Happy Monday G&GRs, and wasn’t that a predictable round of rugby. The scores maybe not so, but the results, pretty much went as expected. The ladder has finalised, and we now excitedly await the first round of finals for SRP2024.
Let’s get into the rugby. Some interesting machinations, cards and injuries came out of this round that may have a bearing on the finals. So let’s have a look at the final round, then a look at the SRP ladder, followed by ‘Old Man Shouting at Clouds’. Strap in, grab a big cup of the caffeinated stuff ☕and pull apart the weekend’s games!
As always this is a fan-run site and any contribution is welcome, feel free to reach out to me at bris@greenandgoldrugby.com.au be it with an article an idea, or an opinion piece. There’s also a ‘Submit a Story’ option. So feel free to have a crack as the more the merrier.
Super Rugby Pacific 2024 – Final Round – Round 15
Canterbury Crusaders 43 defeated Moana Pasifika 10
In a game that was a wait and see game, to see if the Saders could potentially scrape into the finals, ended up becoming a non-event due to games that occured afterwards. But, it showed towards the end of the season, the Dark Ones returning to the team of old. In a match that also marked the last games for AB legends Joe Moody, Owen Franks and Ryan Crotty, the boys from Canterbury ran in seven tries in front of their last home crowd of the year.
The 43-10 thrashing of Moana Pasifika on Friday night was a strong way to close out what was the Saders worst season in the club’s histroy. Even with the odd card, the Saders were always in control of this match. But the result now bears little relevance to discussions, so we’ll park it here and move on.
Queensland Reds 27 defeated NSW Waratahs 26
My beloved Reddies have overcome a lapsidaisical second half to banish the Waratahs to the bottom of the Super Rugby ladder, where they belong. The 27-26 victory to Queensland started with the Reds bolting out 19-0 lead inside the first quarter of the game. And so it was when the teams went into the sheds for oranges with the Reds looking dominant and the Tahs looking like total poo.
Tate McDermott snuck over for the easiest try of his career when he took the tap and caught the whole Tahs team standing around hands on hips expecting the Reds to take the three. That try really summed up the Tahs whole season. No cohesion, no execution and no idea! This alongside nifty tries from ever-improving Josh Flook and Seru Uru, who both surely have played themselves into Wallaby contention, had the Reds firing and looking the real deal.
But, alas, the second half was almost a different game. Whatever coach Coleman said to the Tahs in his final ever half time spray must have worked wonders, because they came out looking like the side that Tahs fans have hoped for the whole year but only got for the next 30 mins. The Tahs came out fired up and firing. From 19 points down, with tries from Dylan Pietsch, Jack Bowen and forwards Jed Holloway and Jay Fono Kalafi, they surged to a 26-24 lead. The Reds fought back with a try from uber impressive Hunter Paisami, but it was the the Tahs half.
Like with all things Tah this season, their lead was only to last 2 minutes, and along with it went the Tahs fans hope. Tom Lynagh, who had a great game, slotted a penalty from almost the half way line to move the Reds into the lead. Bowen, the Tahs young flyhalf had a chance to regain the lead, but shanked his shot worse than my best tee shots with my new driver, with one minute remaining. The Tahs charged hard for over 20 phases in the remaining minutes of the game, desperately trying to grab victory. But legendary Fraser McReight snaffled the ball to turn it over and the Reds grabbed victory. And the Tahs suffered yet another defeat.
The Reds will be happy with their first half. The second half, they took their foot off the gas, and a really fired Tahs stuck it too them. Les Kiss will want to beat that out of his team before next week, when they take on the Chiefs. But the positive is, they know they can defend like bastards on their line for 20+ phases if they have to. But, by God, I hope they don’t get themselves into that position again.
Wallaby Watch – From the Reds, Uru, Flook, Jock Campbell, Tate McDermott, Hunter Paisami and Fraser McReight all had good games. From the Tahs while there were players that had a great second half, any potential for selection was nullified by their dogshit first half performance. No one from the Tahs should be considered for Wallaby selection at this stage. To quote Morgan Turinuri, their ‘body of work’ for the season just simply isn’t good enough. There are too many players in the other Aussie teams that have outplayed them.
Fiji Drua 40 defeated Melbourne Rebels 19
The Flying Fijians overcame an underwhelming first half, to end up spanking the Melbourne Rebels 40-19 in Lautoka on Saturday afternoon. With the Drua bagging 5 tries to the Rebels 3.
