Rennie queries Super format
keep him out of the game.
But for all Nadolo’s heroics and the Crusaders’ possession dominance, the Blues defence was the story for much of the match. They repelled wave after wave of relentless attack through ferocious tackling.
Bone-rattling hits from Charlie Faumuina, Jerome Kaino and Steven Luatua could be heard from the stands. Faumuina hit Johnny McNicholl into next week with one shot that eventually forced him from the field.
Kaino has been short of his best at times this year but his performance should serve a reminder of why he’s a beast not to be messed with. Luatua also worked himself to a standstill, while Scott Barrett proved impressive again for the red and blacks.
After turning down two shots at goal in favour of kicking for the corner, the Crusaders were forced to retreat and temporarily reconsider that approach, a compliment to the Blues’ resolute defensive wall.
Spurred on by their defence, the Blues counter-punched. Kaino’s charge-down led to Ihaia West’s try and George Moala skipped over after a Matt Duffie burst. Suddenly, the Crusaders were staring down the barrel of 15-10 halftime deficit.
Moala produced several good carries in midfield and the Blues lost James Parsons to concussion. art of closing out a game against a class side.
The Friday night lights this week offered everything a rugby tragic could wish for: upsets, controversy, drama and a piece of amazing strength and determination from Ardie Savea that, with hindsight, may prove to be a crucial moment in his career path.
Of the two upsets, the Hurricanes pipping the Highlanders and the Waratahs whipping the Chiefs, the Tahs’ victory, or more accurately the Chiefs’ loss, was the most startling.
The questions raised by the Waratahs game range from qualms over the Chiefs being able to find the defensive steel lacking in Sydney when they face the Crusaders in five weeks’ time in, bizarrely, Fiji, to whether the media hype over Damian McKenzie, of which I’d freely confess to playing a part, may have glossed over the fact that while he’s fearless, he may just be too small for fullback. England v Wales TV times:
As the match wore on the toll of their three-week road trip caught up with them.
In the end the defensive wall couldn’t cope with the relentless battering.
(Nemani Nadolo, Andy Richie Mo’unga con 2, pen 4), West, George Moala tries, West pen Piers Francis pen). 15-10 Ellis tries, (Ihaia 2, con,
Controversy? It connects to Jaco Peyper like hairspray to Donald Trump. The most jittery decisionmaker in top-level rugby suddenly went Terminator-tough in Sydney, which meant even commentators as level-headed as Tony Johnson were on social media after the game accusing him of constantly missing cheap shots by the Tahs, and, in the process, largely ignoring his assistant referees.
Drama? The Ardie Savea try to win the game in Wellington was extraordinary. Just ask the Crusaders how gritty the Highlanders defence is. But Savea strode through tackles in a way we haven’t seen in a New Zealand footy team since Steve Price was playing for the Warriors.
One moment won’t have swayed our hugely pragmatic All Black selection panel. But the run was surely a reminder that Ardie Savea is one of that rare breed, an X-factor player who can do things that just can’t be coached. Chiefs coach Dave Rennie has tackled the elephant in the room and suggested Super Rugby’s controversial finals format needs tweaking.
Rennie stopped short of declaring the current set-up unfair on New Zealand teams – who are dominating the 2016 competition – but made it clear South African sides were getting a better deal.
‘‘There’s going to be four quarterfinals and two of them are going to be in Africa,’’ Rennie said after his table-topping Chiefs missed their chance to take command of the New Zealand conference with a 45-25 loss to the NSW Waratahs in Sydney.
‘‘Considering they’ve got six teams and half those games are going to be there . . . I guess they put a lot of money into it, so that’s the way it is.
‘‘In the end, we’ve known about the comp – it is what it is. It means if you don’t win your conference, you’re travelling.’’
In the first year of the expanded competition, the 18 teams are grouped geographically with two regional groups, each consisting of two conferences.
The Australasian Group has five teams in the Australian Conference and five teams in the New Zealand Conference.
The South African Group has six South African teams, one Argentine team and one Japanese team split into a four-team Africa 1 Conference and a four-team Africa 2 Conference.
It means if you don’t win your conference, you’re travelling.
Coach Dave Rennie
The top team in each of the four conferences will automatically qualify to the quarter-finals, with the next three ranked teams in the Australasian Group and next best team in the South African group qualifying for the quarter-finals as wildcards.
As it stands, three New Zealand teams will claim wildcard spots ahead of Sanzaar’s review of the format.
‘‘It’s difficult this many teams in,’’ Rennie said.
‘‘I even look at the Jaguares (from Argentina) and obviously they’ve really battled but, gee, they’ve had some travel.
‘‘Their pool games are predominantly in Africa. They had a three-week tour of New Zealand and went to Japan and then went home.
‘‘We’ve done a bit of travel too but that’s what happens when you get this many teams involved.’’
Rennie said he’d prefer a 16-team competition where everyone played each other once before a four or six-team finals series.
‘‘That’s a fairer system, isn’t it?’’ he said.
‘‘There’s been a bit of talk about the fact that maybe the Stormers, Bulls – they play 15 round-robin games and they don’t have to play a Kiwi side.
‘‘That’s not a bad draw is it?’’ The Chiefs now have some time to chew on Friday’s loss as Super Rugby goes into a month-long hiatus.
‘‘Obviously we’re incredibly disappointed, it was an important game for us,’’ coach Dave Rennie said. ‘‘And now she’s a bit of logjam in the New Zealand conference.
‘‘The boys are hurting. It was certainly a pretty quiet changing room.
‘‘It meant a lot to them. So that’s probably a positive sign.’’
The 45 points conceded are the Chiefs’ equal-most (the other being against the Hurricanes two years back) under Rennie’s watch, while the last time they conceded more than that was back in 2010.