After last week’s soft opening, here’s what we learned in Week One of Super Rugby (before the Tahs v. Force).
The Crusaders are Unbalanced
The Chiefs were the luckiest team around on the weekend. Between them, Tyler Bleyendaal (15) and Tom Taylor (6) missed 21 points worth of penalties from the tee, before a late intercept try secured an invaluable Chiefs win. The ‘Saders pack will be filthy. They utterly dominated the Chiefs both in the scrum and in tight. They had 66% of possession, dominated the penalty count 15-8, won 4 lineouts against the throw to just 1… you get the picture. With Kieran Read back, expect them to simply monster a few packs this year.
But the midfield looked like they’d never met each other before and failed to convert the pressure into points. There is some cause for optimism in Christchurch. Expect Taylor to be back at 10 next week. But in letting Tom Marshall and Robbie Fruean go, the red and black are betting very heavily on new vice-captain Ryan Crotty to lead the backs. He had a great game, but it’s unclear if the support cast is quite up to it. Reynold Lee-Lo and Colin Slade just aren’t in the same class as Marshall and Fruean.
Goalkicking Matters
Super Rugby is played according to a different ethos than the mud-kick-ball up north, but the scoreboard is the same. Goalkicking matters. Apart from the horrors at Christchurch, the Bulls kicked only 3 from 6 in Bloemfontein against the Cheetahs, who slotted 4 from 5 and duly won. Last week, the Lions (6/6) beat the Cheetahs (4/7) in the last minute. The kicking from the Brumbies in Canberra left a lot to be desired, while the top of the table Sharks showed how it’s done with 6 from 7. Goalkicking is the one skill in the game that is completely independent of what the other team does. It also wins and loses matches. So it’s worth investing in.
All of this shines a spotlight on the Waratahs, who have title aspirations. They were the third worst kicking team in the comp last year, with Berrick Barnes and Brendan McKibbin each kicking around 70% over the season. Barnes has left and McKibbin is far from a guaranteed starter. Yet instead of recruiting a top kicker, the Tahs have a few guys who each can kick (though obviously goalkicking isn’t a “team cumulative” skill) and have invested in Andrew Mehrtens to improve their technique across the board. Time will tell how sound a strategy this is.
Adapting to the situation doesn’t have to mean a “small” game plan
Anyone who watched the Cheetahs and the Lions play in torrential rain on Friday night deserves a hug. It isn’t strictly true that South African teams can’t play expansively. It is true that when they’re playing other Saffer sides their game plans become deeply infused with bash-and-crash conservatism. Add in some inclement weather and… you get a Cheetahs game plan in which two of the best playmakers in the Republic, Johan Goosen and Willie le Roux, are instructed to take drop goals from anywhere, including their own half.
In the mud, the results were awful. Horribly miscued drop kicks barely making it into the Bulls’ 22 were followed by more of the same. Unwatchable. In the second half in Canberra, both the Reds and the Brumbies seemed much more afraid of losing the game than actually winning it, with plenty of aimless kicks to show for it. It’s like the coaching staffs didn’t watch footage of the Wallabies at Twickenham last year at all.
Over in Dunedin, on the other hand, the Highlanders experienced an exodus of players over the off season including Andrew Hore, Ma’a Nonu, Hosea Gear, Tamati Ellison, and Kade Poki. But coach Jamie Joseph has nevertheless decided to try to mould his team into a unit that can win games – not just create situations for the other team to lose. Sure, on Saturday night, there was plenty of emphasis on the counter-attack and defence. But the outside backs saw plenty of ball too and the result was a bonus point win. The Highlanders won’t be around come finals time. But they look like a well-oiled, cleverly coached, coherent unit.
Even this early, it’s clear the Bulls will struggle to score tries
It is a long and brutal season. Injuries will happen. Teams will lose and gain form. The ball will bounce funny and refs will make howlers (or give gifts). But it is already clear that the Bulls are going to really struggle to score tries. Never the most adventurous side, the coaching staff appear to have decided that a back to basics game plan of forward runners off 9 and repeated lineouts mauls is going to be not just the foundation of their strategy, but the entirety of their strategy.
To move away from this, starting Handre Pollard in the 10 jersey would be a good start; I was rubbing my eyes in disbelief when he actually took on the line with the ball in two hands in the second half. But in all likelihood, we’ll see the talented youngster be subjected to the same South Africa fly-half one-size-fits-all coaching straightjacket that has seen Pat Lambie and Johan Goosen lose some of their attacking instincts over the last couple of years.
Recruitment is Key
Already we’re starting to see the impact of new signings. Lachlan Turner suffered season ending injuries the last two years and made the move over the Tweed in the off-season. After Saturday night, the Reds recruitment team must be feeling full of themselves. It’s easy to forget that Turner is more than a tyro speedster. Since his debut, he consciously broadened his game by developing his defence, his kicking, and his ability under the high ball.
One stellar performance against the ABs back in 2010 after a late call up sticks in the memory, and his breadth of skills was all too evident given the one-dimensional nature of some of the other back three players on the pitch on Saturday night (to pick on just one, Joe Tomane both lost the ball during his only break and got caught out horribly in defense for Turner’s try). Over in New Zealand, Robbie Fruean scored an incredible individual try for the Chiefs, while Jarrad Butler was far from the Brumbies’ worst down in Canberra.
But it’s hard not to look at a few teams and see some serious imbalances in their squad profile. The Chiefs can field two completely different, top level backlines this year. But their stocks in the tight-five look pretty thin. Injuries there could see them team in trouble regardless of how many great backs they have. Similarly, the Waratahs succumbed to the temptation to sign Kurtley Beale and fit him somewhere into the team, when what they really needed was more depth at 8 behind an injury prone Wycliff Palu, or at hooker behind an equally fragile Tatafu Polota-Nau, or at lock, where the fact that they were even relying on journeyman Mitchell Chapman, pre-season ending injury, said a lot about the depth there.
There will always be a tension between what is available on the market and what the team needs. But the latter is ultimately more important.
