Hurri-home!
Canes top table for home quarter
Advantage Hurricanes. Super Rugby’s new, expanded playoffs will launch next weekend with four Kiwi teams looming large, but just the boys from the capital being rewarded for a dominant regular season with a home quarterfinal.
It’s flawed, it’s frustrating, and it’s foolish. But it is what it is, and that’s a system that protects the winners of the conferences at the expense of the teams that collect the most points by winning the most matches. Sanzaar has its reasons for that and this year it just so happens that it’s some in-form Kiwi teams who end up holding the wrong end of the pineapple.
So, as the dust settled on Super Saturday on the Mainland, all four New Zealand teams were still standing – we knew that going in – though it was the Hurricanes and, to a lesser extent, the Highlanders who took the preferred playoff route.
The Hurricanes, courtesy of their runaway, record, five-tries-to-one 35-10 victory over the Crusaders in Christchurch, secured the New Zealand conference title for the second straight year, and with it a home quarterfinal next weekend. They will be the No 1 overall seed, too, unless the second-string Lions can defeat the Jaguares in Buenos Aires today.
That’s possible, but Lions coach Johan Ackermann chose to rest 15 players for the trip, which indicated fairly and squarely it was a match he was prepared to concede for the greater good.
The Canes finished on 53 points to shade a grandstand finish to the conference. Jamie Joseph’s defending champion Highlanders snatched second, just a point back, courtesy of their grind-out 25-15 victory over the Chiefs in Dunedin.
That left the Chiefs having to be content with third, on 51 points, while the Crusaders take the fourth and final quarterfinal spot for the conference on 50 points. Both sides now face trips to South Africa for their quarterfinals, unless the Lions get up in Argentina.
It’s a big advantage for Chris Boyd’s men who can now settle in for an expanded run in Wellington, if they’re good enough.
The Highlanders’ hard-fought victory in Dunedin, with one or two big calls going their way, was certainly worthwhile, with second spot earning them the preferred quarterfinal in Australia, to take on the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday.
That three-hour flight to Canberra is infinitely more preferable than the long haul to South Africa, as the Chiefs and Crusaders will now likely have to do, to play the Stormers and Lions respectively.
Given that three of the New Zealand teams will finish with more points than two conference winners in the Stormers and, probably, Brumbies, they’re entitled to wonder about the reward for all their hard work.
Though certainly the Canes and Highlanders were looking on the bright side of their scenarios last night. ’’I’m proud of the boys’ effort,’’ said Canes skipper Dane Coles in Christchurch. ‘‘To come away with a bonus point was just a great win. It’s one of the proudest wins I’ve ever had as a Hurricane.’’
Highlanders captain Ben Smith was just happy to be making the short haul across the Tasman rather than the alternative.
‘‘I was dreading [that trip to South Africa] a wee bit,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s still going to be tough going to Aussie but we’ll get really prepared for a big battle next weekend.’’
Disappointed Crusaders captain Kieran Read lamented his team’s inability to convert pressure into points early, but was very much taking the glass half-full view.
‘‘There are 10 teams going home now, so we’re a lucky one who come back next week. We’ve got a great opportunity..’’