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Opinion
We’ve all heard the arguments against Super Rugby’s eight-team finals series. In a 12-team competition, it lacks integrity, it rewards teams with 35 per cent winning records and minus 122 points differentials, and it sets up first versus eighth and second versus seventh quarter-finals that are unlikely to be competitive.
As unarguable as all of those things are, sometimes there is a bigger picture at play. In its current iteration, Super Rugby Pacific is only two seasons old. It is entirely reasonable – and desirable – to have all sides retain a realistic chance for as long as possible of making the playoffs.
Connection is maintained for more people, for longer. The way the ladder is, a five-team cut-off, for example, would have seen interest fall away for more than half of the sides, weeks ago.
In this part of the world, where rugby is concerned, money matters. Franchises need to offer sponsors and members value for their coin; engagement, hope, and as long a ride as they can possibly get.
Broadcasters need content; cut the season off and fewer matches will be reflected in fewer dollars paid. And with Rugby Australia and NZ Rugby already under extreme pressure to offer salaries competitive enough to keep players at home, these are decisions that, while made uneasily, are ultimately easy to make.
Perhaps things would be different if the season was longer, but each side plays a measly 14 matches. Super Rugby is over barely before it has begun. Get injured at the wrong time – like the Rebels’ Rob Leota, the Crusaders’ George Bell and many others – and the season is over before you can even lace up a boot.
In France’s Top 14, teams play 26 round-robin matches. In England’s Premiership, the number is 20. And don’t forget to add European Champions Cup rugby on top of that.
Perhaps that is too much rugby, but in that context, the argument for trimming back opportunities for Super Rugby sides, all in the name of preserving integrity – whatever that actually means – is weak.
Perhaps the biggest argument in favour of an eight-team finals series though, came with the victory of the Fijian Drua over the Reds, 41-17, in Suva, on Saturday. It is hard to understate the achievement of a new, mostly inexperienced side, coming into Super Rugby and not only making the finals, but taking some major scalps along the way, in just their second year of existence.
(Photo by Pita Simpson/Getty Images)
Hats off to coach Mick Byrne and everyone involved with the program. The Drua’s style of play is captivating; their enthusiasm infectious. Their fans love the game and they love their side, unreservedly.
Whatever happens in Christchurch next week, the Drua deserve their moment in the sun. Far be it for crusty, jaded or cynical fans elsewhere to tut-tut about finals formats and deny them it.
That said, the Reds also qualifying for the finals series, to face the table-topping Chiefs in Hamilton, feels a lot like a horse battling to fill a place in a benchmark 70 handicap in Benalla one week, expected to go out the following week and win the Melbourne Cup.
In the case of the eighth-placed Reds, it was very much a case of last man standing, after the Highlanders, Rebels and Force all failed to take their last opportunities. The Reds can thank their defensive heroics a few weeks ago in New Plymouth, and the Super Round percentage booster against the Force, for their spot.
The other ‘feel-good’ result from the weekend was Moana Pasifika’s 33-24 win over the Waratahs in Sydney; an outcome which, as it turned out, accurately summed up Michael Hooper’s experience with the Waratahs in the years since their 2014 triumph.
Here was justice writ large for Super Rugby’s other new franchise; four times this season being pipped on the final play of the match, simply undeserving of going through the season without a win.
Yes, the Waratahs fell well short of where they needed to be, and that was hugely disappointing for everyone who came to give Hooper a more fitting send-off.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
But none of that should detract from a dominant and capable performance from a Moana Pasifika side which, under a new coach, can be expected to improve further, next season.
Hopefully there will be improvement too for the Highlanders who, after a wretched season, gave their all against the Blues, albeit coming up short, 16-9. For the Blues, there is a nagging sense that their time may have been last year, although with a home quarter-final against an injury-hit Waratahs to come, they are still well in the title hunt.
At some point, however, they will probably need to defeat the Chiefs, who were able to spare a number of their leading players the impost of a flight to Perth, but were still able to comfortably get the job done against the Force, 43-19.
While every side has a list of excuses and ‘what ifs’, the Force ultimately weren’t well served by a lop-sided draw which didn’t see them play their third match at home until Round 9.
