The Hurricanes celebrate their last-gasp victory over the Blues. Photo / Getty
OPINION:
Phil Gifford presents six talking points from Super Rugby Pacific - and one from the Six Nations.
Last week a misinformed critic (OK, it was me) wrote that it was hard to tell if the 14 points the Hurricanes scored in the last 10 minutes against the Crusaders was due to "a lapse in concentration from the Crusaders, or a sign of steel in the Canes".
After the Windy City Wonders' stunning comeback for a 33-32 victory over the heavily favoured Blues, a big mea culpa is needed for not seeing the high-tensile nature of the backbone in this Canes team.
It was a perfect touch that the thrilling last-gasp try was scored by their captain Ardie Savea, a player who gives everything he's got, and then somehow drags out another burst of energy.
There's been a lot of media scepticism about Super Rugby this year, but anyone who didn't find the last 10 minutes in Dunedin exciting needs to consider a new career as that whinging guy (it's always a guy) at the RSA bar who reckons the game's been stuffed ever since it went professional.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's debut in professional rugby was deeply impressive. It's worth keeping in mind that the 28-year-old wasn't just a good league player, he was a great one. Even the Aussies had to acknowledge that he was the best fullback in the NRL, which is really something, given that since 1995 they'd never given a Dally M award to anyone in the Warriors.
There was one fleeting moment in Dunedin, when he conceded a penalty for playing on after a tackle had been called, to remind us that he hasn't played rugby since he was at Otahuhu College 11 years ago, but generally he exuded class and promise.
The only unsettling thought was that the poor man's been hearing that this was going to be the Warriors' year for six years. He moves back to Auckland, and guess what? This is, if you believe the hype, going to be the Blues' year. The consoling thought for the Auckland faithful is that there's surely a much greater chance, despite the upset in Dunedin, that the Blues' cheerleaders may be right.
The field for fliers in the three-quarters was pretty crowded on Saturday night. Caleb Clarke and Rieko Ioane were bristling with aggression, Mark Telea was as difficult to pin down as ever, and Wes Goosen was never less than dynamic.
But top marks have to go to Salesi Rayasi, on the left wing for the Canes, who scored three tries - the first, in the 14th minute, when he cleverly snatched an intercept and glided 70 metres to score; the second, at 71 minutes, off a forward drive; and the third, at 78 minutes, with an acrobatic dive Simone Biles would have been proud to own.
There's as much competition among wings as there is in any position in the All Blacks, but if Rayasi holds his form it would need very little slippage by the other contenders for him to merit serious consideration.
Nobody would ever suggest that a four-hour bus trip from Queenstown to Dunedin is an ideal way to prepare to face a gutsy, revved-up Highlanders side.
But the opening stages of the game in Dunedin, which they eventually won 34-19, was as weird as any 13 minutes of rugby the Crusaders have played since Scott Robertson was at the helm.
The Highlanders put enormous pressure on from the opening whistle, and first-five Mitch Hunt was kicking the penalties and firing a sublime pass for Sam Gilbert to race in for a classy try. But for the Crusaders to be behind 13-0 after 13 minutes did feel a little like a scarfie's Speights-induced hallucination.
Ultimately, take it as a measure of the self-belief in the Crusaders ranks that at halftime they'd fought back to lead 17-16, and in the last 14 minutes clocked up 14 points to win and take a bonus point.
(The late, great journalist Terry McLean once told a story about a team being behind 13-0. This time it was the 1936 All Blacks, who included McLean's brother Hugh. Late in the test with England at Twickenham the team's captain Jack Manchester yelled, 'Come on men, the All Blacks don't lose 13-0'. From the heart of his forward pack came a gruff voice, saying, 'Look at the bloody scoreboard'.)
When you're making more than 20 tackles a game, something Crusaders flanker Tom Christie does on a regular basis, a badly dislocated shoulder, as Christie suffered 11 months ago against the Chiefs, has the potential to be as damaging for a rugby player as an inner-ear infection for a tightrope walker.
The good news for Christie, as he's about to turn 24, is that his rugby future, after surgery last March, looks assured again, so there's no urgent need to find an office job to use the accountancy degree he's almost completed.
Technically he's impeccable on the tackle, which allows the former New Zealand under-20 captain to stop rampaging big men like Shannon Frizell head on, while his cat-like reflexes make it hard for even Aaron Smith, such a brilliant runner near the breakdown, to find breathing space.
If the All Blacks do experiment with playing Jordie Barrett at second-five this year, it would be hard to go past Will Jordan as the first-choice fullback.
Run Jordan through a rugby testing station and the warrant would be guaranteed. Good under the high ball? Tick. Safe in the tackle, with the heart and the size, at 1.88m and 94kg, for the job? Tick. Much stronger than his rangy physique might suggest? Tick.
Just ask Rhys Marshall, the powerful 107kg Highlanders hooker, who got a vice-like grip on the back of Jordan's shorts 10 metres from the tryline in Dunedin, but was towed to the chalk as Jordan scored the sensational 66th-minute try that put the result beyond doubt.
France's 36-17 thumping of Scotland in Edinburgh didn't just lock them in as certainties to win the Six Nations competition. They played with a mindset and daring that's always marked the great French teams, and they've established themselves as the team to beat at next year's World Cup.
Their fans love the All Blacks. Say you're a Kiwi in Paris and you're treated like family, as my wife and I discovered in 2007 when we watched the France-England semifinal in a cafe near the Champs-Elysees. The only non-French people there, once we'd established we weren't English, we spent the night with our faces daubed red, white and blue, enjoying an endless supply of free red wine.
But it's hard to escape a tiny shudder knowing that the opening game of the 2023 World Cup is at the Stade de France in Paris on the night of Friday, September 8, when France face the All Blacks. As generous and kind as the French have always been to New Zealand rugby fans, is it wrong to hope that we might, in the wry quip of Graham Henry about the 2011 final, "thrash them by a point" to start the '23 Cup?
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