It’s my 29th year reporting on Super contests, andI wouldn’t have expected to still be looking forward to every weekend’s games. Forget the grouches whose gloomy outlook is possibly shaped by the many genuine issues our rugby faces off the field, from serious injury concerns, to the battles facing clubs, to how a country as small as New Zealand can compete against the big money overseas.
Super footy right now is living on the bright side of the road. You like upsets? Who would have dreamt at the end of last season that the Blues would be teetering on the brink of missing the playoffs? Positive rugby? The Chiefs ran in eight tries in their 56-22 Anzac Day thrashing of the Western Force in Mount Maunganui. Redemption stories? Come in, the Crusaders.
Golden days for Mooloo
Waikato’s bovine mascot must be skipping around her paddock these days as the Chiefs combine relentless forward power with high-wire, high-speed attack, epitomised by wing Emoni Narawa in just the 10th minute against the Force, when he snapped up a kick ahead by Shaun Stevenson and flew 25m to score.
The grind up front is led by Luke Jacobson, Cambridge-born-and-bred, the latest in a long line of super-industrious Waikato loose forwards that runs back through men like Liam Messam, Duane Monkley and Miah Melsom.
Happiest sight
Wallace Sititi was the sensation of 2024 and just three minutes into his 11-minute replacement cameo against the Force, he showed his class, by first gliding past tacklers with his startling speed and then lobbing a perfect one-handed pass to Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi. Seeing Sititi’s gifts with the ball, it’s impossible to not feel that greatness awaits him.
Magic try of the season
Hands down, the award goes to the Force’s wing Harry Potter, who chased a long restart by his first five-eighths, Ben Donaldson, after Narawa’s early try. Potter was belting after the ball. Six, count ‘em, six Chiefs seemed sure it would roll dead – and just watched. Potter scored the try unchallenged. (To be fair to his parents, when baby Potter was born in London in December, 1997 and named Harry, J.K. Rowling’s first children’s book, The Philosopher’s Stone,had only sold a handful of copies.)
Ruthlessness and daring can be a sensational combination, as the Crusaders showed in their 43-10 demolition of the Highlanders in Dunedin. On the one hand, there was the Crusaders’ shoulder-to-shoulder-to-shoulder defensive work. The likes of a revived Scott Barrett, George Bower and Tom Christie were key figures in a fierce tackling line that proved a point every good rugby coach knows. If you want to see how unified a team is, check how quickly every tackler bounces back up to make another one.
On the other side of the coin is a willingness to trust in the attacking abilities of a dynamo like No 8 Christian Lio-Willie and the almost cheeky touches wing Sevu Reece brings to the game.
Player of the round
Will Jordan isn’t the best fullback in New Zealand, a former All Blacks coach said to me last year, he’s the best fullback in the world. With every Super game he now plays, Jordan proves the point. His impeccable decision-making, whether spearing into the backline – which led to him scoring twice in the first 15 minutes in Dunedin – or the accuracy of his punting would be enough to make him a once-in-a-generation player. An extraordinary tweak is the fearlessness that sees him take over the aerial receiving from kickoffs, a task usually assigned to burly locks, not willowy fullbacks.
Battling Blues
The Blues swept to Super victory in 2024 on the back of a style that’s served a lot of New Zealand teams well since the middle of last century. When in doubt, get the forwards to bash it up the field.
Oddly, considering how basic that sounds and often looks, it only works if played with commitment and precision. That wasn’t the case for the Blues at a wet, slippery Suncorp stadium in Brisbane, where the Reds won 35-21 on Anzac Day.
The Blues gather their thoughts in Brisbane. Photo / SmartFrame
It’s true you began to suspect someone in the Blues had insulted the Television Match Official’s mother as, in the first 14 minutes, four Blues tries were disallowed. But ultimately, the Blues needed the efficiency of last year and they couldn’t find it.
Lineouts were lost, passes were dropped and, in a strange, grim coda, Mark Tele’a was red-carded in the 31st minute for a completely out-of-character tipping tackle on Reds three-quarter Tim Ryan.
All isn’t lost, but if ever a team needed a convincing bounce-back victory, it’s the Blues when they meet the Western Force at Eden Park this Friday night.
It’s been rough and rocky travelling this season for the Hurricanes, but in their 35-29 defeat of the Brumbies in Canberra, there was plenty to delight in.
The victory was impressive in itself. It was great to see centre Billy Proctor back, in try-scoring form, and wing Kini Naholo sweeping tacklers aside like crumbs off a table. I hate to rain on the Canes’ parade, but next Saturday night in Wellington, they have to face the rampant Chiefs.
Not a lack of quality
The queues didn’t wind for miles at Albany before the Moana Pasifika-Fijian Drua game on Saturday, won 34-15 by Moana. The fierce, heart-in-mouth play in the game deserved a larger crowd. The problem may be as simple as the fact that Albany has never been a centre of Pacific Island settlement.
Phil Gifford is a Contributing Sports Writer for NZME. He is one of the most respected voices in New Zealand sports journalism.
