Round 8 of Super Rugby contained plenty of highlights, though this week could perhaps be remembered as the round of milestones.
Several players celebrated significant personal achievements this round.
There was Ruan Dreyer playing his 50th Super match for the lions, Laurie Weeks bringing up his 100th, the evergreen George Smith bringing up 150 turning out for the Reds on the weekend while Wyatt Crockett celebrated his 176th appearance for the Crusaders.
Crockett became the highest capped player in Super Rugby history and is sure to add more to his tally before he calls it a day.
The Lions have managed to secure their first ever win at Newlands, a significant achievement for their franchise.
What’s more, all the above mentioned players managed to achieve their milestones with wins for their respective sides to boot, capping off what will be memorable moments in their careers.
Here are the High Five from Round 8 of Super Rugby.
And then there was one
The Crusaders have continued on their winning ways on Good Friday, comprehensively beating the Sunwolves in Christchurch by 50 points to 3 with Kieran Read returning to the fold and looking in good touch despite his lay off.
As results would have it over the balance of the weekend, the Crusaders are now the only unbeaten side left within Super Rugby and they look unlikely to relinquish this status, as the side continues to go from strength to strength.
They are welcoming back a few of their more experienced crew in Read and Richie Mo’ounga, it would not surprise to see their streak continue on for a wee bit longer yet.
Barrett magic gets the Canes home
While we all know it’s a team sport, there can be no question that Beauden Barrett’s influence was a key factor to the Hurricanes managing to squeak past the Blues in a thriller at Eden Park.
His moments of individual brilliance sparked several of the Hurricanes’ try-scoring efforts and ultimately dug his side out of a hole with what is becoming a bit of a signature ‘Barrett chip and chase’.
This lead to the Hurricanes gaining field position and the final try of the match, regaining and holding onto the lead after the Blues threatened to steal it from the windy franchise.
As for the Blues, chalking up their fifth loss of the season now means the Auckland based side are well and truly up against it in looking to qualify for the finals. Based on last season, all four of the Kiwi qualifiers only suffered four losses for the entire round robin in 2016 so unfortunately; the playoffs yet again seem a bridge too far for the Blues.
The Rebel Yell
While Billy Idol was not present at AAMI Park, at least to my knowledge, the Rebels yelled plenty as they caused one of the big upsets, tipping over the Brumbies to secure a gutsy victory.
Considering the well documented issues surrounding the club and the uncertainty of their future, along with their 2017 form to date, it seemed it would be a straight forward night for the Brumbies. However the Rebels had other ideas, showing tremendous character to not only win, but survive three yellow cards during the match as well. While it would not be unfair to suggest the Brumbies certainly did little to help themselves, one has to take their hats off to the Rebels for the fight they showed, and will hopefully continue to display in spite of the decisions that are yet to be made.
They certainly had their luck though as I am quite unsure how Lopeti Timani avoided a red card for his attempted knee to the head of Rory Arnold, that didn’t quite connect, well only softly, as the ref indicated. Has me stumped, such actions have no place on the rugby field and I am staggered only a yellow was issued.
The Lions flex their muscles in South Africa
The match promised plenty and it delivered on its promise as the Stormers hosted the Lions in a South African derby match featuring the two best form sides in the republic with the Lions eventually managing to get over the top of the rivals, and securing a bonus point to boot, by 29 points to 16.
It was fast, brutal and skilful as both sides went hammer and tong at each other and while we have come to expect plenty of attacking endeavour from the Lions, this win was based on their staunch defence, repelling wave after wave of Stormers attack, the first 20 minutes of the second half an astonishing display of defence and resilience and certainly earmarking the Lions as a strongest title contender from South Africa.
The Jaguares tank it
Many have asked where the Jaguares sit this season, wondering if there undoubted talent would finally manifest itself onto the field and with a reasonably strong start to the season, the Jaguares had the opportunity to show their mettle and win away from home, facing an out of sorts Bulls side in Pretoria and creating a few waves within their conference.
