A gripping final wrapped up what has been an intriguing Super Rugby season for so many reasons.
Whether you think the Blues are the best team either side of the Tasman in 2021 or not is immaterial; they’re the best team of the last six weeks, and they now have a trophy to put into an otherwise dusty cabinet to prove it.
As much as the final deserved the Highlanders’ second half comeback, and as hard as they fought to get back into position to regain the lead for five minutes, there was always the feeling entering the closing stages that the Blues had more shots to fire.
The Highlanders had more shots to fire too, but their battle was always going to be getting into position to fire them.
For now, the Blues have won a title which, in itself, will ensure the age-old Auckland-Canterbury rivalry will live on into another generation as Blues-Crusaders.
Of course, what shape Super Rugby takes next season – and if indeed it’s still called Super Rugby – remains anyone’s guess.
Rugby Australia gave themselves a deadline of the end of June, which seemed a long way off at the time but suddenly is only a week away. Decisions would have to be imminent, though it’s my understanding a 12-team trans-Tasman model including the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika is the overwhelmingly preferred option.
But formats for the future and preferred models are for another day, because watching the final evoked a number of themes worth of discussion – specifically in the context of the lessons the Australian sides should heed going into the off-season and 2022.
What we know is that the Australian teams, generally speaking, have different methods of going about their business.
The Western Force play a hard breakdown game that aims to pressure the opposition and force mistakes. Queensland backs their superior scrum to create opportunities for their strong ball carriers, and the Brumbies sit somewhere in between, with a strong set piece and breakdown game forming the backbone of everything they do from there.
The Melbourne Rebels and NSW Waratahs are still trying to properly install their playing identities. The Waratahs found the try line a more in Trans-Tasman, but that’s still an issue when they concede as many tries as they have in 2021. The Rebels are still in a period of coaching transition, though it’s notable they’re playing a lot more rugby and playing differently with young Carter Gordon at 10.
There are common threads through the five teams, but none so distinct that you could point to it and say, ‘that’s the Australian way of playing’. This has been something of ongoing thing within Australian rugby, in that everyone talks about wanting to play the Australian way, but no-one can definitively say what it is.
Michael Cheika was a huge advocate of the Australian way, and even dedicated his Wallabies coaching tenure to it, yet it wasn’t ever particularly clear what that ‘way’ was.
(Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Of the five New Zealand sides and even the provincial sides below Super Rugby, however, there are clear linkages that trace all the way to the All Blacks. Strong set piece and breakdown, and an attack based on speed and skill. They all do it, and they all do it because there’s a concerted, almost coordinated way about educating coaches on the way through. Everyone is on the same page because the page is effectively laid out in a curriculum.
Beyond the central theme, there are local variations which give each team their identity and it’s the extremes of these variations that we saw in the final on Saturday night, and that our sides in Australia can learn from.
For one thing, patience is a virtue. The Highlanders have consistently shown that you can win games without the ball, and they even regained the lead in the back-end of the game despite having less than 40per cent of possession for the match. With the majority of the game played on their side of halfway, the men from the south still deployed an excellent exit strategy. Nearly 70 per cent of the game was played in their half, but it didn’t feel like the Highlanders were ever pinned to their line for long periods of time.
Their exit strategy is part of it, but that exit strategy isn’t just for their own 22. By a decent margin, the Highlanders kicked the most in general play through Trans-Tasman, and of the five Kiwi sides, they carried and offloaded the least and made the fewest metres with the ball.
They show time and time again that you don’t need to hold possession for long periods to build pressure, certainly not in your own half, and this is something the Wallabies and the Australian sides can easily adopt. The Highlanders didn’t do anything of any great not for the half an hour or so from just before halftime, yet they outscored the Blues 12-3 and even had the lead before the Blues similarly realised that points by any method was crucial to close out the match.
On the other side of the contest, the Blues dominated second phase by busting a tackle every fourth carry, and looking to offload at any opportunity. They created 12 clean breaks to the Highlanders’ none, and that played a major role both in getting out to their early lead and in resetting to regain the lead and lock in their first title since the days of baggy jerseys.
Much like the Highlanders’ kicking game, the Blues only trailed the madcap Chiefs in the offload stakes, and are comfortably ahead of the best Australian side in terms of carries per offload (which is the Waratahs, for whatever that’s worth).
Laurie Fisher told me a few weeks ago after the Brumbies were left disappointed after their tour of New Zealand, that the Australian sides don’t need to re-jig their games to better compete with the Kiwis, but instead just needed a few little tweaks here and there. Half a metre more with the ball under the arm; half a second quicker to the breakdown. Nothing drastic and certainly nothing earth-shattering or requiring urgent remedial action.
Be prepared to defend more. Kick more, for sure, but more importantly, kick smarter.
Look for offloads more regularly, but definitely make more effort to present as an offload option.
These aren’t huge changes than any team couldn’t make, and certainly one currently in camp preparing for an upcoming series of matches.
Slight adjustments and tiny improvements could have massive and lasting effects. We’d be mad if we didn’t try and make them.
Don’t overhaul, just heed the lesson.
blerp
Roar Rookie
I think a lot of Aussie halfbacks try to stick the defence by committing the first defender before passing or potentially hitting a gap. McDermott does this very well. But otherwise i agree. McDermott will be a much better halfback if he can round out his game with better passing and a decent box kick.
