Let’s buy these Super administrators a dop
The first thing you have to do at the start of each Super Rugby season is have a stiff drink to settle you down, writes John Robbie.
|||The first thing you have to do at the start of each Super Rugby season is have a stiff drink to settle you down. Then you have to set some time aside to get to grips with the latest new formula for the competition.
Now we have four conferences instead of three, with two South African ones, each accommodating a Japanese and Argentinian side. The sides then play, with no sense of rhythm or rhyme, for about six or seven months, by which time most people have lost interest in all the games, apart from those involving their team. Suddenly excitement peaks again as eight sides make it into the play-offs and, if anyone is left standing, it whittles away to a final. Does that make sense? Not at all, but that’s the way it is.
Next you get up and pour another stiff one and try to work through the new law interpretations. These are designed to speed up the game, so New Zealand teams will have a big advantage over the rest. However, when you get into the changes they seem trivial and almost insignificant. At a line-out, a rolling maul cannot be set up with the initial carrier moving straight to the back. Instead, the ball must be worked back through the maul. So what! The result is the same: A try for David Pocock of the Brumbies.
Wheeled scrums will result in the same team getting the put-in instead of a change in possession. Guess how the clock will now be run down? Scrum, wheel, scrum, wheel, scrum, hooter, whistle.
There is baffling stuff about catching the ball in the plane of touch, on the plane of touch and outside it. There is more confusion about imaginary extensions of the 22-metre line and where the line-out will occur. A collapsed ruck remains a ruck and so a player attempting to step through it is penalised. Surely the idea is to attract players into rucks and mauls to leave space elsewhere?
Also, the delicate little scrumhalves, bless them, now have even less to worry about as their opposite number is virtually banned from harassing at the base. So the No9 is now also another defender in the line.
Another glass is needed, I fear. With some trepidation, the first two games were watched Friday and, guess what, the product was simply magnificent. Tana Umaga is coaching the Blues and they beat the champion Highlanders in a nail-biter. What a match. What spirit from the previously pathetic Blues. Players many of us haven’t heard of have stepped up to replace the retired and the mercenaries and the level of skill on display was exceptional.
Watch out for a halfback called Billy Guyton. Where has he been? Line speed, meaning aggressive and fast-up defence, was the order of the day and so was continuity. Fitness levels were almost impossible – and watch out for size soon being sacrificed for speed. The Highlanders will be in the mix, of course, but so will the Blues. There was no obvious evidence of change by way of the new laws, but the game was a cracker.
Next it was the Brumbies, expected to lose to last year’s superstars and runners-up the Hurricanes. Again the game started at high speed, with frightening defence and commitment, and 80 minutes later the Brumbies walked off with a 52-10 win. The scary thing is that it could and should have been more.
The level of fitness and also conditioning (there is a difference) of the Australian side was awesome. They also did everything at pace, including some of the best counter-rucking you could imagine. The mighty ‘Canes were not bad, but were just made to look ordinary. The highlight was a line-out move involving a quick throw that led to a smart try by Pocock, who looks even more influential than ever.
The Brumbies are back with a varied and intelligent attack added to their defensive mastery of last year. Their decision-making, individually and collectively, was simply extraordinary. They play the Waratahs next. Don’t miss that one.
Of course it is early days and the competition is a marathon, not a sprint, but as a South African supporter, what was on show Friday was terrifying in terms of skill, speed and physical commitment in attack and defence. Can we match the skill and athleticism that were on show?
Is it coaches evolving and improving things as a result of the All Black lessons from the World Cup? Is it the new laws that amazingly might have revolutionised the game? It’s way too early to say, but based on the quality of the product presented Friday, we should all buy the administrators of Super Rugby a drink. So far they deserve it. Cheers!
*Robbie hosts the breakfast show 6-9am weekdays on 702
The Star