Unfortunately for the Jaguares, it was possibly their worst performance of the season, permeated with errors and struggled all match for cohesion, as the Bulls ran away with a reasonably comfortable and much needed victory by 26 to 13 at Loftus.
It would seem that learning to win away from home is still an issue for the Jaguares and an inaugural playoff appearance would seem a bridge too far this season.
So that wraps up some thoughts on this milestone Round of Super Rugby with my five major talking points this week and I would like to cap it off with a final thought, considering this is Easter and all, could the tournament schedule not have made a better effort on spreading a few more games across the weekend? Easter Sunday afternoon footy anyone? What about an Easter Monday game? I cannot help but feel Super Rugby is missing a trick here on this long weekend.
Until next week then, and Happy Easter!
cuw
Guest
the "fit" of a player depends on the team - cip didnot play well with rebels but then there was a welsh forward who captained them i think . haskell played for a nz team but i dont think he even got on the field but tanaka was a popular guy. Leach plays every day for chiefs (but then he is a NZder) and there was another englishman who played 2nd row - symons ? i think cips will do well with Blues - he is 10 who runs a lot and blues have the runners , infact too many of them , they fail to defend properly !! my explanation or assumption is - the level of skills and instincts in NZ teams is so much better and different to other places, anyone who comes either has to learn or get out. some like to learn while others just cant gget into that high gear. it is not only foreigners who lag - there are a lot of nzders who thrive in europe but were non-entities at home. i mean who would have thought of Jimmy Gopperth or Hadleigh Parkes being star performers ??
ClarkeG
Guest
An Englishmen steering the Blues cuw? ...don't think so...oh hang on a sec ...Francis is an Englishmen... Cipriani had a stint at the Melbourne Rebels did he not...how did that go? Otere Black you would think would be an option for the Blues. Just depends on whether or not he is interested in being a Blue. McGahan appears to have dropped off the radar. SBW is meant to be the Blues 'Crotty - Smith' but he was far from that against the Hurricanes.
Harry Jones
Expert
Definitely true: the Lions' win was built on muscle. - I felt their loose trio outhit ours; probably missed Rynhardt Elstadt in this derby. - PSDT's and EE's carries were not as dynamic as usual; both not fully fit, maybe. - Started with the wrong props. Kebble and Louw should have started. To me, Vorster really helped the Lions not miss Rohan much. Didn't enjoy how quick the ref called "maul" on those choke tackles.
ClarkeG
Guest
I seem to recall reading not long ago that the Canadian Mens 7s team had lost it's Govt funding for next season due to poor results. And here is the article. http://www.americasrugbynews.com/2017/02/15/canada-men-lose-olympic-7s-funding/
Digby
Roar Guru
Thanks Nick, appreciate you taking the time to comment on my dribble but on this occasion, I cannot claim to feel any sympathy for the Blues last weekend ;) Cheers.
Digby
Roar Guru
Thanks OB. I guess, with the Chiefs is that they are doing what they need to, Stormers aside. In terms of the NZ conference, it is still very much in our own hands. With matches between ourselves, including the Crusaders to come for both of us, it makes for some exciting footy to be had.
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Nice one as always Digger - felt a bit sorry for the Blues as they had the winning of that match well within their grasp, but they just don't have that self-belief in the clutch situations yet...
Digby
Roar Guru
Cheers for the heads up Clarke.
Digby
Roar Guru
Cheers Rhino, Sharks are a good side no doubt, love that Bosch. Seems the draw can help them a bit or I should say in their favour. Exciting times ahead.
Digby
Roar Guru
The light is coming mate, you will see
ClarkeG
Guest
No doubt you were seriously embarrassed by their 1/4 Final win over the red hot team in the series.
ClarkeG
Guest
And there should have been another upset in the Eng - Kenya 1/4 F as well.
