Super Rugby Pacific: The rivalry that Auckland needs

Opinion – On Saturday night the Blues welcome their home crowd back to Eden Park, in their second match against Moana Pasifika in less than a week.

There was a rivalry between the Blues (pictured) and Moana Pasifika as soon as the latter got the tentative green light last year.
Photo: PhotoSport / Brett Phibbs

The Covid-19-disrupted schedule meant that the anticipated first game between the cross-town rivals got played in front of a few thousand on a Tuesday night instead of in a prime time slot, so hopefully Aucklanders can respond and get there in numbers.

Last weekend wasn’t exactly the grand reopening Super Rugby was hoping for on this side of the Tasman, with a couple of pretty underwhelming crowds in Dunedin and Hamilton. Which is why, in the best interests of the competition, the Blues and Moana Pasifika need to rip into each other tomorrow night and give everyone something to talk about afterwards.

There was a rivalry between the two as soon as Moana Pasifika got the tentative green light last year, with the Blues making little secret of the contempt they hold for a team they feel is after their players and fanbase. So let’s see it spill over onto the park.

The marketing of Super Rugby has done nothing lately to promote the long-standing and often bitter rivalries in the competition. In order for the Moana Pasifika project to work they need to have a team that they love testing themselves against more than anyone else, which by default has to be the Blues. There is a big brother/little brother vibe, a City v Southside scrap to be had. Once they can spark that into life, it’ll be an incentive for people to show up and see the vitriol with their own eyes.

Meanwhile it’s taken five seasons, but Jordie Barrett is getting a crack in a position that many believed he should have been in all along. He’ll pull on the Hurricanes 12 jersey for this Sunday’s clash with the Chiefs in Wellington, in a backline reshuffle that sees Ruben Love move to fullback and Jackson Garden-Bachop back at first five. Eyebrows raised? Sure, but really the Canes can’t possibly be as bad as they were last Friday against Moana Pasifika so the gamble is probably worth it.

The younger of the Barrett brothers teased a switch to the NRL last season. While it was a throwaway line on a podcast, it does give an insight into how he can be utilised at second five, taking the ball to the line like a second-rower and popping offloads. Maybe even to Ardie Savea looming on the inside – another player who went on a podcast and talked about switching to league. There hasn’t been anyone who has pulled that instant-headline trick so far in 2022, but the season is still young.

In the wash-up of the historic first Moana Pasifika win, the Canes have escaped a fair bit of scrutiny as everyone rightfully praised Aaron Mauger’s side for their big performance to pull off the upset. But really, they were handed that game by an inept Canes team that couldn’t cash in on a huge penalty advantage and two Moana Pasifika players getting yellow carded. That should rank as one of the worst performances in Hurricanes history, down there with the 60-7 season-opening hiding given to them by the Blues in 2002.

This is essentially a new side coach Jason Holland is running out at Sky Stadium, so that loss shouldn’t really affect what happens on Sunday, but if the effort and energy is anywhere near as low, the Chiefs will murder them. Even without injured Brodie Retallick and coming off a disappointing loss to the Crusaders, they are too good a team to let that amount of chances go to waste.