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Last week Rugby Pass published a story headlined ‘Why The Aviva Premiership is Better Than Super Rugby’. Fake news! This week, Jamie Wall sets the record straight.
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Here are the top seven reasons why, despite the conference system, Super Rugby is far superior to the Aviva Premiership:
Attack that actually works: Super Rugby is high-scoring because the players are just better at rugby. Low-scoring games can be good to watch, but defence is only as impressive as the attack allows it to be – there’s nothing particularly difficult about tackling a forward who is picking the ball out of a ruck, or a one-out runner coming straight at you (which is why league players can make upwards of 50 tackles a game). If your team’s game plan is so conservative that you’re only ever going to score less than 10 points, then the other team doesn’t exactly deserve a pat on the back for keeping you away from the try line.
It won’t ruin your Tinder game: Here in New Zealand, we don’t have to lock down every Friday or Saturday evening to watch our teams play. If the game is in Aussie, you can go out for a nice dinner or whatever, then get home to watch the match in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne kicking off at 10 pm. If it’s overnight in Perth or South Africa, then wake up and watch a replay. If you go on a date that goes really well, you can both get up and watch a game in Buenos Aires at 9 am Sunday morning (if that’s what’s on your mind, but that’s entirely up to you).
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Weather – We’re four weeks into Super Rugby, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still go to a game in shorts and a t-shirt at more than a few venues – even in New Zealand. In fact, you can probably do that all season long in Brisbane, while you won’t need to break out a hoodie in Johannesburg or Pretoria for a while yet.
Team names: While the Blues and the Reds clearly didn’t put much thought into theirs, the team names in Super Rugby do provide some excellent educational opportunities in both flora and fauna for the casual viewer. Thanks to Super Rugby we all now know what a Waratah and a Brumby are, that you swim at your own risk in Durban, and that wolves can indeed howl at the sun as well as the moon.
Mascots – Captain Hurricane, Tah Man and the flamed-horned Bulletjie have been part of the competition for years now, but in the past 18 months Super Rugby has taken the mascot game to the next level with the additions of new kids on the block Jaguardo and Wolvie. Meanwhile, even though they’re not mascots, the Sharks ‘flasher girls’ provide a delightfully tacky reminder of what you can still get away with in South Africa.
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Better players: Hmmm, should we watch the current All Blacks, or the ones that got replaced by someone better? Or the guys that couldn’t even make the team at all, as well as a bunch of Englishmen I’ve never heard of? That’s pretty much the argument between watching Super Rugby and the English Premiership.
This try by Carlos Spencer: I’m just going to leave this here to finish with.
Comments on RugbyPass
This is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
6 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
1 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
86 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
2 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
3 Go to commentsWell one thing about World Cup knock out rounds and Ireland is very clear: they won’t be getting ahead of themselves in ‘27! Because making it beyond the QF is well and truly ‘IN THEIR HEADS’ now…😉
86 Go to commentsHas this guy been dope tested? Sounds like a case of “roid rage”.
1 Go to commentsI would like to see him say that to Eben face to face in a dark alley.
86 Go to commentsYep, lost in translation. There are arrogant people in Ireland, yes. As there are arrogant people in every country, but as a nation, arrogance is not a general characteristic in Ireland. There has not really had a strong representation for any global sport over the years, and hence arrogance is not endemic to Irish people in this regard. I seriously doubt that was said or meant by 12 or 13 players. If it was said, it would have been said in jest and to pay Etzebeth and the Springboks a compliment for how hard fought the game was.
86 Go to commentsOne of the few Bidwell articles I can agree with. If coaches played their players through niggles and consistently played them 80mins then you could make an argument for resting protocols - they obviously don’t and are incredibly responsible, let’s give up the resting nonsense and let the boys play.
4 Go to commentsDaniel Gallan, please for the love of all that is holy, stop writing about rugby. Or at the very least stop telling people you are South African.
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