ClarkeG
Guest
Digger can we all be clear about one thing. In the Blues match Barrett was not YCd for intentionally knocking the ball forward. The ball never went forward except forward from Pulu's hands. The referee clearly said the penalty was for playing off his feet and signaled so. It was a harsh penalty and a harsh YC in my opinion.
ClarkeG
Guest
And that particular knock on was almost identical to the first YC for Barrett in the Waratahs match which I thought was not clearly an intentional knock forward.
ClarkeG
Guest
I have answered the question above although I'm not sure it's the answer you want. If you have pictures on that device you are using go back to the incident in the match and you will find Barrett did not do what you say he did. There is no such infringement as intentionally knocking the ball down. The infringement is knocking the ball forward intentionally. But let's just for a moment say Barrett did knock the ball down as you said. The ball did not go forward - so where is the infringement in that.
ClarkeG
Guest
Yeah it's just the NZ teams that do it - blooming heck. In the Blues match Barrett was YCd for playing off his feet - not for an intentional knock forward. The penalty and YC seemed particularly harsh. The first YC in the Waratahs match was questionable I thought and this could well have been the additional evidence presented on Barrett's behalf to the Judiciary.
cuw
Guest
considering players have been sent off for lesser things, it was a rubbish decision not to give him a red card. it seems the refs are all caught up with the high tackle thing, they have forgotten that the red card was introduced to stop dirty play like what happened.
cuw
Guest
at this moment i think the ideal 10 for Blues would be Danny Cipriani. he is mature and playing well. in fact he plays too much of a SH game for the coaches liking :) I think OB is out of contract after 2017. maybe he shud look for more game with Blues. one issue i see with Blues is they have too many backs who can break and run 100m on their own , so most of the time they end up running and holding on rather than passing. they just dont have a guy like Crotty or Conrad Smith.....
ClarkeG
Guest
Francis is leaving at seasons end to Northampton I think. I don't consider this a loss for the Blues but an opportunity to fix an ongoing problem. I would not be surprised if he presses ahead with Gatland for the rest of this season (subject to West's injury). I don't think Gatland is the type of player that will set the stadium on fire but he might prove to be consistently more reliable than others who have had their chances. Francis and West have certainly had theirs.
Old Bugger
Guest
Digsy Cheers mate - a couple of things. Firstly, my choice of the Blues to win was based, around the Canes missing Proctor and the inexperienced Lamaupe/Aso combination up against the Blues mid-field, of SBW and Ioane. In the end, it turned out to be the bloke inside at No10 for the Canes, that proved the difference. You make your own luck in matches and BB, did it better than anyone else. A good comeback but it did look like, an upset was in the making. Secondly, I got up to see my team and 20mins later, I was wondering why the hell, I even bothered. If ever there was a serialised episode of how to play rugby, then those opening 20mins by the Cheetahs, was the beginning of the series. I mean, both sides played so well in this quarter, that there was an extreme period of non-stop, no error rugby that finally when a ball did get dropped, the first scrum was 15mins into the game and the Cheetahs, were leading by a couple of tries to zip. It didn't end there either - the Cheetahs found another touch-down and all of a sudden, my lounge-room was echoing with cursing and cussing language, that even woke the missus, 2 doors down the passage-way. Things settled a little at HT and then by 10mins into the 2nd half, all semblances of any ill wind passing through the house, had vanished. Simply put, the Chiefs cannot continue to start their future rugby matches, in this vein.....apart from the fact that my hair-line will disappear, any thoughts of Rennie & Co pursuing a GF appearance, won't get paste the QF phase, at this rate. And lastly, that Lions team is proving to be a worthy GF side and potential winner. They played with fire, handled the heat and went on to douse everything, that the Stormers brought. They will indeed be, a difficult side for the finals series but, let's not discount the Stormers either. If they record a successful tour through NZ over the next few weeks, then they too, will be a tough competitor, come the finals series.