P2R2
Roar Rookie
oh did they do a job on the Brums....excellent comment BM
P2R2
Roar Rookie
ummm...sorry - but clever and Campo is an oxymoron...
P2R2
Roar Rookie
Interesting what he said and what you repeated....but does AU have the players who can perform at this speed??? sure reinvention of the wheel is illogical, its perfect, but reinvention of players to out-perform NZ is another matter..
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
That's always been the case - trade off between income and player welfare I suppose
Yeah started to early for me. Brisbane isnt a place to play rugby mid feb and perth can be crazy hot at that time of year. Canberra can also be mid 30s but not generally up that high by then. 11 games plus a bye built in plus 2 finals should be enough
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
This year Super Rugby lasted 18 weeks Jacko.
freddieeffer
Roar Rookie
Yeh, a six pack of hernias for abs; now that ain't pretty :laughing:
Spew_81
Roar Rookie
The best long term option is; five New Zealand teams, five Australian teams, Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika. Twelve teams, one round, 11 games each, one bye each. The top eight finishers: quarter, semi final. Fifteen week competition, fourteen games max. The bottom four could play off: semi, final too if they wanted and the games were financially viable.
Spew_81
Roar Rookie
From an All Blacks fan perspective the Wallabies had smart skillful backs at least up until the Macqueen era. The Wallabies were never out of the game with: Gregan, Larkham, Roff, Latham etc. The Wallabies seemed to start playing formulaic rugby when Eddie Jones came along. They haven’t been right since. I’m unsure if the training coaches got emphasized formulaic play, as it’s easier to learn and teach. Even Robbie Deans could get the Wallabies playing the smart rugby again; the players didn’t have the required skill level. To a large degree the ‘heads up’ rugby of New Zealand is a logical development of the style that Deans got the Crusaders playing.
RobC
Roar Guru
I think tsuru. you are right, when you mentioned he just said it all. The article has over 2,700 reads. and a lot of likes on the comments :happy:
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Along the same lines, I suspect that the Unions do not see it as their responsibility to promote the game and leave it to the broadcaster. Not taking as much control as you can is not a good idea and leaving to somebody else who does not understand the audience either compounds the problem.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Sorry Jacko, mine is predicated off an assumption of an in-house phase, just as this year.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Hi Brett One of the problems with NSW is that the constitution of the Board is not fit for purpose. They tried to remedy that by creating two organisations. Sadly over Greg Harris' departing body. He was right, it did not work and they reverted back. That would be a very interesting interview if you can get him to look at what he thinks would have been a better option at the time. Might inform the type of constitutional change needed.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
I thought as much KCOL but I did actually go back and edit it, just in case. I am also keen to move the broader discussion along. We are getting closer on the Roar to calling it as it is, mainly because RA will leave not too many alternatives on the table. The marketing is beyond appalling. RA and the Waratahs seem to be limited to chasing sponsorship and treating game days as generic events. I can still remember the parade of Melbourne Cup winners, it must have cost a fortune and taken an enormous amount of resources. My 12yo son asked me what it was and, not being bothered to explain, said it was the "half time entertainment". He asked why it was not entertaining? Their "marketing plan" would elicit a "fail" in Marketing 101, even under our modern university program of marking to generous bell curves. Cluch has shown the way, I don't know why Foxtel did not do this before. Just about every game in Australia is filmed and could be streamed. When I originally suggested it I also had no idea that the pictures would be so good (God bless Millennials and Steve Jobs) and that an open mic would be far superior to amateur commentary. Every club and every school every grade. For $20pm which rugby supporter is not going to subscribe. If you get them to watch on TV then the next objective is get them to a game. Then more games and then become a member. There has to be some plan like that to improve attendances, but it does not seem like it. Money will solve everything it seems, like the ARC debacle showed, it does not. Losing our way to victory? Well we have certainly lost our way! We are where we are because of our own administration and performance. The big risk is that we get used to losing, but I am not sure we are in that space to be honest. I think everyone accepts we were on a hiding to nothing and will be focussing on being better next year. I think we will be. We certainly can't hide our way to victory. RA are absolutely barking mad. Nobody in the rugby world needs us, we can become a talent pool just like the Pacific Islands. Do they seriously think PE will throw money at a domestic SR competition and a Wallaby team consequently off the pace? Is anyone interested in watching, even locally? FTA TV ratings are great but they won't pay the bills and FTA watchers are not going to pay to attend games. McLennan looks like a flat track bully to me, and we are on a very sticky wicket.
2003 WC and the voting for the 2011 WC are still locked in memory's all thru NZ rugby.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
I think the temperature still goes up when JON is discussed in certain circles so these things can come back to bite you.
What does the NZ SR sides and the PI sides do before this comes about? Have a NZ?PI 7 team domestic comp? It would certainly make a more competitive 5 week ( 7 actually ) TT but it doesnt solve the other weeks which need filling and I think a Aus Sr comp is a short term Covid success rather than anything more.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Muglair, I was not counterpointing you with my last response. It may have been too cryptic. Your engagement with TT over the AU leg leaves me wondering if you see us ‘losing our way to victory’ in the TT as it stands. I am the ‘armchair commentator’ as much as anyone else, and am one who appreciates your input. In agreement with you about OZ rugby marketing. Where is it? Ditto player development. Ditto NZ as a template for a rugby factory. Keep your premises and conclusions coming.
yep...an interesting approach indeed. The problem is that it gets remembered for many many years and todays wins in battle may end up tomorrows loss in the war.