The Fijians, through Nalaga got the first try but it was then all Melbourne’s way. Scoring two tries, one to the ‘Ginger Ninja Kellaway’ and one a penalty try to stretch it out to a 14-5 lead. Iosefo Masi kept Fiji in the game with a handy try to draw the scores at 19 all when both teams went off to the sheds for oranges.
I don’t know what Mick ‘The Kick’ Byrne said to the Drua at half time, but they came out a different team. Selestino Ravutaumada quickly scored after the break with a classic Fijian dive into the corner type try. This opened the flood gates for Fiji, with Nalaga complementing his first half try with another and Frank Lomani grabbing another nice little conrner try.
This rapid scoring broke the back and the hearts of the Rebels and their supporters, and closed out the game for Fiji. With both sides progressing to the finals, there was good and bad for both teams. These will need to be looked at for next week to go into the elimination finals.
Wallaby Watch – For the Rebels Kellaway, David Feiluai and Angelo Smith had good games. Tupou’s scrummaging is looking good and we are finally starting to see some fitness out of the Wallabies tight head.
Wellington Hurricanes 41 defeated Otago Highlanders 14
KARL’s Canes demonstrated that they are the team to chase again after a classy 41-14 win in a very windy Wellington on Saturday afternoon. While in it for the first half of the game, the boys from Otago were kept scoreless in the second half.
The Clan started strong, courtesy of a nice little 50-22 that enabled them to their mojo going, and for Matt Whaanga to eventually ground the ball near the posts to go ahead 7-0. But the Canes came back hard via Rayasi, Kirifi and TJ Perenara to boost them to a 24-7 lead.
The Clan fought back through Fabian Holland to go over and bring it back to a 10 point game. But the Canes again put their foot on the gas going over again through Kirifi, and then Garden-Bachop copped a 🧀 for head contact, and with 14 managed to survive til oranges with the score still 29-14.
I don’t know what was said by either coach at half time, but the first 10 minutes of the second half developed into a kicking duel. A lot of faffing around by both teams occurred, until Jordie Barrett got sick of it and decided to do it on his own. The Highlanders again struggled with discipline under pressure, got another 🧀 for Sam Gilbert. Down a man and unable to get their attack game going, the Canes stepped up, brutal in their attack with Brayden banging down a 5 pointer. This was followed by Riley Higgins. The Canes were just too strong and despite their efforts, the Clan struggled in both attack and defence.
This bonus point win was enough to get the Canes back to the top of the ladder to secure the minor premiership. It also kept the Clan in the finals run at 7th place.
Auckland Blues 31 defeated Waikato Chiefs 17
In what was meant to be the blockbuster game of the round, the boys from Auckland proved to be way too strong in the battle of the Bombays. The Chiefs came out to a barnstorming start, only to be denied a try within the first minute of the game.
The Blues started with a patient, strong, forwards based grind of a game blunting the Chiefs attack and flare, and forcing the Waikato boys to start making errors. And errors occurred. The Blues scored first with a peach of try off a lineout maul for Riccitelli. The errors and penalties for the Chiefs mounted until the referee ran out of patience and Aidan Ross was given the 🧀.
The Blues attack then started to kick into gear, and Hoskins Sotutu (who was my MOTM) crossed for a hard earned try. Despite all his good work, Sotutu, just before oranges was also given some 🧀 for an obstruction. The Chiefs pounced on this scoring through Ross. Both teams went to the sheds in desperate need of some rest and recuperation after a brutal first half.
After oranges, ABs winger and the man that seems almost impossible to stop, Caleb Clarke powered through to get some go forward, until eventually his otherside counterpart Mark Tele’a crossed the chalk. At this point the Blues scrum really applied the screws and started earning penalty after penalty with a warning being issued to the Chiefs skipper. Sotutu after his time in the naughty corner, came out set to redeem himself and scored his second try.
Looking like the Blues were going to get the bonus point victory and land on the top of the table and win minor premiership, the Chiefs stepped into role of party poopers. Quinn Tupaea and Josh Ioane scored in the 68th and 79th minutes to deny the Blues their bonus point and rain on the Blues parade.
All things being said, the Blues forward pack is immense, and have wonderful backs to make the most of their time and space created by those piggies. Any team playing them in Auckland is going to have a hard time.
ACT Brumbies 24 defeated Western Force 19
The Ponies stepped up and delivered a strong victory over the Western Force in Perth on Saturday night, grinding it out for a 24-19 win. With the match result no longer capable of affecting the Brumbies finals standing after the previous games had locked the ladder.
The Ponies came out of the gates at speed, and bullocked their way to a 17-7 lead, that they managed to carry through til oranges. Tom Wright stepped up and managed to score a nice try just before the 60 min mark. The Twiggy Forrest All Stars continued to fight hard, and managed to score twice in the final few minutes of the game, but it wasn’t enough.
The Force were the architects of their own demise with poor discipline and errors proving costly. But along with this the Brumbies had their own discipline issues that have been common this season with scrum half Ryan Lonergan being given a serve of 🧀 for ruck interference.
In the end the Force scored a couple of last minute tries to make the score look a little more respectable through Fines-Leleiwasa and George Poolman, but that just wallpapered over the cracks of a poor performance, and bought an end to their season.
The Ponies injury concerns mounted with Blake Schoupp’s return lasting less than five minutes before he went off with what appeared to be a bad shoulder injury. Corey Toole also hobbled off in the last few minutes of the game. This isn’t good news for coach Larkham who is already down a number of key forwards and now potentally backs coming into the finals.
Wallaby Watch – Toole until he was injured looked on fire, along with Tom ‘John Denver’ Wright and Bobby V in his new skull cap (which made him almost unrecogniseable). For the Force Izack Rodda looked the goods as well as Hamish Stewart in his 100th cap and Burey. But otherwise the Force looked bad. And if anyone again mentions Kurtley Beale for Wobs selection, make them watch this match.
Super Rugby Pacific 2024 – The Ladder
The ladder is locked and loaded. There are no more permutations or combinations that can modify this bad boy, it is what it is. This is what’s in store next week:
- FRIDAY 7 JUNE 2024 – 1705 Hrs AEST – Chiefs v Reds – FMG Stadium Waikato
- SATURDAY 8 JUNE 2024 – 1435 Hrs AEST – Hurricanes v Rebels – Sky Stadium Wellington
- SATURDAY 8 JUNE 2024 – 1705 Hrs AEST – Blues v Fiji Drua – Eden Park Auckland
- SATURDAY 8 JUNE 2024 – 1935 Hrs AEST – Brumbies v Highlanders – GIO Stadium Canberra
These quarter finals are looking like humdingers. Let’s see what the week brings, re injuries and team selections.
Old Man Shouting at Clouds
I have two gripes this week, and will launch into them accordingly.
The Waratahs Effect – With the demise of the Melbourne Rebels (and I’m not going to weigh into the whys and the wherefores), the true benefit of this situation appears to go to NSW Rugby and the Waratahs. While this may be a perception thing, perception equals reality for outsiders. The Tahs going into RA administration and their debts effectively being subsumed by RA, and most of the general rugby public never really finding out how much those debts actually were. Then with the wrapping up of the Rebels and a majority of their players look to be going to the Waratahs, this is not a good look for RA.
Whether it’s the case or not, the scenario stinks to high heavens. RA is desperately trying to convince the rest of the Australian rugby landscape that centralisation will be a good thing for everyone (and for the record I am all for centralisation), but the perception of what is occurring around the Rebels demise and the re-allocation of players is a bit iffy is you ask me. And won’t engender trust from the other unions.
If I were the players I wouldn’t be going anywhere near the Tahs. No head coach as of yet. A culture that stinks to high heavens. The captain actively wanting to leave. A Super year that was the worst in the club’s history. To be honest I would’ve scrapped the Tahs instead of the Rebels 😉🤣🤣🤣. But jokes aside, it isn’t a side that I would want to be going to unless I had no other choice. Let’s see how many of the Rebs players actually end up going there.
And this isn’t a ‘I’m a Queenslander and I hate NSW rant!’ I was born in NSW, I grew up there. And while I reside in Queensland, I am a NSWelshmen. And I’m not the only person saying this. A lot of my rugby friends have also mentioned the same thing. So if we’re all saying it, what the hell are the real power brokers thinking about it? Thoughts?
The Rehabilitation of Kurtley Beale – Well Stan, through its commentators and the other Sydney based rugby journalists are still flat out on the Kurtley Beale ‘Is a good bloke and should be in the Wallabies’ drive. Holy crap! His performance alone doesn’t warrant selection, compared to the backs aplenty we have in good form across the Super Rugby teams. But do these people, outlets, and journalists genuinely believe that we’re going to forget all the crap this guy has caused over the last decade? This man should not be allowed anywhere near the Wallabies squad ever again. Cut the marketing campaign! We’re done with this individual.
Enough of the this old man bleeting. Over to you G&GRs. Have at it!
