Phil Gifford lists five talking points as the favourites line up in Super Rugby Pacific.
Mark the date
A month ago it felt likely. Now a final in Hamilton between the Chiefs and the Crusaders on June 24 looks guaranteed.
The Chiefs have been hugely impressive all season. There’s leadershipin Clayton McMillan’s coaching box, and leadership on the field from Sam Cane and Brad Weber.
They have the basics down pat, and the bonus is in the X-factor Damian McKenzie provides every time he touches the ball.
Their 31-21 win over the Brumbies in Canberra was a perfect demonstration of how to win at the sharp end of the season. Their impeccable defensive work was complimented by the way they seized on attacking chances.
Nowhere was the great decision-making needed at the top level better demonstrated than by the try Chiefs No 8 Luke Jacobson scored in just the third minute. He feinted to the right off a scrum on the Brumbies’ 10 metre line, switched to the blindside on the left, sold a dummy that sucked in two defenders, and raced on to score.
Damian McKenzie of the Chiefs. Photo / Photosport
Staying healthy may be the key
Lurking behind the impressive 42-18 demolition of the Waratahs by the Crusaders, in front of an impressively large Christchurch crowd of 15,000 people, was the sad sight of second-five David Havili and No 8 Cullen Grace joining a scarily large injury list.
Grace has been back in the form that won him an All Blacks jersey in 2020. He would be a huge loss, but an even greater blow would be if Havili doesn’t make a speedy recovery from his leg injury.
Havili is probably the most underrated back in New Zealand rugby, and his coach Scott Robertson summed up how much he means to the Crusaders. “He’s Dave Havili. You don’t replace him.”
Next week we’ll make a lear jet disappear
Every coach in every sport in the world insists that one player doesn’t make a team. Usually that’s true. But in pelting rain at Eden Park, their wing Mark Telea was the man behind the Blues’ 36-25 victory over the Hurricanes.
In a night that he’d have every right to be telling his grandkids about in 50 years, he scored four tries, three of them excellent, and the last just freakish.
With two minutes to go, and the Canes, although down 31-25, still only a converted try away from an unlikely win, Blues midfielder Bryce Heem skidded a kick through.
With Telea and two Canes defenders in furious pursuit, the ball sat 10 metres from the goalline. It was so wet and slippery, goal-kickers as good as Jordie Barrett and Stephen Perofeta had been made to look mediocre. But Telea swooped in, fearlessly grabbed it with just one hand, and scored. It was a pick-up so spectacular David Copperfield would have applauded.
Mark Telea celebrates one of his four tries. Photo / photosport.nz
Yes, he is a golden nugget
Thankfully, after a terrible start, the Highlanders clawed their way to a 35-30 win against the Reds in Dunedin on Friday. Aaron Smith, the brilliant Highlanders halfback, was being farewelled by the crowd of 14,200 people, and a loss would have been devastating.
It felt fitting that the winning try at the death was scored by Folau Fakatava, who Smith is helping to prepare to take over from him.
Smith coming to the Highlanders in 2012 as a self-described “cheeky hairdresser from Feilding”, was a stroke of selecting genius by coach Jamie Joseph.
The stars aligned. Smith was replacing a local hero, Jimmy Cowan, a fearless scrapper from Southland, who fortuitously is also one of the most decent men to ever pull on a footy jersey. Cowan offered a hand to Smith, not a scowl, and Smith was immediately swept into the starting halfback role with the All Blacks.
There’s some massive competition, from players like Justin Marshall, Dave Loveridge, and Sid Going, but Aaron Smith would be my pick as the best New Zealand halfback of the last 60 years.
More proof props provide the brains
An ashtray on a motorbike is usually more use than sideline interviews with players during a game.
But bravo to 39-year-old John Afoa, for a chat with the Sky commentary team during the Crusaders-Waratahs games that was so charming and informative it would make a brilliant template for how players should handle an on-air discussion.
It helped too, that Afoa, after jetting in from France during the week, had played with the vigour of the teenager who made his Super Rugby debut for the Blues a staggering 20 years ago.
