Four quarterfinals, four talking points - Scotty Stevenson
Playoff Rugby needs playoff preparation.
The Hurricanes ended the Chiefs’ oily rag campaign on Friday. They did so on their home track where they have lost just once in the last 23 games. A week before, the Chiefs had the chance to put 23 points on the Canes and earn home advantage for themselves, a mission that looked on track when they piled on 21 of those points in a rampant first half display that had the Chiefs fans delighted and the Canes coaches despairing.
The Chiefs did win the game but not by enough. Some pundits suggested they had lost the battle [for home advantage] to win the war the following week. That proved a nonsense. The Chiefs may have been bound by agreements with New Zealand Rugby to rest Damian McKenzie, and took the opportunity to take a cautious approach to the reinstatement of Sam Cane and the selection of Charlie Ngatai, but those decisions were costly in the extreme and played directly into the hands of the Hurricanes.
Playoff rugby needs playoff preparation and the Hurricanes got all of that and more by throwing their best into the last regular season game. That loss, and the lessons learned by their key playmakers from it, gave them all the momentum required. Home advantage took care of the rest. How much better would Damian McKenzie have been for a run a week earlier against the Hurricanes defence? Could Sam Cane have used a few extra minutes to get the body honed for the contact to come? The answers to those questions: Much, and definitely.
The Chiefs ran for 708 metres on Friday night, and forced 42 missed tackles. The Canes ran for 488 metres and forced 18 missed tackles. It is almost unfathomable, given those numbers, that the Hurricanes had the game sewn up well before the full time whistle. Well, unfathomable until you realise their playmakers had the perfect dress rehearsal a week earlier, while the Chiefs’ pivot sat in the dugout itching to be amongst it.
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The Crusaders Are Vampires.
No other team is capable of sucking the blood out of the opposition quite like the Crusaders. There are but three remaining ways to defeat them: silver bullet, sunlight, wooden stake through the heart.
If ever two minutes could sum up a season, it would have to be the two that brought to a close the third quarter of the Crusaders-Sharks quarterfinal at AMI Stadium. Leading 23-10 but having not quite managed to land a killer blow on the visitors, the Crusaders found themselves on the defensive as the Sharks sent wave after wave of prime pick and pop at them, inside their own 22.
It was an old-fashioned pulverising play that may have worked on other teams, but not the Red Velvet Sledgehammer. The Crusaders tackled everything that came their way and, after 20-odd phases, turned the ball over and kicked the Sharks back into their own territory, from which they would barely emerge again.
The Crusaders were happy to give the Sharks width all night – the fool’s gold as it is known – knowing that if they could convince them that there was space there, they would not have to take as many body shots through the middle. The Sharks fell for that far too often, and also dropped the ball 20 times, which know team can do against the Crusaders.
And then they just accumulate points on you and with your dying breath, as every last drop of blood is drained from your carcass, you look up and realise they have but 40 points on you and you have no idea how it happened.
The Lions are still the real deal.
The admirable thing about the Lions is that they just know what they are and they rarely do anything differently. That is why they have been in the grand final the last two years and that is why they will be in the grand final again this year. The Jaguares were kidding themselves kicking early penalties. The Lions go up in sevens.
They won the game on Sunday morning with plenty to spare. They won the game with Malcolm Marx – the hooker, for god’s sake – posting the most running metres for the Lions. That should not be possible, but somehow the Lions do stuff like this and it works. They won the game with Franco Mostert putting up 23 tackles, because that’s what Franco does pretty much every week.
The Lions didn’t actually have to fire too many shots and yet they still put 40 points on the Jaguares, while losing the territory and possession stats and being forced to make almost twice as many tackles. Remind you of any other team?
Home advantage is king
Every privately schooled baby boomer with a background in commercial banking descended on Allianz Stadium in Sydney to watch the Waratahs somehow win a game of rugby they really shouldn’t have against a Highlanders team that really should have but didn’t.
I’ll throw this out there: there is no way that comeback happens at Forsyth Barr Stadium, which is where the game would have been played if games won counted for more than beating the Sunwolves twice. Anyway, now is not the time to complain about a system that absolutely no one likes. The point is this: home advantage is a wonderful thing and the Waratahs know it.
Home advantage is about the crowd arcing up at perceived injustices, and hometown broadcasters repeating incidental acts of nothing a million times on the big screen, and the ball bouncing in ways you know it will, and being able to go back to Coogee for a recovery swim the next day. It’s knowing when you have a 3 on 1 overlap because you know what that picture looks like on your home deck, and it’s the energy of the crowd.
If there was a crowd.
At any of the games.
At all.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Je 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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 commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments