ordinary against the Crusaders was when they moved away from their attacking, ball in hand game and engaged Israel Dagg in a kicking duel. Coach ‘Kenny Rogers’ Ackermann, alluded to this at half-time and, led by powerhouse hooker Malcolm Marx and Franco Mostert, they soon got the confrontation back into their play.

There are some who say that the reason the Lions are the best non-New Zealand side is because they play like a New Zealand side. This is only partially true; if anything the Lion’s optimal pace and intensity is at an even higher level, with an extra abrasive element thrown in. The Beatles have a song for the Lions too, Helter Skelter.

The Crusaders were the only New Zealand side over the weekend to use a drift defence, thus inviting the Lions to run at them unpressured. If that tactic wasn’t questionable enough, their execution was poor, 23 tackles missed, and far too many of the ones made too passive, conceding the front foot to the Lions.

Todd Blackadder’s side was much better this year than last, but his coaching tenure finishes with three straight losses, a total of seven finals appearances in eight seasons but, crucially, no wins. What do you think, Quade?

If the Stormers were trying to confuse Damien McKenzie by playing his brother Marty at flyhalf, it’s fair to say it didn’t work. They were not helped also by the early loss of Siya Kolisi – no not to the virus, but a rolled ankle.

It wasn’t as if the Stormers didn’t know what to expect from the Chiefs, but they were mostly powerless to stop, or at least slow down, the constant waves of attack, that would eventually leave them so shot to pieces, they would concede three tries in the final five minutes.

What was less expected was the Chiefs’ scrum blowing right over the top of the Stormers pack to set up McKenzie’s try, capping a fine night for the smiling blonde one, his trademark running and passing complemented by 9/10 from the kicking tee.

It was as if the Beatles’ I’ve Just Seen a Face was written for the occasion.

Newlands hero Schalk Burger didn’t get the send-off he deserved, but he travels north to collect his pension plan with the blessing and well wishes from all rugby followers in New Zealand and Australia. One of rugby’s true ornaments.

The sharp-eyed may have noticed The Roar’s Live Scores box for this match, which has listed as one of the match’s two ‘Important Moments’, McKenzie, D (CHI) conversion at the 82 min mark in the second half.

Perhaps at 21-58 the Stormers were right in it, but yes, that important conversion was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

So, for all of the hot air expelled over SANZAAR’s unfair conference and points system, we somehow arrive at the semi-finals with what are unquestionably the best four teams still in contention. Just as Lyle Lovett answered people who couldn’t believe he landed Julia Roberts – funny how things have a way of working out.

(Lyle by the way, is the Schalk Burger of music. Five minutes into a concert you know exactly why she was so lucky to marry him)

In the bigger picture, a semi-final mix of three New Zealand franchises, one South African and no Australian, Argentine or Japanese, also feels about right.

It’s too early to be making predictions for the final, and I doubt I’ll be any the wiser come next Saturday. Any of these sides can win from here. What I do know is that these are four sides who are all committed to playing high tempo, high intensity rugby, and we should be in for a real treat.

It will be nice if this is reflected in better crowds, particularly in Johannesburg, where locals seem slow to recognise that their team is surely the best ticket in the republic.

Meanwhile, for the vanquished four from this weekend, the Brumbies, Sharks, Crusaders and Stormers, there is a Beatles song too; The End. Or, in the words of Angus Gardner, “oh, that’s it!”