An obvious solution is to send English centre Sam Spink to the table to negotiate the fixture next year; Spink blazing his way through a half-time interview at a thousand words per minute, channelling fast-talking Seinfeld lawyer, Jackie Chiles.
In Canberra, the Brumbies won the midfield collision and, with it, the match, 33-17. Rob Valetini was back to his dominant best, but it was ex-Rebel Jack Debreczeni who controlled matters; a superb pass setting up Corey Toole for a try, and having his trademark long-kicking game on song, all night.
For the second time in recent weeks the Rebels lost both hookers and were reduced to relying on a makeshift lineout thrower. Ironically, Richard Hardwick managed the longer throws well but couldn’t nail the short ones.
In all, they lost four players to head injuries before half-time, including Andrew Kellaway, where Nic White and the match officials might have since reflected on his reckless and needless contribution, and how they all might have handled things differently.
The Brumbies have their home quarter-final but not the smoother passage forward that a second-placed finish would have provided them. They’ll be flat-out dealing with the Hurricanes first, before reflecting on whether their strategy for Perth was the right one or not.
Dane Coles 2, Codie Taylor 0. That was the outcome in Wellington as the Hurricanes, courtesy of a convincing second-half effort, saw off the Crusaders, 27-26.
Coles played his 140th match for the franchise just how he played the other 139; with pace and power, and front and centre of the niggle, which included an extended stand-off with fellow All Black, Codie Taylor.
Winning both the sin bin count and the match, Coles’ unsolicited advice, generously offered, seemed to be more appreciated by Taylor after the match, than at the time.
The Hurricanes enter familiar territory, travelling to Canberra for an elimination match, arguably in better shape than they were last year, before they lost to the Brumbies, 35-25. As you’d expect from fourth versus fifth, this looks like the clear pick of the quarter-finals.
The Crusaders, meanwhile, didn’t lose too much skin, and while their playing stocks are uncomfortably thin, this is typically the time of year they start to get interested.
Australian fans down on themselves and the game at the end of another frustrating season, where their best franchises finished fourth, sixth and eighth, might look to the Crusaders player factory for an illustration of just how difficult it is to change the narrative.
On the evidence of this match, it’s hard not to believe that impressive halfback Louie Chapman, showing off all the skills and composure of a seasoned professional, would walk into any match-day 23 in Australia. But here’s the rub; Chapman is the Crusaders’ fourth-choice halfback, a 23-year-old, who was making his Super Rugby debut.
The player depth this illustrates is one thing, but consider how Chapman won an NPC premiership in 2020 with Tasman, and was a stand-out performer in the 2021 season, where they narrowly lost the final to Waikato.
Throw in further development as part of the Crusaders’ system and you can see how ‘new’ players like Chapman actually enter Super Rugby ready-made. It’s not even a matter of identifying who his equivalent in Australian rugby might be; without a similar second tier competition, there is simply no such thing.
Yes, fans are right to want more from their teams today, but for non-Test Australian players who today are now in the midst of ‘Mad Monday’ – just three and a half months after the season began – it’s hard to identify how they can be made better compared to players across the Tasman, who get to develop and hone their skills in the competitive NPC.
Addressing this disparity should be an urgent task for the about to be anointed, new Rugby Australia CEO, Phil Waugh. That is, assuming he’s afforded the autonomy and licence to remedy Australia’s high-performance structural impediments.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
It isn’t all doom and gloom, however. The Australian U20 Junior Wallabies proved highly competitive in splitting their series last week with the New Zealand U20s. Of particular note was the pack and scrum dominance from a group of players who can be expected to feature prominently in upcoming Super Rugby seasons.
The value of a week like this is that these players will not in the slightest feel overawed or out of place, which hasn’t always been the case for some of their predecessors, going on to face high-flying New Zealand Super Rugby sides early in their careers.
To finish this week with a nod to cricket, where fans will have noticed Australian opening batsman David Warner, announcing his retirement, effective at the completion of next summer’s Pakistan series.
Call me old-fashioned, but I wonder whatever happened to selectors deciding who plays, and when?
Imagine if you will, a similar scenario playing out in rugby. Stand by any day for Suliasi Vunivalu to announce his retirement from the Wallabies, effective at the completion of the 2027 World Cup.