Super Rugby Power Rankings: Garth April May Be Due In July
The Sharks’ form first-five sees them rocket up the rankings and into playoff contention, while the Crusaders once again show that they’re a force to be reckoned with.
1. Crusaders
Rd 11: 38-5 v Reds
Last week: 3 (up 2)
The Crusaders decided it would be best if they used Friday night as an opposed training session. Did this team really ever get out of third gear against the Reds? I don’t think so. I mean, seriously, who plays with 30% of the ball and still outscores a team six tries to one? Matt Todd can probably take a bow as the best on show for the Crusaders. Yes, Jone Macilai scored three tries, but Todd made 18 tackles and won four turnovers, a defensive performance that was emblematic of the entire Crusaders defensive effort. The only major of the Crusaders was the penalty count – a by-product of spending so much time tackling. They’ll want to bring the defence-offence ratio back a little against the Highlanders.
2. Highlanders
Rd 11: 26-13 v Chiefs
Last week: 4 (up 2)
Every Highlanders fan under this fair sun will be saying, hang about – we just knocked off the top of the table team, on their home patch, for the fifth-straight time and you still won’t put us at number one. Avid Power Rankings reader, Peter Reidie Esq. will be particularly incensed by this perceived slight.
So, let me say this: the Highlanders came to Hamilton with a perfect game plan, looked infinitely more comfortable going wide with Waisake Naholo back in the mix, and hustled hard on turnover ball. However, they still missed 28 first up tackles, were gifted a horrific unforced error rate, and played against 14 men for 20 minutes. I’ma let you Highlanders fans finish, after the game against the Crusaders next week.
3. Chiefs
Rd 11: 13-26 v Highlanders
Last week: 1 (down 2)
The Chiefs fall a couple of places this week, as they must, but fans can take heart from the fact that the foundations of this team are still strong. This was a major off-night in the Tron for the Chiefs – a result of trying to squeeze a little too much out of the pattern after a fortnight of hard-fought victories against the Hurricanes and the Sharks. The Chiefs just kept dropping the ball, and that meant for the first 40 minutes they failed to string more than three phases of attack together. Losing Charlie Ngatai for ten minutes cost them dearly. I can’t see the Chiefs being this loose with the ball again.
4. Sharks
Rd 11: 32-15 v Hurricanes
Last week: 10 (up 6)
I am taking a massive leap of faith here. The Sharks remaining schedule looks like this: Jaguares (terrible), Kings (worst ever), Lions (a little shaky), Cheetahs (batshit crazy), and Sunwolves (knackered). Garth April has been a revelation since taking the first five jersey, and was classy against the Canes in Durban. The Sharks defence has been the team’s calling card all season long but they have started to add some attack, and that is a dangerous proposition for their conference opponents as the season draws to a close. I can’t believe I am doing this, by the way.
5. Hurricanes
Rd 11: 15-32 v Sharks
Last week: 2 (down 3)
This was a total downer for the Canes, who still managed to run for close to 600 metres in the match but struggled to find a way to capitalise. Like the Chiefs, they have so many parts of the playoff puzzle already laid out, but 24 turnovers and 22 missed tackles, combined with an outclassed lineout only adds up to disappointment. As if to make it worse, Beauden Barrett said before the match that the Sharks will feed on Hurricanes mistakes. That was supposed to be a caution, it became a prediction.
6. Stormers
Rd 11: BYE
Last week: 7 (up 1)
Barring an absolute disaster, the Stormers will win their conference. And that is just the kind of over-confident statement that ends badly.
7. Brumbies
Rd 11: 23-6 v Bulls
Last week: 12 (up 5)
As much as I wanted to sleep in the bed I made with the Waratahs, the Brumbies’ win in Canberra – as coma-inducing as it was – gets the nod for the more impressive Australian win of the round, given the fact the Bulls are a better team than the Cheetahs. Get this, the Brumbies carried 128 times and beat nine defenders. You couldn’t come up with a less penetrative stat if you were running backwards. Still, a win’s a win.
8. Waratahs
Rd 11: 21-6 v Cheetahs
Last week: 5 (down 3)
Thirty-one kicks in play! My goodness. I’m starting to wonder how much the Waratahs want to win this conference. This was a bonus point waiting to happen, and the Waratahs were guilty of waiting for it to happen, which of course it never did. If I was click-baiting the Waratahs I would headline this performance with “The Waratahs faced the Cheetahs in Sydney, you probably will believe what happened next”.
