The Rugby Pod - Super Rugby Round 1 Review & Highlights

Super Rugby is back! Ever since the World Cup, the excitement has been building to this history-making and potentially game-changing season of Southern Hemisphere rugby. Here are 5 talking points from the first weekend:

1. Tries, and lots of them. In the 9 games on the opening weekend there were 53 tries! That is an average of over 5 tries per game - a great viewing spectacle. Incredibly, 20 of these tries were scored by forwards with 4 props and 3 hookers getting themselves over the whitewash. There is no coincidence that the national teams of Australia and New Zealand play such an expansive game of rugby on the international stage - their club sides do it too. Some of the tries scored in Week 1 will be on the highlights reel all season: Blues first try versus the Chiefs, Ben Smith’s 2nd try of the same game and Martin Landajo’s 2nd try versus the Cheetahs spring to mid immediately. If it continues, this will be an epic season.

2. The Brumbies are going to be very tough to beat. They almost put in the complete performance against last season’s beaten finalists, the Hurricanes. Their forward pack was immense and some of their driving mauls were a joy to behold, absolutely destroying the Hurricanes pack who had no answer to their power. Tomas Cubelli got the ball to the backline quickly and effectively and was always a danger with his snipes. In Tevita Kuridrani and Henry Speight they had 2 extremely powerful runners that looked dangerous at all times. Scott Fardy and David Pocock did what they do best and that is tackle all day and spoil the opposition’s ball - both even got themselves on the scoresheet. All in all, a top day for the men from Canberra.

3. The Hurricanes were the latest New Zealand team to not start particularly well. For the past 3 seasons a highly fancied team from New Zealand has had a poor start. In 2013 the Crusaders lost their first 2 games, in 2014 the Hurricanes got humbled by the Sharks and in 2015 it was back to the Crusaders who were upset at home by the Rebels. Whilst I don’t think you can look too deeply at the 52-10 result, alarm bells will still start ringing. They were second-best in every facet of the game on Friday night, and the loss of Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu was felt a lot more than people thought, while their captain, Dan Coles, being out certainly didn’t help. However, there is far too much class in that team not to bounce back.

4. Los Jaguares put on a show for us in their debut game. The first half was everything that used to be wrong with Argentinian rugby: powerful forwards, but a distinct lack of discipline with the ball and without when it mattered had them 24-3 down to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. Somehow they clawed their way back to be only trailing by 7 by the break and after half time their class showed. Martin Landajo’s 2nd try will take some beating this season, showing how dangerous they can be on the counter-attack. I think the pace and attrition of Super Rugby caught the Argentinians napping a bit, but they recovered well and sent a warning out to the rest of the competition.

5. No one will want to play the Blues. Prior to the campaign beginning Tana Umaga’s men had been written off by most, still rebuilding their squad. They blew that theory out of the water in the opening game of the tournament, beating last year’s champion Highlanders 33-31 and they did it in style. Their first try, scored by left winger Melani Nanai, was pure class. He received a pass inside the right winger Tevita Li after he had collected a delicate chip over the top from inside their 22 from fly half Ihaia West. A topsy turvy match saw the lead change hands 4 times, the Blues took the lead with 20 minutes to go and held strong despite a fast finishing Highlanders scoring late to bring themselves to within 2 points but the Blues held out. The green shoots of recovery are definitely starting to show though for the Blues.

By Rob Seltzer writing for www.TheRugbyPod.com