Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

Embrace the chaos of the Super Rugby draw – and pray for something better next year

By Scotty Stevenson
Hurricanes vs Chiefs (Photo: Getty Images)

The weirdest draw in all of professional sports naturally gets a weird ending this week. Maybe it’s just time to admit that the system is too weird for everyone, writes Scotty Stevenson.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Chiefs and the Hurricanes both will be in action in the final round of Super Rugby’s regular season on Saturday with no chance whatsoever of hosting a quarterfinal match. We all know that is just the way the conference system works, and most people have simply got on with life and accepted that fact. But here’s the thing: even in the battle for fifth and sixth spot in this convoluted structure, there is a strange discrepancy in how the tie-breakers are shaped.

There is every chance the Chiefs and Hurricanes could end up on the same number of competition points this weekend. No problem, I hear you say, there will be a fair and reflective tie-breaker in place to make sure we an separate them. Well, kind of. The first tie-breaker is on games won during the season, which wouldn’t usually be much of an issue except in this case when both would finish up on the same number of wins.

We all know that a who-beat-who tie-breaker would be the simplest and most effective way to split the teams. In the world of Super Rugby that is not the case. We will be forced to use points differential as a way to to decide who gets fifth (and travels to Canberra) and who gets sixth (and travels to Cape Town). Who on God’s green earth thought points differential was a fair measure when the stakes are this high?

Don’t get me wrong, teams should be rewarded for going out there and scoring points, and obviously, because every team does not play every other team, the ‘who-beat-who’ tie-breaker doesn’t apply to all teams. Well, it certainly applied to two teams in the same conference, doesn’t it. And it sure as hell should apply when one team – in this case the Chiefs – have beaten the other not once, but twice this season.

It is a remarkable oversight to make this call on points differential when that can hardly reflect the comparative competitiveness of the two teams in question. Who’s to say which of those teams racked up more points against other, irrelevant sides because of mitigating factors? Which team had its playmakers out at the time, or faced a team down on numbers through injury. It’s inarguably the worst tie-breaker in history and while I have nothing but respect for the Hurricanes posting the best points-per-game average (40.4) this season, I do feel for the Chiefs who twice took them down yet could find themselves ranked behind them.

[rugbypass-ad-banner id=”1473306980″]

That problem is only exacerbated by the fact that while the Chiefs and Hurricanes, Crusaders and Lions, and Highlanders and Sharks (AKA every single other team in the playoffs) must go out and win this week to ensure they have the best possible outcome in the finals, the Brumbies – who have won juts six games this season and have home advantage for the quarterfinals sewn up – get to run out a team that features twelve changes from the one that lost last week to the Reds. In other words, they get to rest as many of their big guns as they want as both of their respective quarterfinal opponents have to throw everything at the final week.

ADVERTISEMENT

That is a system that is broken, notwithstanding the fact the Chiefs have thanked the Brumbies for what is tantamount to throwing the game (think Lions last year against the Jaguares – we all know how that turned out) and rested three of their biggest stars in Anton Lienert-Brown, Sam Cane and Brodie Retallick.

Ah well, it is what it is, and what it is, thankfully next year will no longer be. One can only hope that the three key matches of the weekend – namely the Hurricanes vs Crusaders, Highlanders vs Reds, and Sharks vs Lions – live up to their billing. The Crusaders are desperate for the top spot and to maintain their unbeaten run, the Lions want that top billing too, knowing that their chances of winning the competition if they have to come to New Zealand are, based on history, precisely zero, and the Highlanders would much rather be facing the Crusaders in Christchurch than the Lions in Johannesburg, at least according to head coach Tony Brown.

I have no idea what the Sharks want. I have no idea what they are doing here, other than admiring their young fly half Curwin Bosch.

All we can do is sit back and watch the carnage unfold, and while we’re doing that we’ll spare a thought for at least four team managers, who won’t be sleeping a wink, and will have at least thirty business class seats booked on two different airlines to two different countries.

ADVERTISEMENT

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 12 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
FEATURE
FEATURE Storm clouds gather over Biarritz with owner poised to bail out Storm clouds gather over Biarritz with owner poised to bail out
Search