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'Definitely quicker': The difference between northern and southern hemisphere rugby

By Finn Morton
Highlanders photo: ‘That relentless pursuit to score tries’: How the north and south approach rugby differently

Former England flyhalf Freddie Burns etched his name into Gallagher Premiership history in June as he drop kicked the Leicester Tigers to a famous win in the dying stages of the final.

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With the score locked up at 12-all against Owen Farrell’s Saracens, Leicester needed a hero and Burns answered the call.

After coming on as a replacement – George Ford had gone down with an injury – the star first-five ended a nine-year Premiership drought for the East Midlands club.

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If he wasn’t already, the veteran of more than 110 appearances instantly became a club legend at Leicester.

But as the adage goes, all good things must come to an end.

Burns was left in tears ahead of his final match for the Tigers in January, after being granted a mid-season release to join the Highlanders.

As both a player and fan of rugby union, a move down south had always intrigued the 32-year-old – and now was his chance to make that dream a reality.

After leaving the Tigers, Burns made his Super Rugby Pacific debut less than a month later. While the match didn’t go to plan for the Landers, it was a special moment nonetheless.

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While he only has 16 minutes of Super Rugby playing time to his name, Burns has already noticed some telling differences between northern and southern hemisphere rugby.

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“It was very quick. I think the new law interpretations sort of lend its hand to that so it’s like you almost can’t take it for like for like or do too big of a comparison,” Burns told RugbyPass before flying to Melbourne.

“The ball in play time has gone up massively with the new laws… all that sort of stuff lends its hands to it being quite hard to compare.

“It’s definitely quicker, definitely more emphasis on moving the ball and creating one-on-ones rather than maybe the structured kicking game.

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“The bit that probably stood out most for me was at 31-20, the Blues got a penalty and I think in England you’d take the three-points there to try and get to the 14-point mark, but they stuck it in the corner.

“It’s that relentless pursuit to score tries and really accumulate the scoreboard that way.

“I’m always learning, I learn every day here.”

The Highlanders began their season with a disappointing 60-20 loss to the Blues at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday.

But Burns has been around long enough to know that the scoreboard isn’t necessarily everything.

While he admitted that there are some key lessons to learn out of the loss, Burns insisted that there was “a lot of positives” to take out of that match, before facing the Crusaders in round two.

“That’s the excitement of it, we’re coming into his game off the back of a big loss,” he added. “Sometimes I think it’s the perfect tonic to get back on it.

“The main thing for us is we weren’t a million miles away against the Blues, and as much as the scoreboard… you have to look at rugby games as performances.

“When I was younger I got very caught up in the result, whereas now you look at the performance.

“There’s a lot of positives that we need to take into this Crusaders game… it’s a great challenge.

“To be sat here now about to board a flight to Melbourne to play the Crusaders is something I never thought I’d say in my career.

“For me personally and the team, I think there’s huge excitement to test yourself against the best again and just see where we’re at.”

All 12 Super Rugby Pacific teams will play at the same venue in round two, with Melbourne’s AAMI Park set to host Super Round.

The Highlanders’ match with the Crusaders will kick-off proceedings on Friday, with Burns set to start at first-five.

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Jon 6 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”?

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j
john 9 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.

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A
Adrian 11 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

36 Go to comments
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