Super Rugby wrap: A masterclass in dropping the ball

Fergus Burke of the Crusaders during the Super Rugby Pacific Rugby match against the Brumbies, in Christchurch on Friday.
Photo: John Davidson / Photosport

Momentum is one of the key things in rugby if you’re wanting to win, and that’s not just on the field. Someone needs to write that on a piece of wood, go to whoever oversees what’s happening to Super Rugby team selection, and smack them over the head with it.

After perhaps the best start to a Super Rugby season in years, even decades, the ball has been decidedly dropped. Players from both countries are being rested en masse, meaning it’s pretty hard to take things particularly seriously when the main game of the weekend was effectively tanked by a Brumbies side that showed up without its best players. The Crusaders are difficult enough to beat in Christchurch (unless you’re the Chiefs) without giving them a leg up like that, but from start to finish the game felt like a formality for the defending champs.

Remember, the Brumbies were unbeaten going into this game and are Australia’s best hope of winning a Super Rugby Pacific title. But they clearly marked this fixture down as one they’d just drop, as did the Highlanders in their first three games.

The Blues at least rested their All Blacks in a game they won, against the Force, but that was completely overshadowed down the road at Mt Smart by a Warriors side picking up a third win out of four in their NRL campaign in front of 19,000 fans. That was the largest crowd at a sporting event in NZ over a weekend that included top level rugby, league, and international one day cricket and football.

Then word has come out that the Crusaders are seeking an exemption for the All Black rest period because of their injury toll in the second row which, if granted, makes even more of a mockery of the situation. If they are only guidelines rather than actual rules, why follow them at all? Especially since the whole idea is to benefit an All Black coaching staff that NZ Rugby wants replaced anyway.

Some other observations from the weekend:

• If you suffer from insomnia, a replay of the Chiefs and Waratahs should help fix it. Still, regardless of how they got the win it again underlines the unbeaten Chiefs’ title credentials this season.
• Maybe the Drua can get hypnotherapy next time they go to the South Island? Their last two visits to the mainland have resulted in them giving up 118 points, and on Saturday’s visit to the Highlanders they turned into an unrecognisable version of the side that shocked the Crusaders just over a fortnight ago.
• The Rebels actually look alright. For so long the Rebels have been the unloved, ugly step-child of Super Rugby, but something’s brewing in Melbourne with their usual cast of misfits and offcuts beating the Reds and not disgracing themselves in losses to the Hurricanes and Chiefs.
• But Moana Pasifika look cooked already. The Hurricanes dealt to them at Mt Smart on Saturday night, making their 59-0 win look like a glorified training run by the end. Yes, the Canes are a very good side this year but while Moana have only won a handful of games, they had been capable of lifting a gear when playing at home. Now they’ve just been pantsed on their own field and shipped their biggest ever losing margin, so they better figure out a remedy quickly.

• Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens got a memorable try in a workmanlike win for the Blues. In a fantastic case of taking the chance to steal the spotlight, the fringe Blues outside back seemed to hover in the air while taking a cross kick, then freakishly finding a way to ground the ball despite landing on his back.
• Amazingly, there were only two yellow cards in the entire round.