Super Rugby Qualifiers - Five Talking Points

The Super Rugby finals have begun and four teams have had their 2016 campaigns ended with defeat. Australia no longer has a representative in the competition – a rare occurrence for them - and the New Zealand dominance of Southern Hemisphere Rugby persists with only the Lions able to stop a semi-final clean sweep. Here are five talking points from Week 1 of the finals:

1) Try or No Try? - There is only one place we can start. Was it a try, or wasn’t it? With the Brumbies trailing 15-9 with six minutes left on the clock, replacement winger Lausii Taliauli looked like he had scored. After the TMO review proved inconclusive, the try wasn’t awarded and the Highlanders held out for the win. We could argue for days about it, but with this said it would have proved harsh on the Highlanders had they gone out of the competition, as they were the better team on the night and deserved to go through.

2) The Lions - The Lions are now carrying the hopes and dreams of every neutral rugby fan around the world. The South Africans are the only non-New Zealand team left in the competition, but not only that, they have home advantage against the Highlanders and a good chance of progression to the final. The defeated Crusaders coach, Todd Blackadder, has since said that the Lions can win the competition should they continue to play the way they did at the weekend, and it must be said that few would argue with him.

3) Home Advantage - If ever there was an example of home advantage, look no further than Wellington on Saturday. The Westpac Stadium – aka the ‘Biscuit Tin’ - has a reputation for a swirling wind whipping around it, but add in the driving rain to the equation and the away side - the Sharks - did not look comfortable. On the contrary, the Hurricanes were at home and had Beauden Barrett in imperious form, playing the conditions perfectly, and yet again driving his side on to a 41-0 whitewash – what a player!

4) The Sharks - the game in Wellington will be one to forget for the Sharks, and whilst nothing went right for them, a lot went wrong. Kicker on the day Garth April couldn’t judge the wind at all - putting two early penalties either side of the posts as he tried to manoeuvre the ball through the blustery conditions. Certainly a sign of things to come, these misses would come back to haunt him as they finished the game with zero on the scoreboard – an embarrassing end to their Super Rugby campaign. It was however the Hurricanes final try that summed up the Sharks night, as the away side gallantly tried to attack from deep in their 22 after the final hooter had gone. Consequently, the ball slipped out of one pair of hands and was passed through the legs of another player for the Hurricanes to recover it and score their final try. Talk about salt in the wound.

5) Super Rugby Format - After the Chiefs mauling of the Stormers, there have been cries to take a look at the format of the Super Rugby conferences. The Stormers accrued 51 total points over the season - identical with the Chiefs total in the New Zealand conference. However, the Stormers did not play any New Zealand teams in the regular season, and coach Robbie Fleck has gone on record saying he would have liked to play the New Zealand teams as it is a step up in intensity. Nevertheless, this was a step up that they simply could not handle at Newlands on Saturday when the going got tough.

Written by Rob Seltzer for www.TheRugbyPod.com