9. Lions
Rd 11: BYE
Last week: 8 (down 1)
Needed a break and got one. The Lions’ form has been on a downward trajectory over the last couple of weeks. The spark they had at the start of the season has just not been there, but I am sure there is still plenty of fire in the side. They have the Blues this week, a team that the Lions no longer fear. Four of their last six games are against conference opponents. They need this game against the Blues to set them up for the run home.
10. Blues
Rd 11: 34-18 v Kings
Last week: 9 (down 1)
The Blues won away from home for the first time since the Harbour Bridge was built, or something like that, and should at least be happy with having shaken that monkey off their back. Stink thing is, the Blues again spent so much time inside their own 22 that you would think they were trying to buy it at auction given none of them can afford land in Auckland. Why won’t Ihaia West run more? Can someone please tell me why?
11. Rebels
Rd 11: BYE
Last week: 11 (N/C)
It’s D-Day for the Rebellion this week when they face the Brumbies. Fresh from the bye and with home advantage, this is a must-win and can-win. It’s a tough run home for the Rebs, and their best chance of a playoff is still going to be winning the Australian conference. Alas, they face the two top New Zealand teams, the top Australian team and the top South African team in their last six matches. Big ask.
12. Bulls
Rd 11: 6-23 v Brumbies
Last week: 6 (down 6)
Has a side this season actually done less in a game of rugby? Hardly carried the ball, hardly passed it, hardly formed a ruck, and scored no tries. Just when I was actually starting to like the Bulls’ chances they go and serve this sort of performance up. It beggars belief that a team can make 85 passes in a game and turn the ball over 20 times. Was it covered in bees?
13. Jaguares
Rd 11: BYE
Last week: 15 (up 2)
I’m pretty sure that if I was the Jaguares coach, I would have wanted to play this week on the back of the 73-point hammering of the Kings the week before. Mind you, they do have a Sharks team to face this week, the same Sharks team that flew to New Zealand, played three tough matches, flew back to South Africa for one game, and now fly to Argentina for another. I still think the Sharks will be too much for them, in much the same way that the Stormers were.
14. Force
Rd 11: 40-22 v Sunwolves
Last week: 17 (up 3)
Fair play to the Force. After a couple months of being hunted down like Ralph in Lord of the Flies, the Force finally found someone else to pick on, inflicting a big defeat on the Sunwolves who, it must be said, probably did more to lose this match than the Force did to win it. How about Marcel Brache scoring a hat trick? This was made even better by the fact those three tries were his first for the franchise. Speaking of tries, the Force scored six in the match and that still wasn’t enough to bring their average above two per game this season.
15. Sunwolves
Rd 11: 22-40 v Force
Last week: 16 (up 1)
Showed the after-effects of celebrating their maiden win by blowing four genuine try scoring opportunities. Still managed to run 684 metres in the game, and still scored four tries. Here’s a cold hard fact for the Sunwolves: if they had thought about kicking the ball more than 12 times in the game, they would have had their second win of the season. The Force can’t kick return.
16. Reds
Rd 11: 5-38 v Crusaders
Last week: 13 (down 3)
Apart from one deftly weighted kick by Jake McIntyre which led to the Reds’ only try against the Crusaders, this was a team repeatedly banging its collective head against a brick wall in the vein hope that a crack would appear before their skull exploded. As it was, the Reds had no real change-up in attack and were repeatedly exposed by the Crusaders short-side manipulation. I’m going to give the Reds an A for effort, and a D for imagination.
17. Cheetahs
Rd 11: 6-21 v Waratahs
Last week: 14 (down 3)
The second of two South African teams to arrive in Australia, face underwhelming teams, and fail to score a single solitary try. The Cheetahs scrum looked so ordinary they should have renamed it a maul, but apart from the missed tackles, the appalling turnover rate, the ineffective kicking, the complete lack of attacking strategy, the low ruck retention rate and the one-sided scoreline, this was a great week in Cheetahs rugby.
18. Kings
Rd 11: 18-34 v Blues
Last week: 18 (N/C)
Didn’t suck as badly as last week, which was pleasing for the ten people who watched live at Nelson Mandela Stadium, and the thirteen others who watched live on television.
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