Fingers crossed for Crusaders
OPINION: For the credibility of the competition, all of us need the Crusaders to beat the Lions by 40 points in the upcoming Super Rugby final.
There are still semifinals to be played, but let’s assume the Crusaders can take care of the Hurricanes in the first of those, before travel and high altitude defeat the Waratahs in Johannesburg. That’ll leave us with a repeat of last year’s decider, with the Crusaders to meet the Lions.
You could argue the Lions were worthy finalists in 2017. Their 14-1 record hints at it; only there wasn’t a single New Zealand opponent on the schedule.
That helped them secure the home advantage which enabled them to see the Hurricanes off in the semifinals and almost pip the Crusaders a week later.
This time around, the Lions lost seven games en route to finishing the roundrobin part of the season second. You say second, except the Lions’ record was inferior to the Hurricanes and Chiefs. That’s the conference system for you.
But, frankly, no team whose regular season features losses to the Blues and Reds should ever be within a bull’s roar of a final.
The Crusaders lost two games in March – away to the Hurricanes and Highlanders – but have won 13 in a row since. They’ve not lost in Christchurch since July 2016, when the Hurricanes beat them 35-10.
Yet they could conceivably lose to a team like the Lions in the final, who have little to recommend them other than geography. No wonder people have moaned and groaned about the format.
The Hurricanes probably pose the most legitimate threat to the Crusaders. Their 32-31 quarterfinal win over the Chiefs wasn’t nearly as close as it looks and featured the kind of abrasive, clinical football Hurricanes fans hadn’t seen for a while.
But it’s one thing to play like that at home against the Chiefs. The Crusaders in Christchurch is a different matter, as the Hurricanes discovered during their 24-13 defeat there in May.
The Crusaders produced their usual professional effort in dispatching the Sharks 40-10 in Saturday’s first quarterfinal, before the Waratahs came back from 23-6 down to beat the Highlanders 30-23 in Sydney.
The Highlanders had the game sewn up until halfback Aaron Smith was overlyambitious on the Waratahs line and had a pass intercepted. From then on it was oneway traffic.
After a campaign which promised so much, and produced All Blacks callups for Jackson Hemopo and Shannon Frizell, and a recall for Tom Franklin, it was a flat finish for the Highlanders.
The Lions then had a predictable 40-23 win at home over the Jaguares to complete the semifinal lineup.