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Super Rugby General Chat

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
FWIW these are the Power Rankings according to stuff.co.nz:

1. Chiefs
2. Blues
3. Hurricanes
4. Reds
5. Waratahs
6. Highlanders
7. Moana
8. Drua
9. Brumbies
10. Crusaders
11. Rebels
12. Force

Seems pretty fair to me.

Fun fact for all the CruSadists non-fans out there: the only time they've been 0/3 was in 1996 when they finished stone dead motherless last. Didn't even get a participation certificate IIRC.
1news has this particular piece of insanity:
1. Chiefs
2. Blues
3. Hurricanes
4. Waratahs
5. Moana Pasifika
6. Highlanders
7. Fijian Drua
8. Brumbies
9. Rebels
10. Reds
11. Crusaders
12. Force

Hurricanes? They're great! 2 from 2 (rock solid logic)
Crusaders? They're terrible (haha, yes I love it),
tahs? They're pretty great because the beat the Crusaders (shaky logic, but it was a good win)
Reds? They suck, what have they even done? (Bonus point win over your number 4 and a golden point loss to your number 3).

Power rankings are usually a bit ridiculous and pretty indulgent of the authors biases but the logical leap for this one was amazing.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
If I was doing Power Rankings it would look something like this:

Round 1:
1. Chiefs
2. Hurricanes
3. Brumbies
4. Reds
5. Blues
6. Crusaders
7. Highlanders
8. Waratahs
9. Moana
10. Drua
11. Force
12. Rebels

Round 2:
1. Chiefs
2. Hurriances
3. Blues
4. Reds
5. Waratahs
6. Moana
7. Brumbies
8. Rebels
9. Highlanders
10. Crusaders
11. Drua
12. Force
 

Rebel man

John Thornett (49)
I think the broader problem with super round in Melbourne is that it has largely been half-arsed and never really given a chance to succeed. With the first iteration having been this 3 year bloc sold on an ad hoc basis by the kiwi teams without really engaging the Rebels, the actual team based in the city they wanted to host it in, and all promotional responsibilities falling to a 3rd party there has never been a hell of a lot of vision or 'juice' behind it. Travelling numbers have been limited in no small part because there was little to no benefit in it for teams to invest in getting their fans there. The kiwi teams themselves seemed to be more interested in engaging there latent fan base in Melbourne and from what I've heard there wasn't even capacity for the other teams to be selling their merch at the venue. Why TEG didn't go harder on the promo I don't know. Possibly the deal they did meant the didn't need massive ticket sales to make money, they thought they could drive local ticket sales to hit their mark cheaper, or they just overestimated the desire of fans to travel and thought they could "Field of Dreams" it.

Going forward it needs to be managed by the Super Rugby commission itself, run with the engagement of all the teams, in a way where they actually stand to benefit. They may also mean taking a lesser bid from a host government intially, knowing that the city itself will be easier to engage and build the 'brand' of Super Round up into something people are interested in. That said, I don't think there's necesserily anything wrong with Melbourne as a host city, but people were never just going to turn up, not without significant prompting. That's meant lacklustre crowds each year have made it less appealing for interested fans to travel to the next. The way interested dropped off in my membership group over the 3 years was stark, and this is at a time when we had more people interested in Reds tickets year on year.

Properly engage the clubs and they'll engage their fans to bring them to the host city. Certainly there is appetite for teams to be organising these sort trips - the Reds have organised a charter flight and planned trip via their sponsor Alliance for the Crusaders game and sold it out in less than 24 hours of posting it to their socials.
100% it’s just to try and get the Kiwis in Melbourne behind their teams
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Some Opta Stats observations for this week:

- Chiefs have made 8 linebreaks per game this season (the most of all). Reds only 2 which is the lowest
- Reds and Chiefs are 1 and 2 in successful defensive exits from their 22
- Harry Wilson equal top number of offloads this season (with Billy Proctor)
- Tizzano (40) has the most first to arrive at a ruck numbers in the comp. McReight 2nd with 37. Fraser has 4 turnovers which leads the comp
- Brumbies have won ave 19 l/o per game - 3 more than any other team
- Force, Tahs and Brumbies have made the joint fewest 22m entries of any team in the comp (15)
- Ryan Lonergan has made more reclaimed kicks (6) than any other player
- Harry Potter has crossed the gainline 94% of his runs, which is the most of the comp
- Max Burey has logged the most kick return metres of anyone in the comp and, with Petaia and Kellaway, are the only ones over 100m
 

rugbyAU

Bob Davidson (42)
Yeah having to play a 'home' game in front of an empty stadium in Hamilton is not a good sight
 

zer0

John Thornett (49)
It was a late change forced upon them.

[Moana] was due to play their first game in New Zealand this year at North Harbour Stadium, which is where the team is now based. However, because of turf issues at the rarely used venue, the fixture has been relocated to Waikato Stadium.

