Phil Gifford: Six talking points from Super Rugby Pacific

Fine Inisi and Moana Pasifika made a promising Super Rugby debut. Photo / photosport.nz

OPINION:

1. No smart bookie would have offered odds

To suggest Moana Pasifika went in to their first game of Super Rugby as underdogs is like saying the Titanic had a small problem with ice.

Let me list the ways they looked beaten before the whistle sounded: Moana Pasifika were playing the titans of the competition, the Crusaders. Eleven of the Moana Pasifika team were playing their first Super game. And, just to tilt the playing field even more, Covid meant they ran out in Dunedin having played just one warm-up game.

So even the most fanatical supporter wouldn't have expected that after 20 minutes, Moana Pasifika would be ahead 5-0 after a terrific try from flanker Solomone Funaki, a 27-year-old former Tongan under-20s captain, whose journey to Super Rugby ranges through club rugby in Auckland, a stint at league in Queensland and outstanding form for Hawke's Bay's Ranfurly Shield team.

Normal efficient service was restored for the Crusaders when Codie Taylor and Richie Mo'unga came off the bench to help secure a 33-12 win and a bonus point.

But the best memories of the weekend came from the fearlessness on defence and daring attack of the Moana Pasifika team.

2. Into the spotlight

Friday night's game showed one of the anticipated benefits from Moana Pasifika's introduction, the chance for players who couldn't find a way into New Zealand franchise squads to shine.

Quite why Hawke's Bay's star first five-eighth Lincoln McClutchie wasn't already locked in to a Super Rugby contract before Moana Pasifika came looking for him is a mystery, but he showed the same composure he'd brought to the Bay into his game against the Crusaders.

No 8 Henry Time-Stowers, a Samoan international, has, like flanker Funaki, been back and forth across the Tasman, but eight years after he first played for Wellington, he looks to have found in Moana Pasifika the team that best suits his rugged, dynamic style.

Lincoln McClutchie took his NPC form into Super Rugby. Photo / Getty

3. Some days, the bear eats you

There are so many talented players in the Hurricanes and Highlanders, it was jaw dropping in Saturday night's clash in Wellington to see mistakes from both sides blooming like conspiracy theories on Parliament's lawn.

When the game finally finished, with the Canes winning 21-14, it was almost a relief. There were flashes of brilliance, and midfielder Billy Proctor's 50th-minute try was a terrific combination of using his considerable power and speed to run a perfect angle. But generally this was a game where both teams had a bad day at the office.

By the end, I was hoping for a commentator's nightmare mash-up, given that the Umaga-Jensen twins were on opposing sides, as were the Garden-Bachop brothers. Even the magnificently unflappable Grant Nisbett might have been rattled if Highlander Thomas Umaga-Jensen had tackled Hurricane twin Peter, and Peter slipped the ball to teammate Jackson Garden-Bachop, who was wrapped up by his brother, Highlander Connor.

4. One to look out for

Studying for a degree in architecture brought Caleb Delany across Cook Strait as a teenager from Waimea, on the outskirts of Nelson, to Wellington to attend Victoria University.

At school, he was a flanker, and at 95kg, he's still on the light side for a lock, when compared with what the 123kg Brodie Retallick brings to the party. But against the Highlanders, it was quickly clear that Delany has a ton of explosiveness and fighting spirit. From start to finish, he was attacking breakdowns and carrying the ball like a battle-hardened veteran.

5. Is there a defibrillator in the coach's box?

Blues coach Leon MacDonald, as likeable a man as you'd meet in rugby, is the anti-Michael Cheika. He doesn't have tantrums, curse and swear and throw his headset down when things go wrong on the field.

But for some strange reason, the Blues, after looking so composed last year when they won the Super Rugby Transtasman title, have in both Super Rugby Pacific games this year evoked some of the old flaky days when you could pick a Blues coach by the haunted look in his eyes.

So it was at Eden Park, when the Blues squeaked through against the Chiefs 24-22, a good long-range, last-gasp penalty attempt by Bryn Gatland, which would have won the game for the Chiefs, slipping just outside the posts.

The possible loss of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is a blow for the Blues but the return of Beauden Barrett may be a saving grace. Composure is what'll be needed against the Highlanders on Friday night, and having Barrett, with 101 tests to his name, running the plays at first five-eighth may allow MacDonald to sleep without the threat of nightmares.

Chiefs flanker Sam Cane's workrate is immense. Photo / Getty

6. Doing the hard yards

When critics were tearing into All Blacks captain Reuben Thorne before the 2003 World Cup, his national coach John Mitchell explained in five words why he and senior players in the team rated Thorne so highly: "He does the s*** jobs."

Watching current captain Sam Cane at Eden Park burying himself in the darkest, most dangerous parts of the breakdowns was a reminder of why he commands such respect among his peers and the All Blacks selectors.

Cane combines a massive work ethic with impeccable technique. Like all great flankers, he plays right on the edge of the breakdown laws, but, as Wallabies World Cup-winning coach Bob Dwyer once said to me: "Mate, if a loose forward isn't always on the cusp of being penalised, he's no use to me — that's his job."