10 things you need to know
month long break means a bit of a reboot is needed.
In case you have forgotten, we have reached the final regular-season round. Here’s our Super Rugby catch-up. The final round is played this weekend but the four conference winners are already known, meaning we already have some order out of a chaotic competition. The Crusaders, Lions, Stormers and Brumbies have secured home quarter-final games next weekend. This reminder needs to go up high: no Australian team has beaten a New Zealand side this season. This leaves the Highlanders and Chiefs as the final guardians of all that is good and right in the national game. Australia’s last chance to record a regular-season win over a Kiwi team involves the Reds playing in Dunedin and the Brumbies playing in Hamilton. And the Brumbies are resting their stars, if that is the right word, and fielding a dud side instead. The smart money will be on New Zealand completing this extraordinary clean sweep. The Blues are the only New Zealand team out of contention, a home truth that will be a bit of a comedown after their rare big-game win over the Lions. They’ve got a duty free shopping trip to Tokyo, against the mighty Sunwolves. The Super Rugby quarter-finalists are already known.(in current seeding order): Crusaders, Lions, Stormers, Brumbies, Hurricanes, Chiefs, Highlanders and Sharks. (The quarter-finals involve 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5).
But there is still plenty resting on these games. The Chiefs, for instance, want the the Crusaders to beat the Hurricanes in order to avoid a dash to Cape Town. To further the theme of this being a situation where a New Zealand team can stuff it up for a New Zealand team, if the Hurricanes beat the unbeaten Crusaders in Wellington tomorrow night, and the Lions beat the Sharks, then a Crusaders v Lions final would be played in Johannesburg rather than Christchurch. In a weird quirk of fate, the ill-fated Southern Kings play the Cheetahs in Port Elizabeth. This will be their dual Super Rugby swan-song. This round will bring the curtain down on the worst Super Rugby regular season for once-strong