What Richie Mo'unga said to Brad Weber after the Super Rugby Aotearoa grand final
The grand final of this year’s Super Rugby Aotearoa season was heart-breaking for Chiefs fans up and down the country but there’s one man who will be feeling it for weeks to come.
Brad Weber was an inspirational skipper for the Chiefs this year, taking over sole responsibilities of the role after co-captain Sam Cane was struck down by injury part-way through the campaign.
He was at his best again in last night’s 24-13 defeat, despite taking a nasty accidental knock to the head in the 14th minute and spending some time on the sidelines.
While the unfancied Chiefs were in with a sniff for the better part of the game and looked like they might squeeze a victory after the Crusaders lost two men to the sin-bin, the Crusaders eventually showed their class and pulled away in the final quarter, nabbing the last nine points of the relatively low-scoring match.
Richie Mo’unga was the player of the match, finishing the game with 90 run metres and two exceptional line breaks. He also nailed a drop goal, three penalties and one conversion plus threw the final pass in the build-up to Sevu Reece’s opening try of the match.
Naturally, the Crusaders celebrated the result when referee Ben O’Keeffe blew the final whistle but they didn’t forget about their opposition – many of whom they’ve played with in the international arena.
Mo’unga, the man of the hour, approached Weber to offer his commiserations, with the Chiefs captain revealing exactly what the Crusaders pivot had said to him in a post-match interview.
“He just congratulated me on leading the boys to here and what an awesome job that our lads have done this season,” Weber told Sky Sports’ Kirsty Stanaway. “He was really impressed and, obviously, I gave the same back.
“He’s the lynchpin of that team and he’s been outstanding all year and obviously I’m bloody devastated but happy for him.”
Weber was typically honest in his appraisal of the game.
“I’m absolutely devastated,” he said. “This is not how I saw tonight going. I envisaged us winning tonight.
“However, we did our absolute best, man. We threw everything at it. We had a hell of a week. We threw everything at them. We just weren’t good enough tonight.
“The Crusaders were incredibly clinical, even with guys in the bin, and their set-piece was just too good tonight. I’ve said all season that if you can get parity with the Crusaders at set-piece, you can go a long way to beating them. We certainly back our phase play attack and when we got going we looked all right but just couldn’t get enough of it.”
"If you need someone to create a hole in the opposition midfield, you give the ball to Leicester Fainga’anuku. If you’re looking for someone to glide through one, then David Havili is your man."#SuperRugbyAotearoa #CRUvCHI #AllBlacks
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While the Chiefs have had one of the better set-pieces in the competition recent weeks – ever since they were dominated by the Crusaders in their first encounter of the year in Christchurch – they were no match for All Blacks centurion Samuel Whitelock at lineout time, who managed three pilfers in the air.
Regardless of the result, Weber was pleased with the work and effort that his teammates put into the campaign after bouncing back from two straight defeats in their opening two matches – compounding the losing streak that began last year – and is hopeful that his side can take their Super Rugby Aotearoa form into the impending Trans-Tasman competition.
“[Incredibly proud] is an understatement,” he told Stanaway. “Any other team would have broken and fractured but we stayed true to each other and to the team and to the organisation and we stayed tight and the results went our way because of that. No one complained, we all stuck to it.
“Jeez, I love those boys. Such a pleasure to lead and just gutted for them. Hopefully we can keep a bit of continuity intact and we’ll be back.”
The Chiefs start their Trans-Tasman campaign with an away game against the Western Force in Perth on Saturday night. It will be the first time the two teams have faced off since 2017.
The Crusaders, meanwhile, will welcome defeated Super Rugby AU finalists the Brumbies to Christchurch on that same evening.
Comments on RugbyPass
Did the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
16 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to comments