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What we have learned from the Super Rugby regular season

By Sam Warlow

The Super Rugby regular season is over and the playoffs are upon us. Here are a few things we have figured out after nineteen weeks of competition.

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THE CURRENT FORMAT ISN’T WORKING

Players, pundits and fans alike have all called for the end of Super Rugby’s broken conference system.

This year saw the competition contract for the first time, back to 15 teams, with a revamped conference system in place. The current format sees each team play 16 times, including eight matches against their four conference rivals – both home and away – and eight cross-conference clashes.

While this made for plenty of exciting local derbies, this model looks like it will be unsustainable moving forward for several reasons.

Put simply, the end of season table is a complete mess. Super Rugby has to be one of the only professional sporting competitions in the world where you can finish with less competition points than an opponent, but end the season above them in the standings.

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It’s understandable that the competition might struggle to grow if only one country hosted playoff games – which could have easily happened this year if the seeding was based solely on points – but seeing a final table where a team with 44 competition points finishes above teams with 51 and 49 points just doesn’t sit right. You can’t reward comparatively mediocre performance with home advantage.

All Blacks captain Kieran Read is one of many players who have called for a return to a traditional round robin format – or just something else, seriously, anything else – which would likely be the most beneficial solution for all involved parties.

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As covered by RugbyPass earlier in the year, at present the current system really only serves to benefit the New Zealand teams in terms of development. If the Australian teams play each other eight times a year, their development may be stunted as they are potentially denied the opportunity to test themselves against the best competition.

As Read said, “a round robin or something along those lines would be fairer for everyone and result in a better product for the fans who turn up every week.”

TANA UMAGA IS SUPER RUGBY’S LUCKIEST MAN

The long-suffering Blues fan base was seemingly given another uppercut when it was announced that head coach Tana Umaga had been extended until the end of the 2019 season.

Umaga’s extension was announced just over halfway through the 2018 season when the side was sitting with a record of three wins and eight losses.

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After Umaga’s extension, the side would win just once more – their solitary home win of the season – as the Blues beat the Reds 39-16 at Eden Park in week 17.

Blues CEO Michael Redman defended the club’s decision to retain the former All Black, stating that “In the end, we haven’t been able to deliver and changing coaches every cycle hasn’t worked for the Blues previously.” Once 2019 rolls around, Umaga will join Peter Sloane and Pat Lam as the longest-tenured coach the club has had – after four years.

Umaga’s three seasons in charge of the Blues so far compare unfavorably to the man who preceded him, John Kirwan, who had consecutive finishes of 10th, 10th and 14th before he resigned in 2015.

Under Umaga, the Blues have finished 11th, 9th and now 14th after finishing 2018 at the bottom of the New Zealand conference, with their second-lowest competition points total (22) – above only the Sunwolves – and their second lowest points differential (-131) in club history. The two lower figures are both from Kirwan’s final year at the helm. These numbers don’t exactly scream extension.

Sure, the format hasn’t helped the Blues as they are forced to play their superior New Zealand counterparts on close to a weekly basis, but if the results aren’t there, there’s usually only one person fans and management point to.

THE JAGUARES AND REBELS ARE HERE TO STAY

When it was announced Super Rugby would be culling three teams before the start of the 2018 season, fans were quick to send the dreadful Melbourne Rebels to the end of the gangplank.

Instead, it was the Western Force who were shunned after 12 years of lacklustre performance where they failed to garner a single playoff berth and posted an all-time win percentage of 31%.

The Rebels, who failed to do much better than the Force since their inception in 2011, have turned things around in 2018 and justified their place under new head coach David Wessels.

It can’t be understated how much work Wessels had in front of him when he inherited the struggling one-win team who were coming off a season where they finished with a staggering points differential of -333.

After a personnel revamp saw the Rebels incorporate some of the best talent the Force had to offer and add Will Genia, the side barely missed out on their first-ever playoff spot and looked head-and-shoulders above the majority of their conference-mates in terms of structure and execution on the park. An impressive feat given their performance just one season earlier.

The Jaguares are another team that had their place in the competition questioned following the Super Rugby cull. In 2018, Mario Ledesma’s men more than justified their position in the competition.

Ledesma’s side stumbled out of the gates and looked destined to flop once again, but instead of laying down they recovered and went on an unfathomable seven-game winning streak in the middle of the season. They steamrolled through their tour of Australia and New Zealand, knocking off the Rebels, Brumbies, Blues and Chiefs in succession.

This stellar run became one of the stories of the season and helped the side earn their first playoff berth in their third year of existence.

THE CRUSADERS CHAMPIONSHIP WINDOW WILL BE OPEN FOR A WHILE

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Crusaders are really, really good.

After a period of relative stagnation and a nine-year gap between titles, the Crusaders are now arguably better than they have ever been and few would be surprised to see this team run it back as champions for a second consecutive year.

AMI Stadium is an impenetrable fortress – the Crusaders haven’t been beaten there in two years – and Scott Robertson’s men are primed to put on a show for their home fans during the playoffs after firing plenty of warning shots across the regular season, putting at least 40 points on the board on six occasions.

Not only is the best team in Super Rugby set up to win right now, but they are pretty well set up to dominate the competition for an extended period of time.

The Crusaders rarely let talent slip through the cracks and have showcased an uncanny ability to plug different – often overlooked – players in and get high-quality production out of them (See: Heiden Bedwell-Curtis, Billy Harmon, Andrew Makalio et al.), the rugby equivalent of turning water into wine.

Positionally, there are very few areas of concern in both the short and long term. At present, the side has 19 current or former All Blacks on the roster and – when healthy – could field an all international forward pack in a pinch with a couple of All Blacks coming off the bench. The depth and skill level of this side is simply unparalleled, as evidenced by the 30 different players they used as substitutes and their final points differential of +247.

It looks increasingly likely that Super Rugby’s most successful team are set to improve on their competition-best eight titles, and potentially surpass their mark of three consecutive titles set from 1998-2000.

In other news:

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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”?

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j
john 8 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.

33 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 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

33 Go to comments
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