But now that we are deep into its playoffs and test football is on the horizon, the yellow cards are flowing – and the unwanted feeling has returned that big games of rugby are almost always a lottery, the winner determined as much by luck as anything else.
There were four yellow cards in the two semifinals and each arguably induced a different question as to why the sport has so many of its highest-profile games impacted by disciplinary issues.
Braydon Ennor was the first to depart on the weekend, yellow-carded for a head-on-head collision with Hoskins Sotutu after the Blues No 8 fielded a kickoff and used late footwork to evade the tackle.
Ennor had charged after the kick, was decelerating as he approached Sotutu but was still upright when the two men collided.
It’s easy to be critical of Ennor and question why he didn’t get lower ahead of the collision when the footage is slowed down, but the game isn’t played in slow motion.
It is subject to the laws of physics and if Sotutu had stepped right instead of left at the last millisecond, probably Ennor would have made a regulation tackle, and it inevitably ends up feeling he was the victim more of bad luck than bad technique.
This was an example of rugby holding itself hostage to the finest of margins where a tackler is a fraction late to react and the ball carrier makes a late change of direction, and the consequence was a 10-minute spell in which the Blues were able to score under the posts by exploiting Ennor being in the sin bin.
Blues prop Joshua Fusitu’a was the next to go, for a high tackle on Scott Barrett. This was simply a case of poor judgment and poor execution – the sort of lazy technical application that has come to infuriate coaches and fans alike.
There has been a litany of poor refereeing calls since the head-contact protocols were introduced six years ago, but so too is it true that players have been their own worst enemies at times by failing to take responsibility for their own actions.
But it was the other two yellow cards – one to Sotutu and one to Tupou Vaa’i in the other semifinal – that illustrated that the sport still has a mad habit of removing common-sense judgments in the biggest games.
Sotutu was binned for a challenge on Chay Fihaki that appeared to be a genuine, accidental contact and a consequence of a collision sport being played at pace by powerful athletes.
The question that the officials have to ask is what could Sotutu have done differently? The answer is nothing.
Which is the same question and answer in the case of Vaa’i, who had Billy Pollard ricochet into him after the Brumbies player was initially tackled by Samisoni Taukei’aho.
Vai’i was upright because he wasn’t the tackler and a regulation collision was redirected into him.
These decisions perhaps indicate that Super Rugby’s referees had come under pressure from their World Rugby superiors to adjust their style and tighten their interpretations before the July test programmes.
In the earlier rounds, the Sotutu and Vai’i incidents may have been ruled accidental and gone unpunished, and it seems unlikely that a competition that has done such a good job of engaging fans this year would randomly pressure referees to change an approach that has worked so well.
No doubt the final this week will produce moments of high skill and brilliance, but the real drama will come when the referee stares at the big screen and makes the imaginary box with his hands and asks the TMO to check any potential foul play for him.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.
