Canes and Highlanders best playoff prospects
Two decades into Super Rugby and it seems Kiwi teams don’t have their heads around what knockout rugby is all about. It took the All Blacks 24 years of World Cup failure to finally get it. Knockout rugby has little to do with form, or the apparent talent within the group or the number of socalled star players. The usual assessments don’t work. Logic has to be thrown away because it won’t help accurately determine what might happen in the next few weeks. Instead, it has everything to do with character, resilience and desire. Knockout rugby is about hanging in there and scrambling small victories at critical times.
It’s not easy to describe, but at the core of teams who tend to do well in playoffs, is this indefatigable spirit. Champion sides usually have a near indestructible passion to keep working for one another, to defend with everything they have and not allow themselves to drift out of the game or be crushed by a little adversity.
Looking at the eight teams left in Super Rugby, two stand out as being near-perfect playoff teams: the Hurricanes and Highlanders.
They have the qualities required to find a way to the final. The Highlanders are masters at doggedness. They have something incredible within their camp that allows them to stay in games.
Look at how they scrapped and struggled to get over the top of the British and Irish Lions. They are a team that refuses to be put away and despite losing their pool encounter with the Crusaders in Christchurch, they will be confident they can achieve a result this weekend.
They will be welcoming back Aaron Smith and Ben Smith and their coaching group has previously shown it is capable of astute tactical analysis to build clever and effective game plans tailored for the occasion.
That’s another playoff gift — adapting strategies to suit. The Highlanders kicked the Waratahs to defeat in 2015 and the Hurricanes, maybe not fully appreciated, tackled their way to the title last year.
In the pool stages, they were all about their attacking flair and then for the last three games, they flipped the emphasis to the tenacity of their defence, didn’t concede a try in 240 minutes of playoff rugby and were crowned champions.
Just like the Highlanders, the Hurricanes have that same capacity to find a way to score points, to defend their line and scramble. Under pressure, they have shown they can deliver. They didn’t do that so well in 2015, but last year, they were calm, composed and clinical in the final three games.
Their path to the final will most likely involve a trip to Ellis Park which may not be as daunting as it seems. The Lions are a good side and with home advantage will be hard to beat. But the track at Ellis Park will most likely be dry and fast, and that will suit the Hurricanes just fine.
Forget how things looked in the pool stages. None of that matters now.