...

The field at North Harbour Stadium was resurfaced shortly after Juicy Fest on January 6 and was expected to be ready for Super Rugby game.
However, on Tuesday Sakalia was told by his match-day operations team they had no confidence that the turf would be in a good enough state in two weeks.

After a meeting with Auckland Stadiums on Wednesday, it was confirmed the game couldn’t go ahead in Albany, so will now take place 140km to the south.

...

When it was clear North Harbour Stadium wouldn’t be available for the Rebels game, Auckland Stadiums worked with Moana Pasifika to find somewhere else suitable.

But Eden Park has the Pink concert, the Warriors are playing at Mt Smart Stadium, Trusts Stadium wasn’t available and Semenoff Stadium in Whangārei has an event that weekend. Sakalia said Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe wasn’t up to standard for broadcasting a Super Rugby game, so the next closest was Waikato Stadium.

 

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
I actually thought the idea of taking them to Conties stadium was best. So right in Islander population backyard. But even then I not sure they would of got a hell of a lot more with Warriors playing first game at home just up road.
 

waiopehu oldboy

George Smith (75)
^ not according to Moana's CEO Pelenato Sakalia:

“There’s no doubt you can broadcast a game from [Pukekohe], but the issue is that Moana Pasifika don’t pack out stadiums and if you look at the angle of the broadcast, they don’t film into the main stand, they film into the embankment.

“If you’re trying to create a great image for the broadcast of a game, for us we had to go to an option where we could at least capture an audience."


Para 2 is priceless: broadcasts from FMG capture the WEL stand which was empty last night as were the cheap seats at either end, the few people who did turn up were in the BPC stand behind the camera rostrum.

I expected a way bigger crowd & as above thought maybe Moana didn't want to go head-to-head with the Warriors hype train so close to their home ground but if anyone is now blaming the facilities at Pukekohe they're being disingenuous.
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
^ not according to Moana's CEO Pelenato Sakalia:

“There’s no doubt you can broadcast a game from [Pukekohe], but the issue is that Moana Pasifika don’t pack out stadiums and if you look at the angle of the broadcast, they don’t film into the main stand, they film into the embankment.

“If you’re trying to create a great image for the broadcast of a game, for us we had to go to an option where we could at least capture an audience."


Para 2 is priceless: broadcasts from FMG capture the WEL stand which was empty last night as were the cheap seats at either end, the few people who did turn up were in the BPC stand behind the camera rostrum.

I expected a way bigger crowd & as above thought maybe Moana didn't want to go head-to-head with the Warriors hype train so close to their home ground but if anyone is now blaming the facilities at Pukekohe they're being disingenuous.
Yeah, if "broadcast standards" means no visible crowd I don't think there's a stadium left in new Zealand up to broadcast standards for Moana.

That said it was from that article @zer0 linked and while it's not a direct quote it reads like it's attributed to Stadiums Auckland who were responsible for the original screw up. It's possible there's a set of criteria that sky have for super broadcast and while they can be worked around the timing meant it was easier just to go elsewhere.
 

waiopehu oldboy

George Smith (75)
Interesting that in the article quoted by @zer0 Moana's CEO says Pukekohe isn't up to broadcast standard then in the one quoted by me he says it is. Bloke should go into politics.
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
Interesting that in the article quoted by @zer0 Moana's CEO says Pukekohe isn't up to broadcast standard then in the one quoted by me he says it is. Bloke should go into politics.
To be fair to Sakalia you cut a lot of context out of that quote:

“In the quick decisions we had to make in such a short turnaround, we had to weigh up the work that would need to be done to a stadium to get it the standards we’d need,” Sakalia said.

“At Pukekohe, there would be some work that would have to be done to get a big screen in place.

“While that’s entirely possible, it takes time and when you’ve only got a week and a half to go from a stadium you’ve been working on to activate, to switch to a new location and don’t have time on your side, you look for something that’s going to be easy to stand up.

“There’s no doubt you can broadcast a game from there, but the issue is that Moana Pasifika don’t pack out stadiums and if you look at the angle of the broadcast, they don’t film into the main stand, they film into the embankment.

“If you’re trying to create a great image for the broadcast of a game, for us we had to go to an option where we could at least capture an audience.

“If you had the time, there’s no doubt you can deliver a Super Rugby game at Pukekohe, but we were right on the 11th hour with this decision.”

So it sounds like it could've been done had that been the planned location from the start, but not in the time frame available given the late switch.
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
It's one prediction model amongst many, but I don't remember the last time I've seen a set of impartial predictions this close across the comp:
And there it is, tighter even than the predictions:

This competition has copped a lot of flack in recent years, but this is the best it has been as an entertainment product in a long time. Certainly since 2011 or so ;)
 
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