Super Rugby semis: Four goes down to two

Crusaders or Chiefs, Blues or Brumbies.

Leicester Fainga’anuku of the Crusaders scores a try which was later disallowed during the Super Rugby Pacific Round 10 match between the Crusaders and the Melbourne Rebels at AAMI Park in Melbourne, today.
Photo: Scott Barbour / www.photosport.nz

Four teams go into this weekend’s semifinals but only two will emerge to play for the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific title.

Friday night’s first match was being hosted in Christchurch – and it wouldn’t be a surprise many to learn the 12-time Super Rugby champion Crusaders went in as favourites.

But, having lost at home to their opponents the Chiefs earlier in the season, coach Scott Robertson was taking nothing for granted.

“They’re physical, they’re tough, they’re great on the counter-attack.

“They showed some moments in their [quarterfinal win] where they played some special footy, and we know from last time they were down here that they can do it.

“You’ve got to be right on, and stay on, with them. It’s going to be a hell of a game.”

Few punters were predicting any different.

And it was for all the above reasons, Robertson said there had been an edge to the Crusaders preparation.

“You’ve got to enjoy the week but there’s always a little bit of (inhales and exhales) … deep sigh moments.

“Have you done enough and have you prepared the boys well enough?

“My mind goes pretty deep anyway but probably more these weeks than others.”

You can bet the same went for Robertson’s Chiefs counterpart.

Clayton McMillan said he and his team were up for it and while the Crusaders had won their last 26 playoff matches at home, the visitors weren’t short on optimism.

“You have to just acknowledge and respect the fact they’ve been really tough to beat down there. They know how to get up and perform in finals rugby.

“The challenge for us is to rise to the occasion and force them into a few errors.

“There’s no magic formula [but] we know we’ve got the squad that can go down there and win.”

AJ Lam of the Blues and Finlay Christie of the Blues celebrates Dalton Papalii of the Blues try during the Super Rugby Pacific match, Crusaders Vs Blues, Christchurch 15 April.
Photo: John Davidson / www.photosport.nz

Both teams featuring in Saturday night’s second semi held similar belief.

For the Blues, much of that came from the team-record 14-match winning streak they carried into the clash with the Brumbies.

Forwards coach Tom Coventry said they were looking to their big names as they tried to secure home advantage for the final.

“Beauden in the 10 jersey. That’s probably an obvious solution for us that he plays his best.

“I know he was pretty hard on himself last week [about his performance] but he’s a class player and we’ve got plenty of players that know how to play the big matches.

“We’ll be relying heavily on them to step up and draw on their experience when we need to.”

But the Brumbies cantered across the Tasman full of confidence.

Especially after bouncing back from three straight losses with a come-from-behind win over the Hurricanes in their quarterfinal in Canberra.

Coach Dan McKellar said they were more than ready for the challenge of preventing another all-New Zealand encounter for Super Rugby silverware.

“We’ve been here before haven’t we. We had to go to Argentina [in 2019] and play in a semi over there but we go to Auckland really confident.

“We felt we should have won that game a couple of weeks ago (the Blues beat the Brumbies 21-19 in Canberra).

“There’s an enormous amount of respect for them, they’ve got threats across the park but we feel we’ve got the game that can challenge them.”

Friday’s first semifinal was set to kick-off at 7.05pm, with the winner either off to Eden Park, or having a home crowd, for next week’s decider.