The Tyranny Of Distance: Super Rugby's Expanding Problem
Lions coach Johan Ackermann’s gamble of leaving his first team at home for the final round trip to Buenos Aires blew up in his face on Saturday night. It also highlighted a major problem with the expanded Super Rugby format, writes Scotty Stevenson.
The tyranny of distance. That’s the problem for Super Rugby after watching the Hurricanes claim their maiden title against the Lions on Saturday night. The result was, unfortunately, never in doubt. No side has ever won a sudden death match in New Zealand after playing in South Africa the week before, regardless of where that side is from. Distance doesn’t discriminate, as was evidenced in Wellington on the weekend.
More on that in a second, but first, this: Lions coach Johan Ackermann’s decision to send a weakened side to Argentina for the final round of the regular season must now go down as one of the greatest coaching howlers in the history of the competition. That decision, which ended in his side losing to the Jaguares and therefore leaving the door ajar for another side to claim top spot, as the Hurricanes did, can only be judged a massive, pie-in-the-face failure.
It was a decision that ranks alongside the signing of Benji Marshall by the Blues, the importation of talent by the 2013 Highlanders, and anything the Kings have ever done. As was noted in the final Power Rankings of the season there were two ways of looking at that decision. But ultimately there was only one outcome.
I mentioned at the time that I could (just) understand Ackermann’s thinking. He was still going to have to get past two good teams to even make the final, and in order to do that he felt it best to rest his top side, and to protect them from the rigours of travel. There are two issues with that kind of gamble. One, it makes a mockery of the integrity of the competition when a coach can actively and brazenly attempt to game the system. Two, it is a zero-sum bet: he either wins it all, or loses everything. The latter, in this case, was the result.
In trying to understand Ackermann’s thinking we must head back to the point about distance. When a coach has to withhold his stars from a genuine regular season match because it is too taxing for them to travel, then you have a major problem. At the beginning of the year a quick review of the various team travel schedules not only revealed the extent of every team’s miles (they were all awe-inspiring), but the massive disparity in the respective miles each team had to endure. Some teams (like the Sunwolves) were forced to cover upwards of 30,000 more kilometres than other teams. That’s just not right.
What is also not right about the tyranny of distance is the fact that inter-nation finals (and 15 of the 21 Super Rugby finals played have been between teams from different nations) are about as atmospheric as the moon. No offence to Hurricanes fans who braved a balmy old night in the capital to cheer their team home, but the crowd was all Hurricanes fans. That is not atmosphere, that’s just a crowd.
Speaking to Welsh and (probably) British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland during the All Blacks series this year, he made the point that the true joy of the Six Nations Championship comes from the fact that the distances between nations allow for up to half the crowd at every fixture to be away fans. That’s where the magic happens. That’s why the Lions tours, with their thousands of travelling supporters, still rank as the greatest tours in all of rugby. The people make the occasion.
That’s why (and sorry again Hurricanes fans) the most memorable match of the finals series was not this weekend’s climax, but the semifinal the week before when at least there was a hope of some travelling support for the away side.
I don’t know how Super Rugby solves the issue. Unlike Europe where a finals venue can be chosen ahead of the season and a week is long enough to rustle up the fans, Super Rugby is likely to always have a one-sided final – if not in terms of the scoreline, then certainly in terms of the support.
And when you make a team travel across two oceans to play a final in foreign conditions, you are likely only to ever get one result. We have seen that so often now that I am still left to wonder if Johan Ackermann got the memo.
Comments on RugbyPass
To me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
26 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
26 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
48 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
26 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
26 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
26 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
26 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
26 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to commentsI think he is right, SBW is respected in RSA. The guy who never stood up is a worm. Sseems lots of NZ SBW hate, you do the crime do the time.
17 Go to comments