Tuesday’s Rugby News has a confusing gander at how the World Cup and Super Rugby Finals qualifications are going, a squiz at the latest out of America and a bit of a Smith injury update.
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Seattle Crowned “World Champions”
While not yet producing or attracting the big names, big salaries, big egos and big crowds of some of the other northern hemisphere competitions, the current professional rugby competition in the USandA has at least crowned its inaugural champion over the weekend.
The Seattle Seawolves will go down in rugby history (and forever be a go-to quiz question) as the first winners of Major League Rugby after they downed the Denver-ish Glendale Raptors. (Glendale in an enclave of Denver)
The match, oddly, was played at the home ground of the San Diego Legion who were finalists but soundly defeated by Seawolves in last week’s semi.
Despite the Raptors twice defeating the Seawolves during the home and away season, the team from the north-west proved too strong on the day. Raptor head coach David Williams didn’t mince words, coming and out a praising the victors on their comprehensive performance across the pitch, “Seattle was better today on both sides of the ball. They won the physicality on attack and spread well on defence shutting down our options,” while also pointing out his own team’s shortcomings, “We gave away too many penalties and didn’t convert when we needed to”.
On the other side of the ledger, the Seawolves’ player-coach (no, really) Phil Mack trod dangerously close to the post-match cliché playbook in assessing his side’s performance,
“We are really proud to have fronted up and play a full 80 minutes against them. That’s the recipe to beat Glendale, you can’t take any breaks”.
And added what could almost be construed as a ‘full credit to the boys’, “This group has been so much this year that when our backs have been against the wall, the cohesiveness of the team really showed in the comeback”.
The competition will get harder from next year with the addition of teams from (definitely) New York and potentially Dallas and Chicago. Both of whom were slated to form part of the first season of MLR but withdrew before the competition got geared up. There are also talks of teams from Canada joining the fray.
Whether Major League Rugby thrives or even just survives is yet to be seen, one hopes that the lessons learned from the failed PRO series might make MLR a more viable competition now and in years to come.
After an international season that saw the Eagles go undefeated and by all reports an excellent first season let’s hope the USA can build on that as they look towards the 2019 World Cup and beyond.
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Finalists Still to be Decided
As the Super Rugby home and away season enters its final week, who exactly will be playing finals and where is still to be determined, although the picture is becoming slightly clearer.
In top spot, the Crusaders hold an unassailable lead. With 58 points and only a match against the hapless Blues left, they will finish the regular season in top spot and will host whoever is lucky (or unlucky) enough to finish eighth.
Currently in second place are the Australian conference leaders the Waratahs. While nine points clear of the next ranked conference team they are only three points ahead of the combined-ladder-third-placed Lions and they face a fired-up Brumbies who, with a win and a bit (lot) of luck, can scrape into the finals.
The Lions are to a large degree, the masters of their own destiny. Beat the Bulls this weekend and they top the African conference and guarantee themselves hosting duties for a quarter-final. If they lose to the Bulls however, and the Jaguares get up over the Sharks, they could slip as low as sixth.
And now it gets tricky.
Currently in “fourth” place (by virtue of being the highest ranked non-conference leader, they actually have the second highest number of competition points) are the Hurricanes. They travel to Waikato this weekend and if they get routed by 44 points or more, will cede that position to the Chiefs although regardless of what happens the two teams will play again a week later in the 4th quarter final. (confused yet? Don’t worry, I am)
Safely in sixth place are the Highlanders, a win over the Rebels will almost certainly keep them there and even a loss (combined with a win to the Jags) would still only see them fall to eighth and hence remain in the finals.
Suitably in seventh are the Jaguares. It seems appropriate for enigmatic team from South America to be in this predicament, because if they win, and the Lions lose, they will top the African conference and host a quarter final, whereas if they lose, and the Rebels win, they drop to eighth and will have to travel to Canterbury to take on the might of the ‘Saders. (what about now? Now are you confused?)
And the last team hanging onto a finals berth, is the Rebels. A bonus point win over the ‘Landers could see them move as high as sixth, but a loss could see them fall out of the finals race all together.
Just outside the eight, but a mathematical chance are the Brumbies and the Sharks, who need both wins and other results to make the cut.
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Smith Not Risking Injury
After having been injured against the Auckland Blues a fortnight ago, Reds flanker George Smith was forced to miss more game time being a late withdrawal before the match against the Rebels last Friday.
While the former Predator impersonator, at 37 years of age, is seemingly unstoppable and also not one to stay down when injured (need I remind you of the third Lions test in 2013) hopes at Ballymore are still up in the air as to whether Smith will take the field in what would be his 165th match of super rugby.
Speaking today at the launch of Queensland’s NAIDOC jersey, Smith wasn’t giving anything away, “I’ve just got to really listen to my body,” he said. And seemed hesitant to acknowledge his presence on and off the field, backing Queensland’s new crop of loose forwards to step up in his absence, “Liam Wright’s a fantastic talent, and I think Queensland rugby should do all to keep him here…Caleb Timu…Korczyk led by Scott Higginbotham, we’ve got a number of backrowers who can fill any void I may have left”.
When quizzed about his injury the openside wasn’t being so open, stating, “The knee is progressing well but I won’t know up until the later part of this week,” although he did let on about his desire to make amends for the Reds’ massive loss to the Japanese franchise earlier in the season, “I really want to play this last game, especially against the Sunwolves, we were humbled by them early in the year so I’m doing everything I can to get back on the field.”
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World Cup Repechage Taking Shape
Hong Kong have crushed a hapless Cook Islands on their way to securing the second place in the four-team repechage that will determine the last team to join Pool B in next year’s world cup.
After their thumping 51-0 victory at home, the Asia Rugby Championship winners easily won the tie by a 77 point to 3 aggregate margin.
Despite their comprehensive 4 try to nil win in the first fixture, Hong Kong coach Leigh Jones wasn’t letting himself, or his chargers, get ahead of themselves saying, “We didn’t know exactly what to expect from the Cook Islands. Having been through that arduous travel a week ago, I wasn’t sure how they would come through,” a theme he echoed when reflecting on the past week’s effort, “The boys last week were subdued after the win as they knew there was still another level of performance to reach and they reached it today”.
It seems the players more than reached the coach’s expectations in both matches, especially defensively, “Our defence was superb. I can’t single anyone out, but as a whole, to keep two clean sheets, especially away in the Cook Islands, was really difficult to do.”
Hong Kong now join Canada as confirmed starters when the November mini-tournament kicks off.
Although still not technically determined, Samoa are likely to also qualify as they are heading into this weekend’s away rubber with a handy 51-point lead over Germany.
The fourth and final team to make the cut will almost certainly be Kenya, who are solidly in second place in the Rugby Africa Gold Cup after their 38-22 win over Uganda at home. This is unless the Simbas can overcome an all-conquering Namibia when the two face off next month, the winner of which will almost certainly gain direct qualification as Africa 1.
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