Hurricanes spent years assembling a championship roster and about five minutes dismantling it
Things have gone badly astray at the Hurricanes.
Fair play to Moana Pasifika. It remains to be seen if results, such as last week’s 24-19 win over the Hurricanes, can become a regular occurrence but it certainly augurs well.
Competitions can’t sustain foregone conclusions. You need unpredictability and, let’s face it, no-one saw that Hurricanes defeat coming.
But should we have? Should we have looked at the playing and personnel decisions made by the Hurricanes in recent seasons and suspected that a defeat like this was possible?
Should we have already wondered aloud about the sense of dispensing with someone such as Danny Toala – who scored Friday’s matchwinner – while retaining the consistently underwhelming Billy Proctor?
Should we ask questions about the coaching of the side and cite Xavier Numia and Alex Fidow as examples of promising players who can’t seem to improve at the Hurricanes?
Should we question the signing of others, such as Julian Savea, Owen Franks and TJ Perenara, whose best days are behind them?
Should we wonder if appointing Jason Holland as head coach was a good idea, given all his previous experience was as an understudy?
Should we, going back a way, again ask if jettisoning Chris Boyd was really such a good idea, when it was clear John Plumtree had coaching aspirations at a higher level?
People ask me what’s wrong with Super Rugby? Why isn’t the product what it was?
There’s a few reasons, obviously, but the one I consistently come back to is the premature departure of players.
Let’s just use the Hurricanes as an example.
Yes, they have one or two injuries and, yes, they probably looked at Moana Pasifika as easybeats and an opportunity to rest some frontliners.
But the Hurricanes, and frankly most New Zealand franchises for that matter, no longer have the depth to roll out a competitive team of dirtrackers.
Off the top of my head, the Hurricanes have in recent times let go of players such as Vince Aso, Beauden Barrett, Otere Black, Finlay Christie, Gareth Evans, Michael Fatialofa, Vaea
Fifita, Jamison Gibson-Park, Willis Halaholo, Sam Lousi, Matt Proctor, Brad Shields, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Jeff To’omaga-Allen, Jason Woodward and Ihaia West.
There are others, but those are just the ones who sprung to mind.
Not many of them are world-beaters, but it is that tier of talent that rugby in New Zealand so badly misses. Guys who can come in when there’s injuries or some All Blacks who need a rest, and maintain standards.
Players who are seasoned Super Rugby performers, with the potential to maybe even play test footy at some point.
I won’t name and shame some of the younger players who pulled on the Hurricanes’ jumper against Moana Pasifika last week, but few of them are fit to lace the boots of those other blokes.
I get that the contracting model makes things hard and that guys will leave franchises for money or the opportunity to play more minutes. But when you repeatedly rip the guts out of these Super Rugby teams, standards will slip.
In the Hurricanes’ case, they spent years trying to assemble a championship roster and about five minutes dismantling it.
Moana Pasifika could become the best thing to happen to Super Rugby in ages. If they can become a genuine vehicle for Pacific rugby and attract more players to play international footy for Samoa and Tonga rather than New Zealand, then we’ll all benefit.
But that will take time and you fear Moana Pasifika will be gone from the competition long before their potential is realised.
As for this season, they’re a start-up, facing huge challenges and trying to combat those without a particularly deep pool of talent.
The effort and desire to do well is clearly there, but some weeks they’ll simply be outmatched by superior teams.
We all sympathise with what Moana Pasifika is up against and will accept their results accordingly.
Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, there’s no such excuses for the state they’ve got themselves in.
Comments on RugbyPass
Etzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
181 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
155 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
181 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
181 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
181 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
181 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
181 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the desperation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
181 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
181 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
2 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
181 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
181 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to comments