Embrace the chaos of the Super Rugby draw – and pray for something better next year
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.
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.
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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.
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.
Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments