Happy Monday G&GRs. Another predictable round for results, but not the scores. For those that bet on results, that would’ve been harder to pick than a broken nose.
I will do the traditional game by game, and then wind up for my ‘Old Man Shouting At Clouds’. So park your arse, grab a big kwofffeeeeee ☕and let’s dive in.
Super Rugby Pacific 2024 – quarter finals
Waikato Chiefs 43 defeated Queensland Reds 21
In what was one of the best examples of ‘shock and awe’ rugby I have seen in my life, the Waikato Chiefs came out of the gates in full afterburner and blew the Reds off the park in the first 15 minutes. This ended the Reds season in what ended up being a 43-21 defeat in Hamilton on Friday night. The Chiefs ran a train on my beloved Reddies in what had to be the best half of rugby the Chiefs have ever put together bagging four tries to the Reds blot, going in to the sheds up 31-0.
The Reds came into this game thinking they were half a chance, having already defeated the Chiefs this year, as well as the Crusaders in Christchurch, but it simply wasn’t to be. Samisoni Taukei’aho scored a double and he was helped out by Emoni Narawa. The Chiefs were completely physical and dominant in the first half. Their breakdown work was a complete masterpiece with the Reds being unable to protect their possession in attack, and the Chiefs being able to turn over at will.
The Reds came out in the second half attempting to redeem themselves. But it was window dressing on an epic defeat. Tate McDermott never stopped trying, and grabbed two good tries. But it was never going to be enough when you let your opposition get out to a 31-0 lead. And it wasn’t that the Reds were that bad, it was truly a case of the Chiefs being that good.
If the Chiefs can trot out another half like that against the Canes they’ll be hard to beat. But I’m not sure that lightning strikes twice.
Wellington Hurricanes 47 defeated Melbourne Rebels 20
After 14 years of the Melbourne Rebels their story has finally come to a close, and the Rebels can hold their heads high. KARL’s Hurricanes were dominant, but the Rebels showed moments of strength to close their story in a 47-20 victory to the Canes. Being the second Australian team to bow out of the finals, the Rebels did achieve something no other team has this season, they prevented the Canes from scoring within the first 20 minutes of a match.
The Rebs got of to a good start with a 3-0 lead but that’s where their lead ended. Going to the sheds at 14-6, the Rebels appeared to be hanging on by their fingernails. The Canes came out hard in the second half with a great bust through move from Jordie Barrett, offloading to Brayden Lose for a nice try. Another two tries for the Canes in three minutes dashed the Rebels chances and hopes, to take the Canes to a 35-6 lead at the three quarter mark.
The Rebels managed to counter with two tries through Lachie Anderson, but it wasn’t enough. The Canes bagged another two late tries to Du’Plessis Kirifi and Kini Naholo to rub salt into the Rebels wounds.
And so it is the Rebels bow out of the competition, and I’m still not sure that’s a good thing for Australian rugby. The Canes looked solid, but it will be a much harder test against the Chiefs next week.
Auckland Blues 36 defeated Fiji Drua 5
The Fiji Drua’s final series have come to an end in a comprehensive loss to the Auckland Blues, going down 36-5. The Blues shot out to a 22-0 lead in the first half, with the Fijians struggling to get any real possession and rhythm in their game.
The Drua came out hard in the second half to score a peach of a try to Selestino Ravutaumada, but that was all they could muster, and the Blues closed out the game. They’ll be happy to get through the Fiji game with only the loss of Patrick Tuipulotu (who appears to be out for the rest of the Super Rugby and Test season), semi-intact ready for the semi-finals.
Fiji go home licking their wounds, bringing an end to the Mick ‘The Kick’ Byrne era of the Drua. I hope Mick Byrne can bring about the change in the Fijian side that he bought to the Drua, to continue on the great work achieved by Simon Raiwalui.
ACT Brumbies 32 defeated Otago Highlanders 16
Well the Puppy Killers are the only Australian team remaining in the mix for SRP 24, with their gritty win over the Clan 32-16 in Canberra on Saturday night. This was their 10th victory from 10 outings at GIO stadium this year (there’s a lot to be said for home ground advantage these days).
The Ponies had a dominant first half, with Icky sticky and Big Bobby V plying their trade, and coming up aces. The Highlanders toiled away, but struggled to find their rhythm and groove. The Ponies looked strong going into oranges up 17-16, the Highlanders still holding half a hand on the game.
But the start of the second half was a different matter, with Pollard grabbing his second not long after half time, and then Muirhead (who had a blinder of a game) showing round ball skills off a Lolo cross-field kick to bag one in the corner. This extended the Ponies lead to 13 points, and seemed to sap the will of the Clan.
The Brumbies did what they needed to close out the game, and make it through to the semi-finals. But next week’s task seems a curse: the Blues in Eden Park. Perhaps a bridge too far?
Super Rugby Pacific 2024 – semi-finals
So here we are down to the final four. Three Kiwi teams and a sole Aussie team. Here are the games, timings and locations.
- FRIDAY 14 JUNE 2024 – 1705 Hrs AEST – Auckland Blues v ACT Brumbies – Eden Park
- SATURDAY 15 JUNE 2024 – 1435 Hrs AEST – Wellington Hurricanes v Waikato Chiefs – Sky Stadium Wellington
We’ll wait until the teams, injuries and selections come out. But between us girls and G&GRs, I think the Brumbies have a really hard task in front of them. And I don’t have much confidence that they can get the job done at Eden Park, even though I’ll be cheering my lungs out for them. In the other game I think the Canes will be too strong for the Chiefs and then we will see KARL’s Canes v the Blues for the final!
Old Man Shouting at Clouds
This weekend I am definitely coming in off the long run up. And this week’s target again is the referees. And let me set the record straight.
- The referees this Super Rugby Season, as I have mentioned previously, have been the best I have seen in my decades of watching rugby. They really have been top notch.
- The referees’ decisions didn’t alter the outcomes of the games. The teams that won, won because they deserved too.
Then why am I coming in off the long run up? Well the finals were reffed differently to the rest of the season. Penalties that were called in the ‘home and away’ rounds were let fly in the finals. It genuinely to me felt like the game was being reffed to a different standard. Initially I thought it was just me, but I piled onto the G&GR Whats App Craperatzi group and I got a lot of agreement from the folks within.
What do I mean? Let’s have a look.
In the Canes game, refereed by G&GR’s ‘favourite’ (sorry there is no sarcasm font) peablower James ‘I can’t referee to save myself’ Doleman, I watched 5 players get tackled without the ball off the play, completely taking them out of play. Both teams did it. Right in front of Doleman and he just ignored it. Some might say, well it didn’t affect the game, so play on. My view, if it’s a rule, enforce it. Otherwise players will then complain when they are penalised for it, because they did it ten times before and weren’t pinged for it so it must be OK!
Then the Canes get a 10m penalty because a Rebels player pushed a Canes player in the face. Beside the fact that the Canes player came through the ruck, pushed the Rebs player back 5ms, then would not let go of him so he could rejoin the breakdown, and made a total pest of himself. So Rebs player gets penalised when it’s the Canes player that is committing the offence. Again this was happening right in front of Doleman and the blind man let it go. In addition to these two other example, players from both sides weren’t rolling away, or were deliberately rolling into the opposing 9 trying to slow play down or disrupt quick ball. It was an obvious tactic, again right in front of Doleman, and yet again he wasn’t calling it. Play on!
In the home and away rounds, this shit was enforced and enforced tightly. And players got the message quickly. But for the quarters, it was crack on, do what ever you want. So either there was a direction to the referees to let the game play? Or Doleman was just demonstrating why he’s the most disliked referee in Super Rugby. IMHO Doleman isn’t up to club rugby standard, let alone Super Rugby quarter finals standard.
It was a poor performance by him. It didn’t affect the outcome of the game, the Canes were the dominant team and were always going to win this. But you set fans up to expect a certain standard of refereeing and then you dish this shit out, and then wonder why they crack the shits at the officiators.
This wasn’t the only game. In the Brumbies/Highlanders game, refereed by the best peablower around Angus Gardner, I counted 10 lineouts in a row, where the throw was nowhere near straight. In fact, as legendary referee Nigel Owens would’ve said “I am straighter than that one!” When the team that wins the lineout is taking it outside their outside arm, you know it’s crooked as fark!
And the final ‘shout at clouds’, is during the Blues/Fiji Drua, refereed by Nic ‘Red’ Berry, there were a number of points. The Hossman raised on the craperatzi about players clearing out well past the rucks and holding ‘pillar’ or ruck defenders. Nutta agreed and was talking about blow through clean out players forming a wall on the other side of the breakdown, stopping cover defenders coming through to the other side of the ruck. So in other words, attacking teams are sending two or three players past the ruck and the using them to impede defenders from wrapping around.
The good thing about this is that it wasn’t just me having a good old whinge about the officiating. As I stated at the beginning my two clear points and I’ll re-state them:
- The referees this Super Rugby season, as I’ve mentioned previously, have been the best I have seen in my decades of watching rugby. They really have been top notch.
- The referees’ decisions didn’t alter the outcomes of the games. The teams that won, won because they deserved too.
These still stand. But the officiating this round, the quarter finals was fundamentally different to the home and away season, and it really ground my gears.
Anyway, that’s enough of this old fart whinging. Over to you G&GRs. Have at it.
